Car wrecks suck

I was in my first auto accident of any significance this week. We were stopped at a light, far back, and I heard the car behind us stop a bit suddenly. I looked up and behind that car, I saw the car behind them flying(actually doing between 20 and 30) just a few feet away. Then, the crunch. Michelline says I said "Oh Sh..". Oddly enough, I was very calm, even just after it happened. Michelline, unfortunately, was carrying a glass punch bowl on her lap full of glass punch cups. So we ended up with broken punch glasses all over. The bowl did survive.

In all, there were four cars involved, the car in front of us, ours, and two behind us. The car directly behind us was the worst by far, and the only one not drivable. Everyone was uninjured. I tried to get a camera to get a picture of us all locked together, but we didn't have one in the car.

Now we have to go through all the red tape. We're still waiting to find out of the guy who hit us all had insurance. We have a rental car and still don't know if we're totaled or not. Even if the guy does have insurance, he may be fucked if his policy limits are too low. With the four cars, it's probably over $25k in damage.

It does make you realize how precarious things can be on the road even when you do everything right. This accident made me think back to the one other time I was nearly in a serious accident. I was driving a Toyota Sequoia on a windy, hilly two-lane road in Southern Missouri. I had my family, my parents and my niece in the car with me. We were just cresting a small hill and there was a car passing us in the other lane, going the other way. And suddenly, there was a red sports car coming directly at us, trying to pass the guy on our left. I don't remember exactly what went through my mind, but I jerked hard to the right onto a wide, grassy shoulder. We bounced to a stop and checked everything out. We were all fine. The asshole in the red car didn't even come back to check on us, although the guy he was passing did.

I often wonder what would have happened if he had swerved also, or if there hadn't been a shoulder at all. As we left the scene, there were a lot of stretches with no shoulder at all, or what there was had light poles or other obstructions. A Sequoia and a car hitting head on at about 50 mph. I imagine it would have been very bad, possibly fatal. I hope that idiot stopped trying to pass people on hills.