![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
So, about yesterday
Nov. 25th, 2017 12:54 pmThank you for your kind words; they really helped me to calm down. And now you deserve the longer story.
It really was a very minor car crash. I was waiting at a traffic light to turn right. Traffic lights turned green, I started driving when I heard a siren and saw blue flashing lights approaching from the left. So I braked to let the ambulance pass. The driver behind me noticed too late and hit our car. Fortunately, he had only just been accelerating so the force of it wasn't too bad; we (that is, me and the kids) were hurtled ahead a bit, but not bad enough for serious whiplash or anything. Felix started crying because he thought the car was broken and would never drive again. Julian found the whole thing interesting. The driver behind me was under no illusion as to who was the guilty party, although in his defense he claimed he hadn't heard the ambulance. We called the police just to be on the safe side. Of course, the police said that if both parties agreed on what had happened and if there was no damage except to the concerned cars and no people injured, we were welcome to settle it amongst ourselves. Fair enough, but OTOH, you know what insurances are like, if you don't have an official report they'll always try to turn things around so the other side has to pay. So I'm glad the other driver (who had to pay a fine) agreed to call the police at once. As it happens, his family lives pretty close to our place, just up the hill. ("In the whole house next to the half house", in his words. It's a good description if you know the street!)
I'm mostly shaken by the fact that it happened at all, and by the fact that I'll have to contact the insurance and fuss this all out. I was really shaky afterwards. The kids, meanwhile, thought it was a nice adventure. Once Felix had understood that the car was still able to drive and that the damage could be repaired (it's very superficial on our car - a scratched and dented bumper - the other car looks worse - but it's frustrating because we only just bought it a few months ago!), he climbed up onto the embankment to watch the other cars, he gave a vivid account of the accident, and he was delighted that all this slowed our return home so much that he could see the streetlamps in the streets switched on. (He is still in love with lamps and lanterns.) Julian at first found everything too loud, but then he joined Felix in the climbing and lamp-gazing. He asked me to draw him a police car when we got home.
So yeah. We're fine. Just hoping that this has met our accident quota for this winter.
It really was a very minor car crash. I was waiting at a traffic light to turn right. Traffic lights turned green, I started driving when I heard a siren and saw blue flashing lights approaching from the left. So I braked to let the ambulance pass. The driver behind me noticed too late and hit our car. Fortunately, he had only just been accelerating so the force of it wasn't too bad; we (that is, me and the kids) were hurtled ahead a bit, but not bad enough for serious whiplash or anything. Felix started crying because he thought the car was broken and would never drive again. Julian found the whole thing interesting. The driver behind me was under no illusion as to who was the guilty party, although in his defense he claimed he hadn't heard the ambulance. We called the police just to be on the safe side. Of course, the police said that if both parties agreed on what had happened and if there was no damage except to the concerned cars and no people injured, we were welcome to settle it amongst ourselves. Fair enough, but OTOH, you know what insurances are like, if you don't have an official report they'll always try to turn things around so the other side has to pay. So I'm glad the other driver (who had to pay a fine) agreed to call the police at once. As it happens, his family lives pretty close to our place, just up the hill. ("In the whole house next to the half house", in his words. It's a good description if you know the street!)
I'm mostly shaken by the fact that it happened at all, and by the fact that I'll have to contact the insurance and fuss this all out. I was really shaky afterwards. The kids, meanwhile, thought it was a nice adventure. Once Felix had understood that the car was still able to drive and that the damage could be repaired (it's very superficial on our car - a scratched and dented bumper - the other car looks worse - but it's frustrating because we only just bought it a few months ago!), he climbed up onto the embankment to watch the other cars, he gave a vivid account of the accident, and he was delighted that all this slowed our return home so much that he could see the streetlamps in the streets switched on. (He is still in love with lamps and lanterns.) Julian at first found everything too loud, but then he joined Felix in the climbing and lamp-gazing. He asked me to draw him a police car when we got home.
So yeah. We're fine. Just hoping that this has met our accident quota for this winter.
