On unwanted contact with someone else’s car

I’ve been posting pre-written material for the last few days and living inside my own head a lot, for which I apologize. I’m way behind on emails I owe to people, too. On Monday, between the early church service and driving to Kiddo#2’s school for classroom volunteering, I hit someone’s car.

Before we go on:

We both drove away from this one, and there’s only cosmetic damage to both vehicles, and her insurance company has been so nice to me that I’m wondering why.

I’ve only filed auto insurance claims five times in my life. When I was pregnant with Kiddo#1, two sixteen year olds hit my car while I was stopped at a red light; they were doing 35mph. My guardian angel saved my life that time. You have no idea the amount of damage that can happen in that kind of accident, but the baby and I were fine.

With Kiddo#2, my MIL hit our parked rental car. No biggie.

With Kiddo#3, two sixteen year olds hit the side of our car because they were looking at their friends’ car half a mile away, and they just pulled into the intersection without looking at oncoming traffic. I wasn’t driving.

Again when I was pregnant with Kiddo#3, I was stopped at a red light when a guy behind me, previously stopped, decided it was time to proceed through the light.

And now I’m pregnant with Kiddo#4, and this happens. My Patient Husband got off the phone and said to a co-worker, “She’s pregnant, so naturally something had to hit the van.”

What gets me about all these accidents is that in every case, there was nothing I could have done; it was sheer distraction on the part of the other driver that caused it.

This Monday, I was driving northbound, and a woman at a cross-street was stopped, waiting to make a left turn. And she ONLY looked at the southbound traffic. There was no one coming in that direction, only me in my direction, and the roads were clear. If she’d turned her head, she’d have seen me. If she’d turned her head when I laid on the horn, she’d have seen me. If she had turned her head before she proceeded into the intersection while hearing the horn, she’d have seen me. But no, she only turned her head when I was five feet from her car.

I think I was doing less than 5mph when I hit her. My airbags didn’t deploy. With another five feet, I woudn’t have touched her at all. My Patient Husband had left his hat on the seat of the car, and it was still on the seat afterward.

You’d think with two pregnant women in a fender-bender, you’d have screaming banshees, but instead we just exchanged information, made sure one another were all right, and went on our way to call our insurance companies. Her company got to me that afternoon and they’re doing everything other than sending me a flying carpet and a personal massage therapist.

I’ve been pretty shaken up since then, but really, it’s not anywhere near as bad as it could have been. Our guardian angels did overtime duty on Monday, and I’m very glad they did.