My first traffic collision.
McKay and I were on our way to enjoy some birthday smoothies at Roxberry Juice. It was about 7:15 pm and the sun was in that sweet spot of blindness in my rear-view mirror. We happened to be driving through construction (surprise surprise!) so there was only one lane to drive in. no turning lane. no passing lane. one lane.
We arrived at our destination, with Roxberry juice on our left. So, I stopped, put on my left blinker and waited for the oncoming traffic to clear. Before that happened, we noticed a brand new Pizza Pie Cafe in the parking lot to our right. McKay designed their logo and knows the owner of the chain well, so at the last second we decided to turn into PPC first and check out their new location. Seeing the truck behind me also stopped, left blinker flashing, I quickly switched my blinker to the right and started to turn into PPC.
Enter young inexperienced driver.
As I started making my turn, a silver Jetta snaked out from her lane, onto the shoulder to go around me. Before I could stop, the Jetta had clipped my bumper, tearing it clean off, and I had left a thick scratch along the entire drivers side of the car.
Great! My first accident on my birthday. What was this going to cost us? We wondered as we pulled over to the shoulder to take care of business.
Young driver's mom hopped out of the passenger seat, fuming, and immediately called the police to vindicate the wrong we had heaped upon her and her budding driver. McKay and I sat sheepishly in our car, waiting for the officers to arrive. As far as we were concerned, the accident was our fault and we were hosed.
When the police arrived they started getting our paperwork, and then inquired about my protruding belly.
"Are you pregnant, ma'am?"
"Yep!" I replied
"We're going to get a medical team here just to make sure you're alright. How old are you?"
"24," I replied "24 today!"
His eyes got all sympathetic for a minute and he almost reverently wished me a happy birthday.
With that, the secret code was hissed through his little vest radio and the medics were on their way.
I felt 100% fine physically, and a little silly as an ambulance pulled up, lights flashing. I joined a couple paramedics in the back of the ambulance as vitals were taken, and small talk was made. Everyone was over the top about looking after this pregnant birthday girl. It was a nice bonus!
As we filled out the paper work it slowly dawned on us that although we had been confusing in our last second signal change, there was technically only one proper lane of traffic. Making Jr. Jetta driver at fault!
Sure enough, after all the formalities were finished, the officers helped us load our mashed bumper in our trunk (a real trick, if you've never tried it). Then, we were on our way to get smoothies and the fuzz headed over to issue a citation to Jetta mom and lil sis.
Wow!
What started out as the most bummer birthday incident actually ended up being kind of a funny and exhilarating experience! If you're going to get in a wreck, do it on your birthday, 30 weeks pregnant and you'll get the special treatment (oh, and don't be at fault).
Now we just have to wait for the insurance stuff to get settled so we can get our bumper replaced! Our poor little accord looks quite naked and exposed right now. But, on the bright side, that bumper needed some serious work anyway. Perfect.
I am so glad everyone is okay. I am glad they took the extra precaution to be sure you and the baby are okay.
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