Accidents Will Happen

It's around 9am this morning and I'm driving Julian to daycare when I reach the four-way stop at 6th Street and Kirkland Way. There are three cars queued to the right of me, so I let the first one go. My turn and off I go when the second car takes off. I slam on the breaks, but to no avail as she hits me, taking off the front of my car...

The engine is still running so I pull forward and park, the lady driving the other car also parks. Behind her was a very nice lady (who happens to work for the city). She pulled in behind me, called the police and checked on Julian and I. I was basically in shock, just holding Julian.

She hung around for a while, whilst the woman that hit me didn't seem to care less. Shortly the police arrived. The first policeman took all the details. He was cool - he'd just got back from a trip to the UK where he stayed in Brighton! Then a policewoman arrived and took over.

I called BMW assist and they arranged a tow truck to take me to R&R Automotive in Bellevue. The policewoman was cool - checked all the details, filled out the report, etc... She checked Julian's car seat and took his details. She also says the woman that hit me basically admitted it - but it's likely she hasn't got insurance.

I then called my insurance agent, MacDonald Insurance in Kirkland. They were just incredible and walked me through everything (having never been involved in an accident in the States, this was very reassuring). She also ran me through what happens with the uninsured driver scenario. We'll see how that goes. You should have seen her face when I explained just what sort of car a BMW M3 is. Her face just dropped and she asked me if it had to go to BMW for repair. Hell Yes.

Nabila arrived pretty quickly while I sorted out everything else. She arranged for a trip to the doctors to get Julian checked out. The accident itself felt pretty gentle - as one of my coworkers said "you pay a good deal of money for a very safe car".

In pretty short order the tow truck arrived and we toodle off to R&R who in turn were great - explaining everything and arranging for a rental (a Volvo S60) from Enterprise. They also eased my mind about their knowledge about the M3.

It was pretty much all sorted by 11.30am - handily as the doctors appointment was for 11.40am, so I met Julian and Nabila there. Julian is fine. As the doctor said: "First rule of pediatrics - if it takes three of us the hold him for an exam and he's screaming - he's OK."

Next step. We'll see if her insurance calls me tomorrow. If not, then I call MacDonalds Insurance and they get the ball rolling with SafeCo under my uninsured drivers policy.

This just keeps reinforcing the fact that you can't pay enough for safety and why I continue to buy BMW (the M3 is my third). The M3 may be a fine looking sports car - but it's damn safe too. It just shrugged off the strike.

I can't wait to get her back on the road, poor thing.