insights into the world of caffeinated monkeys
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| javamonkey insights into the world of caffeinated monkeys |
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Friday, September 17, 2004 For Audrey's Sanity (Alternate Title: What I Did On My Summer Vacation) Well, my vacation is over; I never made it to St. Louis. Didn't even make it out of Pennsylvania or off of the Turnpike. Last night, around 11 pm, a semi merged into me, moving me out of my lane and off-road. I'm fine, but Carrie is dead. (Well, pending the official decision to call the vehicle a total loss from the insurance people.) What happened--I was in the right hand lane driving, and a semi was passing me on the left. Next thing I know is that the semi is merging into me. I honked my horn, and he kept moving right, knocking me off the road onto the shoulder. I stopped, threw the car in park, turned on the 4-ways, called 911 and panicked. I completely freaked out about being hit, I didn't know where I was exactly or what to do or who to call or anything. I'm sure I made that 911 dispatcher's night. But he figured out where I was and sent PennDot Turnpike people out to the scene. As the dispatcher told me this, I see a guy with long hair approaching my car. Panick attack #2 for the 911 operator. But it was the trucker (he pulled off about 1/4 mile up the road) that hit me coming back to see if I was that metallic crunching screeching noise that he heard. So we start to exchange insurance information, and I lock my keys in my car. By that point, PennDot was there, and they had sent a tow-truck, since I wasn't sure what happened to the car. The front bumper was completely off of the car, the driver's side mirror was ripped off, there were gashes in the glass on the driver's side doors, the turn signals were broken, the dashboard lights were out, and the plastic on the taillight was gone (but the bulb was there). PennDot said that since I had headlights and an engine that the car was drivable, and the tow truck guy helped to put the bumper on the car, then tied it to the grill with a bungee cord. Tow truck dude got my car open again, the trucker and I got our info exchanged, and I was left to figure out how to get my car off of the turnpike, seeing as the next exit was 15 miles away. Turned out that I was less than 1/2 mile past the exit for Donegal, and seeing as I wasn't on the 5 good miles of road on the turnpike, I was in a construction zone. To the right of the shoulder that I ended up on was the old exit off the turnpike. The PennDot guy had me follow him down the exit and off of the turnpike. Also made sure that I paid the toll. Because even if a semi runs you off of the highway, you've still got to give PA their $4.50. So I spent last night in a Days Inn on the Donegal exit. (Unloading my car, I noticed one other thing from the wreck--the trunk wouldn't close. I couldn't get it to latch at all. So I unloaded my stuff, called the insurance company, called Heather and Garrett and the parents and slept.) The staff there was super-nice, making sure I was okay, offering to go get me coffee or food or anything else necessary. They gave me info on local autobody shops, told me that they would remove any charges for phone calls made from my room, and were absolutely great. I stayed all day today until dad came to get me (and they only charged me for last night--they could have charged me for 2 nights since I didn't check out at 11 am today). I took pictures of the car today, making sure I got pictures of all the damage done to the vehicle. Also, I took pictures of the interior, since the car was actually clean inside. No dog drool, no pet hair, no french fries, no nothing. I took some final pics of the odometer, and watched her get towed away. Carrie died with 129,996 miles on her. The autobody place said that they were pretty sure that the car would be considered totaled. They called with a list of things that were wrong, which was everything above, plus the stereo that got knocked out in the crash (haha, the stereo hadn't worked since 2 weeks after I got Carrie, but it was funny to hear that from them). So, I'm just waiting on the insurance company to make it official. So, I'm back in Hagerstown after a very eventful 2 days. Dad picked me up from the hotel tonight and drove me home (and I only got scared when we were passing semi trucks, rather than at the mere sight of them). I've got a ton of crabs if anyone wants to come over tomorrow and eat. Also, I hope to get pictures developed of the car and the damage and post them or email them tomorrow. But, I'm okay, I'm tired, and I'm lucky to be alive. A lot of people don't survive semi trucks merging into them, let alone walk away from the accident scene. I know I was lucky--had the accident happened a few seconds later, I would have been pushed into a concrete wall. So, I'm glad to be home, and now I'm going to sleep with the Baldric. posted by jaime | 12:13 AM 0 comments |
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