back in april i was in a very slight traffic accident. i was second in line at a stop sign. the car in front of me began to travel through the intersection. i looked both ways and started through the intersection myself, without realizing that the car in front me had come to a complete and sudden stop before making through the stop sign. i rear-ended that car, at the whopping speed of about 10mph.
no damage was done to either car, and no one was physically hurt. however, the woman who was driving the other car had just had neck surgery a few weeks prior and was worried that the "impact" was going to aggravate her recovery. she insisted on calling the police and filing an official report.
i've been driving for close to 20 years and have never gone through this process before. i've been in a couple of very minor collisions, but none have ever warranted a formal police report. so, i was a little irked and surprised that she insisted on calling the cops in this instance. with no damage to either car, i figured there was little chance there would be any physical injury, either. so, what's the point?
because the accident happened in a weird little unincorporated section of wake county we waited almost an hour and half for a cop to find us. in that span of time i made nicey-nicey with the woman, (look how sweet and funny i am! also please notice how poor i must been, as indicated by my crappy car!) hoping i could somehow convince her to be kind in return by not jacking my insurance rates up by filing a claim against me.
when the cop finally showed up he said he had to cite me (i think it was for "failure to reduce speed to avoid collision") since i was clearly at fault, though he also said that if i obtained an "insurance letter" from my insurance company that i could take that to traffic court and get the charges dismissed.
seeing as i was wholly unexperienced in dealing with this kind of thing, i took his word for it, called state farm and got the appropriate letter. (which consisted of two whole sentences, stating that i was covered should any insurance claims be filed against me.)
so anyway, today was my day in court. i was nervous. in my whole driving career i've gotten maybe two speeding tickets, only one of which required my presence in court. i'm inexperienced at this, and pretty ignorant of the whole process. i did a lot of research online, trying to figure out the ins and outs of the wake county court system.
first thing this morning i printed out my google maps, took a few deep breaths and set out for raleigh. i found the parking deck, located the courthouse (my unfamiliarity with downtown raleigh was admittedly a huge part of my anxiety), passed through the metal detectors (my cute new aerosoles set off the alarm) and followed the signs to the proper courtroom.
there was absolutely no line, and when i open the courtoom doors, looking lost and unsure, the assistant DA caught my eye and said "do you need to check in?"
"i guess so. i've never done this before." i tried to smile. he found my citation and i handed him my insurance letter, telling him that the officer who wrote the ticket told me that i could get the charges dropped by presenting it. the ADA looked the letter over, scrawled something on the envelope, and said, "ok, you're free to go."
and that was it. i said, "so, my record is clear?" and he replied, "yes, i just dismissed the case."
it was that easy?? a little stunned, i turned around, left the building and found my way back to my car. from the moment i entered the parking deck to the time i left was less than 15 minutes. i had stored up weeks of worry and anxiety over nothing.
i'm sure i will still agonize over whether or not the woman i hit will ever file a medical claim, though. so far she's opened a case but hasn't filed any medical expenses. my agent told me today that if she does, my insurance rates will go up based on the dollar value of her claim. over $1800 is 3 points (whatever "points" means), $1200-$1800 is 2 points, and less than a $1200 claim is one point.
what's so frustrating is that for each of the 20 years i've been with state farm i've gotten an "accident-free" discount on my insurance premiums. even though there was no physical injury (that i know of), no damage to either car, and now no legal record of the accident there's still a chance she could file a claim and totally screw up my insurance rates.
bah.
Posted by xta at June 3, 2006 12:39 AM | TrackBackfound you via blackbird...
the twists and turns of any traffic-court system is well beyond the means of my feeble brainpower to grasp. Good for you, that your traffic charges were dropped. And that woman - that's just so... unfair. did she say why the heck she'd stopped dead?
Are we so old that it's now been 20 years since you dismembered that cute little blue car you used to have? (I seem to remember that was a chain reaction accident, a pile up on the interstate or something).
I'm with Geico, and I swear I will never quit them simply because I once forgot to pay them, they cancelled me and I called up FRANTIC and thought oh shit my rates will go up, there will be fees, etc etc etc and they were like "oh you want to re-instate? No problem!"
And boom, I had insurance again at the same rate as before.
I heart them.
babelbabe-
this accident occured at a busy intersection (the stop sign we were waiting at was only 2-way, and the traffic along the axis that doesn't have to stop always moves really fast). the woman said that she began to travel through the stop sign (at which point i decided to look both ways and try to follow her through), but after a few feet she decided she wasn't going to be able to merge into that faster-moving traffic, so she slammed on the brakes. at which point i rolled right into her.
gidge-
can you believe i had totally forgotten about that high school accident?? you're right -- i totalled my little three-cylinder chevy sprint in a highway collision when i was 18 years old. i don't remember getting a ticket (though i do remember a sheriff visiting me in the hospital emergency room), nor did i have to go to court. i think i may have even been on my mom's insurance policy.
wow, i wonder what happened with all of that? it's hard to believe i got off scott-free, but i guess i did. being a teenager rocks sometimes. but only sometimes.
(that accident occurred, by the way, at night on an interstate which already had an accident on the side of the road. the flashing lights of ambulances and fire trucks caused traffic to pile up as people slowed down to rubberneck. there was a pickup truck in front of me that i was using to judge the speed of the moving traffic, and when it swerved quickly into another lane i didn't have enough time to process *why* he'd swerved so quickly: a big ol' mustang ahead of him had all but stopped on the highway. i plowed right into the mustang, totalling my [cheap-ass] car and not even scratching his.
luckily there were ambulances right there [in my view, they both caused and responded to this particular accident] and they whisked me and my brother off to the hospital where i was treated for chest trauma [where the seat belt stopped me from going through the windshield] and rob was treated for a broken foot.)
Posted by: christa at June 3, 2006 09:14 AMAll of this crash talk is making me NERVOUS! I have my test tomorrow at 8:30 for my Israeli drivers license! I've been "driving" - if you can call it that here - since I got here. But to be fully legal, I have to get an Israeli license. Ugh! Grrr! Yikes!
Posted by: John Boy at June 3, 2006 01:45 PMI just remember that you were all bruised up, Rob had a broken foot and you said that the engine ended up in between the two of you.....
Posted by: Gidge at June 3, 2006 10:12 PMHm. I tried to comment and got an error message. OK, what I was saying is that I got a ticket for expired registration about a week ago. Got the registration renewed, dropped by the DA's office in Hillsborough today and they dismissed it. Hope that woman doesn't mess with ya.
Posted by: lastewie at June 5, 2006 07:45 PMHowdy, Christa -- I certainly hope she won't have an injury! But that said, I would have encouraged anyone in her situation (including you, of course, if it were you) to have called the cop to make things official.
Accidents can be tricky, 10 mph can be significant, and the downside risk for her (if she has a problem but failed to report in a way to get your insurance to cover any real problems (not the "real", there)) is large. Her insurance might well deny coverage if she didn't take "appropriate precautions". So, anyway. Just my 2 cents worth. If your insurance rates do go up, I'll buy you a month's worth of LocoPops.
Posted by: Phil at June 6, 2006 12:07 AMGladly given!
Better yet, I hope it turns out that I can treat you to some LocoPops just for the fun of it. Ooh and I still owe you some photos! Will "process" today.