Fender Bender

On Friday afternoon we were heading to Mary's for supper as her sister Sherry, pregnant neice Jennifer (who's due 17 days before me) and her son Jonathan were up visiting.  We take the Anthony Henday to Mary's, despite the construction, as it's still the most straight forward way to get there. I usually drive as Tyler is better at being patient and entertaining Dexter in the back seat.

As I was driving (60km/hr as I am super anal about doing the speed limit in construction zones) in the far right lane, a truck pulled into the intersection from my right going left on a red light. I tried to brake and veer right as soon as I realized what he was doing, but was unable to avoid hitting him. My front driver's side got some damage as it hit his driver's side back bumper.  Because his truck was higher than my van, my hood got scraped up pretty bad.

We both pulled over right away and exchanged information. Two ladies from seperate vehicles got out and gave us their names and numbers as witnesses. One of the ladies told us that she had honked her horn because she need more room and the truck just went (he must have thought she was honking cuz the light was green). The guy appeared to be in his 40s and was pretty quiet through the whole thing. Since we were right beside a construction site, two works came over and said they needed statements from us for Alberta Transportation. 

One weird thing is that everyone kept asking us if we were okay, and for some reason, it had never occurred to me that we wouldn't be? Weird.

The guy ended up reporting the accident to the Edmonton Police that Friday night and they gave me a call to tell me I needed to make a statement within 72 hours, at any location and they were open from 8am - 8pm. What I didn't realize at the time of that call, or all weekend, is that Edmonton Police Services is different from Leduc RCMP. So I went to the Leduc RCMP on Saturday & they were closed until Tuesday. I googled Edmonton RCMP and only got one location downtown. I was told I would need to bring in my van (which is still drivable), but since the headlights/signal lights are out of commission, I didn't want to drive all the way there. I called the Leduc RCMP complaint line who told me to wait until Tuesday (which worried me as I'd be over the 72 hours). When I got there on Tuesday, I found out that they are seperate from Leduc and that its listed as "Edmonton Police Services" so there are actually lots of locations, not just the one downtown. I was very frustrated with that as I could have taken care of that on Saturday if I had known and caused myself less worry and stress.

Another thing I didn't think about until later Friday night is that I am pregnant and the accident could affect the baby. I felt lots of baby movements and had no other negative symptoms (like cramping, bleeding, etc) so I didn't want to go to the ER on the Thanksgiving long weekend assuming it would be packed. I decided to call my delivering doctor today to see if I should make a special trip to come in, as my next appointment isn't for three weeks. Her receptionist made me feel like satan that I had waiting "a week" to call them...actuality is that while the accident happened on Friday, their office was closed until Tuesday so I was only a day late calling them. After the guilt trip, she informed me I should go see my GP. Luckily my GP had an opening within 30 minutes of calling him this afternoon, so I popped in their today. As suspected everything is good, doc even said baby seemed very happy (after listening to his heart rate).

So far, my dad has estimated that there is $3800 in damages, EPS estimated $4500 and I took the van in today to Leduc Autobody for it's official estimate. The guy there casually mentioned it would probably be a write off. This makes me sad as we just put in $1400 in new brakes in August, and installed a brand new car starter last fall. I'm also worried that the cheque they would give us for a write off wouldn't be enough to replace the van with a comparable one...and we don't have the extra cash right now. I searched on kijiji and their are a few 2003 Pontiac Montana's with similar mileage to ours (a 2001), and their is one in particular that seems to have all the same bells and whistles: a/c, rear climate contract, car starter, seats 7...so hopefully it'll all work out.  Everything happens for a reason and our van does have a couple issues. For instance, the fuel meter stopped working properly, so I've started charting my mileage to figure out when I need to fill up.

The positive news, is that the accident is not my fault, so we won't have any deductible and our rates shouldn't change. We also need to go buy a carseat of which we will be reimbursed at 95% (not 100% do to depreciation if you can believe it). In order to be reimbursed we have to show proof of the original carseat being "destroyed" - the straps being cut.

I think that about sums it up. Stay posted for how it all turns out!