My Car has been remodeled!
Date: November 9th 2001
Lets Just say right at the start that this story does not make me happy, in fact one could say this bites the big one. You should also make note that I love my car for a couple of reasons. 1. It is a Year 2000 model Ford Focus Wagon. 2. The color is Autumn Orange and Ford only made that color for the Year 2000, making my car stand out on the road.
The day was Friday November 9th 2001, a brisk sunny morning. I had just taken Matthew to school and was headed in to the office. While I was driving I was planning my day in my head making a special note to call the Ford dealership and schedule an appointment to have the 30 thousand mile maintenance work done. I thought I would have it done the Monday before thanksgiving since I was going to be on vacation that week.
Traffic was a bit heavy but not unusual for this time of the morning and of course there are always the bozo's on the road that you have to watch out for, little did I know that one of those bozo's had his sights on me. That's when it happened, bozo number 1 (we'll call him John for that was his name) decided to take action.
I was headed north on highway 31 in the left hand
lane of a 4 lane highway. John was at a stop sign on Hospitality
Lane which is just before a Burger King. Now one would like to
think that John would stay right where he was since traffic was
going an average of 55 to 65 miles per hour past him, depending on
who's foot was on the pedal. I was doing 53mph at the time.
But
John decided to see if his 91 Pontiac Sunbird was fast enough to
cross the road without becoming an obstacle for someone else. Well
suffice to say he was not fast enough and if it were not for my
quick thinking and luck I would have nailed him directly in the
driver door.
Fortunately for him I stood on the brakes and started turning the wheel to the right so that I may impact the back of the car or better yet avoid most of the damage by glancing off his rear end. I managed to get enough of a turn to hit his back door with my left front bumper which spun him around.
Of course my airbags deployed and I have to say that airbags are definitely worth it. After gathering my thoughts, I got out of the car and went to check on John who was still sitting dazed in his car. He suffered a bump on the head but other than that he appeared to be okay. The fire department and police came by to see what happened and check on us. My car was smashed beyond drivability, yet John was able to drive his.
I called a wrecker to come get my car to take it to the dealer and find out what the damage would be. Of course John elected not to have insurance on his car so he is going to be hearing from my insurance company directly.
So as it stands now I am in a rental vehicle awaiting the claims adjusters decision. The estimate to repair my car today is at $7,600 which is just over half the value of the car. Most of the time they elect to total the vehicle which puts me in to shopping for a new one. We will see on Monday what will happen. If I do have to buy a new car I will have to get a Taurus or possibly a Grand Marquee as you currently will find it hard to get a Focus or even an Explorer Sport Trac.
Below are some pictures of the damage. Oh I almost forgot, as far as my physical injuries go I suffered some bruised shoulders from the seat belt, Lucky me.
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