RIP, Barney.

No, not the purple dinosaur.

My car. (Yes, I named my car Barney and I still have no idea why.)

Last Thursday on my way home from work I was in a car accident that resulted in having my car totaled.  Thankfully it wasn’t my fault, and myself and the other driver were both okay. I had a small scrape across my left knee, where I’m assuming I hit it against my door, but that was it.

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So how did it happen? Glad you asked (assuming you did).

I was heading home from work and was in the far left/fast lane of the four lane interstate. I noticed this green pickup behind me, approaching very quickly. Obviously he was speeding. He was already on the tail end of my car as I was trying to get over into the next lane to get out of his way. As I was moving into the next lane, I was also having to decrease my speed because of the cars that would be ahead of me in the new lane. Well at the same time I was slowing down and merging into the next lane, this guy must have had the bright idea to pass me on the right.

That’s when his pickup clipped my back end, which caused my car to SPIN. Yep…I did a full 360 degree spin on the interstate with traffic behind us. It seriously happened so fast, and at first I didn’t understand what was happening.

At the point of impact I thought, “Wow, this dude just rear-ended me.” When I realized that my car was sliding and turning, my thoughts changed to “don’t hit the median” —my back bumper then slams into the concrete median— then it was “don’t flip over the median. please don’t flip over the median.” Which didn’t happen, but I did continue spinning. As I was spinning I could see the traffic behind us coming to a halt, so then my thoughts were “don’t hit me. please no one hit me.” Thankfully no one did. When my car finished spinning, I was in the far right lane.

There was smoke in the air.  My brakes locked up or something because I wasn’t able to use them. I had to put my car in neutral and coast to a stop on the shoulder/side of the interstate. I was shaking so badly I could hardly grab my phone out of my purse to call the Tim and police.

Want to hear the best part of the whole story? While we were waiting for the police to finish filling out the report, the guy pulled a pizza out of the pickup cab and offered me a piece. NO, I DON’T WANT A PIECE OF PIZZA. YOU JUST HIT MY CAR!

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By first glance of my car, it just looks like my back bumper was messed up. Then you notice that both the left and right rear fenders are also messed up, the inside of the trunk was pushed in, the top of the rear driver side tire (close to where my car was hit) is now tilting inwards toward my car. The whole back end would have to be rebuilt. Oh, and there’s frame damage, which will almost always result in a vehicle being totaled out.

I had that car for just over six years, and was planning on keeping it for at least two more. I don’t want car AND student loans at the same time. You know how nice it is to not have a car loan? It’s amazingly nice! After almost three years of not having one, I will once again have one. It sucks.  Just over $1800 was put into my car in the last year to get it up to where it needs to be in order for me to keep that car for a few more years… new tires, a 5-yr alignment package, brakes, windshield, struts, and shocks. So yes, I’m slightly bitter about the situation. Did the guy really need to be going 70-80 mph in a 60 mph zone? Of course not.

So for now, I’ll continue being thankful that someone was watching over me and I wasn’t injured. And keep looking for a new vehicle. It’s harder than you think.

—m.

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