My poor van

I'm going to start this post stating that I am in fact a very safe driver. When I get behind the wheel I do my best to follow the traffic laws and not get sucked into road rage. I make every attempt not to use the cell phone and drive at the same time. I use my turn signals and come to a complete stop at stop signs, even when there is no one around to notice. Most of the time I have 1-3 passengers under the age of 7 so I make sure everyone is safely buckled in and I stay within the speed limit (plus or minus a few miles) at all times. I really do try my best to drive safely even if the cars around me are driven by morons and idiots. Please note that I am not allowed to call the aforementioned drivers dumbasses due to the ever constant vigilance of the "bad word" police. Thanks kids.

Now that I have written my disclaimer I can now skip ahead to the events of last Saturday morning around 10:30 or so.

It was a beautifully cold morning, temperature around -10 but the sun was shining and the sky was blue giving a false sense of warmth. The loving husband had to go to Brookings for his Hapkido class so he took off in the Malibu and headed north with the understanding we would meet up later in the day. I had decided I really didn't want to do my cardio kickbox class but I did need a quick workout before doing Tae Kwan Do tutoring later in the morning. I have a 2 hour time limit in the nursery so my plan was to drop the kids off around 10:30, do some sort of workout, do the Tae Kwan Do, shower, and be done by 12:30 so I could get the kids and meet up with the husband around 1 for lunch somewhere.

Well all was going according to plan as I was heading over to the Wellness Center to start my day. The traffic was light and I was actually running ahead of the schedule I had set. As I was approaching the last traffic light before my turn, I noticed the light was green with the green turn arrow. I have to make a left turn so I started to slow down and move into the turn lane. Normally this isn't a huge deal but on that morning I stepped on the brake and could not slow the van. I tried doing the pump the brake thing and resisted the urge to step and hold the pedal but it was soon obvious that the road underneath me was nothing but ice. Because I was already in the turn lane I decided to try and make the turn rather than risking a possible head on collision with the traffic on the other side of the intersection. I also did not want to try and change back into the other lane and risk taking out another vehicle behind me. I was hoping that once I got out of the turn lane the rest of the intersection would be ice free and I could control of the van. No such luck. I was able to avoid oncoming traffic but instead of the snowbank I wanted I jumped the curb and slammed into the traffic signal box instead. The van hit with a crunch and the kids got a little unexpected surprise in the form of a quick stop but the airbag did not deploy and of course everyone was in carseats so other than a few scared tears no one was injured. I turned off the van and called 911.

It seemed like forever before a squad car arrived to take the report. I quickly discovered that once turned off the van would not restart so I was getting ready to exit the rapidly cooling vehicle ( did I mention it was -10 out) and take the kids to the warm building. After the nice officer showed up he allowed me to leave the scene and drop the kids off at the nursery and return to do the paperwork. Don't worry, I had the kids take hats and mittens when we left the house so everyone was warm in their block walk to the door of the Wellness Center. When I returned he had everything written up and was able to give me the information both good and bad.

The good news was that everyone was safe and no one was hurt and the accident did not take out the traffic light or cause any traffic headaches or other accidents. The bad news was I could not find that stupid insurance card so I got a citation for not having my current proof in the car. The very nice officer also informed me that I was getting a citation for driving too fast for the conditions. I knew better than to argue. I will say in my defense that I was going under the posted speed limit at the time of the accident and it was the ice that was at fault not me but I guess I should have started to slow down a lot sooner than I did. I also had to have my van towed away from the scene since it was not drivable. As the tow driver was pulling it onto his flatbed there was a large pink spot of "blood" in the snow. He said it was antifreeze..not good.

After the officer left I went inside and proceeded to call my insurance company and report the accident. The person on the phone was very helpful and friendly to me and told me that someone would get hold of me on Monday to discuss my claim. All I had left to do was wait until the loving husband called me back so we could map out the rest of the day.

We spent the rest of the weekend with one small vehicle for 5 people. I will say that a Chevy Malibu can seat 5 but I won't say comfortably. Jim and Matthew occupy the front seats and I sit in the back between Carolyn and Andrew. No, this is not punishment by husband, the back seat is too small to fit 3 car seats. I now know what a sardine feels like,

The loving husband was scheduled to leave early Monday for a 3 day trip to Ohio so I had use of his car. The insurance company called later that morning to discuss the details of my accident and process my claim. One again the person on the phone was really kind and helpful. She contacted the body shop I had the van towed to and I was able to speak to someone there about the possible timeline of getting it fixed so I could decide when to get a rental vehicle. She also gave me the name of the person handling the claim who would be contacting me about the auto repair stuff. Later that day I got a call from him giving me an update on everything needed to be done.....it wasn't pretty.

The hood needed to be replaced, the undercarriage was damaged, the headlight needed to be replaced, the front bumper needed to be replaced, the radiator needed to be fixed, another part close to the radiator was damaged too and the frame suffered damage as well. I was cringing on the other end of the phone as he was talking. All told the estimate was $5911.87. Yikes!!!! Thankfully I had full coverage and the damage was fixable. I really did not want to hear the words "totaled out" in the conversation. Of course it was going to take a few weeks to get everything fixed and I was given the date of January 29 as the end date. The nice thing is I don't owe the $500 deductible until after the van is repaired so at least I have a few weeks to come up with the money. I also get a rental vehicle for 30 days as part of my coverage so I was able to get a very nice Chevy Impala to drive for the next few weeks. The loving husband has not decided whether or not to demote me to Malibu only status and keep the Impala but at least I have something more comfortable to sit in when we go out as a family. Actually, it might be easier for him to use the Impala since hauling kids can get a car interior very dirty very fast and I really don't want to pay a cleaning fee when I return it.

I don't know if there is a silver lining in all this dark cloud of a mess but there are many small things to be thankful for. I am thankful that this was a slow speed crash so no one was injured. I'm also thankful I hit a traffic signal box and not another vehicle. I'm thankful that if I do get a repair bill for the signal box it is covered by my insurance. I'm thankful that I don't have to worry about getting sued for damages, pain, and suffering by some irate driver. I'm thankful I didn't knock out the traffic light at that intersection. I'm thankful I didn't cause any other accidents. I'm thankful that I crashed in front of my destination so the kids didn't have to walk too far in that subzero cold. I'm thankful I have a very good auto insurance company (Thanks Progressive*) and I'm really really thankful my husband still loves me.

*no compensation given for my using the company name in this post