I didn’t tell many people about this, but on the drive home on Memorial Day weekend I was in bumper to bumper traffic and had a little accident. I foolishly thought that the traffic would have been heading East – you 
know.. to the beach, but no.. for some reason it heading West. Anyhow – it was the really annoying kind of traffic – the kind that grinds to a halt and then goes to 50 MPH and then grinds to a halt all of a sudden again. It was the latter part that caught me suddenly coming just a little too close to the lady in front of me but I was luckily paying attention and the only thing that happened was I accidentally hit the horn. I breathed a sigh of relief because it had been really close to us bumping bumpers.
But then, she pulls off to the side and I camethisclose to just going on my merry way (I hadn’t hit her after all) but thought twice about it and pulled off with her. We got out of the car – or rather *I* got out of the car. She barely rolled down her window in an apparent attempt at putting some protection between the crazy redhead and herself. I tell her that I think all is well – that I didn’t come in contact with her. She disagrees, but tells me she’s okay, that she doesn’t think she’s been hurt and that she’s calling the police. Oh and can I actually SEE your insurance card. Folks, we were going 2 MPH – 5 max. I walk around to her rear bumper and see that there is some stuff there. Fan-fricking-tastic. This has already been a month full of crap breaking on us and now this. Great start to the holiday weekend. I might add that in my 25 years of driving, I have NEVER had an accident. Ever.
So while I sit there for almost an hour waiting for Highway Patrol to show up (no joke), I decide to take a couple of pictures because this wicked cool iPhone really should be used for something more than tweeting, right? Finally the police show up and we get on with the reports. I tell him and I write in the report that I didn’t think that I had come in contact with her and then I continued on with my commute. When I get home, Steve and I look at the front bumper and I ask him how is it possible that if I did in fact hit the lady, why is there NO paint on our bumper? I’m sticking to my guns on this one.
On Tuesday, I put the claim in with the only insurance company that I have ever had – State Farm and once again tell the story that I didn’t think I hit the lady. The claims agent informs me that if that’s what I think, they’ll send out a specialist to take measurements and then they can match them up and see what the deal is. At this point, I have to apologize to the poor guy who tried to chase me down for the next week (it’s my phone’s problem – it was freaking out on me) and ended up just showing up at the house on Tuesday. Lucky for him I had just happened to drive the van to the office.
Tonight I’m sitting here and listen to the message that came in from the claims department from State Farm and they AGREED with me!! They said that the measurements don’t match up and in their opinion, I did NOT hit the car in front of me. Woohoo!! Finally some good news around the house!
So all of this was to get to a couple of points. 1) Always take pictures if you’re ever in the same predicament and 2) State Farm isn’t just LIKE a good neighbor – they ARE a good neighbor. My dad put me with Barry Morgan when I got my first car at 17 and today I’m with Kristen Martin. I have only had State Farm and after this, I won’t be going anywhere anytime soon.
Kristen
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Now – tell us the name of the lady, we’ll find out where she lives and leave a big F650 bruise on her bumper. And, we won’t wait around for the cops. (lol) – oops, did I say that – just joking.