picture a day: 2006

Wednesday, December 13, 2006

So here's the deal. I was driving on Hempstead Turnpike (already bad enough) in the far left lane, with two cars directly in front of me. Right in front of me was a red Hyundai, and in front of her was a silver car. A van in the far right lane was pulling out onto the Tpke, and while this was happening an unintelligent man on a bike decided to cross the street in an effort to get hit by the van. Well, he succeeded, and as he was struck the silver car (2 cars in front of me) slowed down out of reaction. The red car (directly in front of me) forgot that red brake lights mean that a car is slowing down, and proceeded to hit the silver car. The red car, having just struck another vehicle, came to a complete stop. All this time I'm behind the red car thinking traffic is still moving, because the red car was moving fine (until it hit the silver car). Once she hit the silver car I had just enough time to get my foot on the brake right as I rammed into the red car, deploying my airbags, cracking most of my windshield, and destroying my front end.

If that doesn't make sense, think of those Volkswagen commercials where out of nowhere the guy pulls out of the driveway, or the couple gets sideswiped. It was actually a lot like that. Out of nowhere there was a red car in front of me and my airbags were out, it was all very sudden.

For those of you worried, I'm fine. I'm actually not even sore (yet), and honestly the worst part is that my car is totaled. I have to leave it at the auto body place for the insurance agent to evaluate it, and then they sell it or something.

The good thing is (knock on wood) the officers didn't ticket anyone (as far as I know) and the drivers of the two cars involved in front of me were good people; we all adopted the feeling that we were glad no one was hurt, and that the situation just sucks. The girl in the Hyundai actually ended up being taken to the hospital, but before that she was walking and moving around fine and talking, so it seems like it was just precautionary.

Props to Nassau County Police, who handled it really well and were very nice to us all, instead of being jerks like cops sometimes are.

So without further adieu,

In Memoriam
RIP Pontiac Bonneville
1999-2006