Poor Car, May You Rest in Peace

I was in my first real car accident two weeks ago today.

(Everyone's okay.)

I was coming home on a red-eye from a visit to our factory in California, trying to beat the anticipated 12-16 inches of snowfall, when I fell asleep and rear ended another car. The weirdest thing was that while I had been tired, I didn't actually feel sleepy immediately before.

It was like I blacked out and the next thing I knew was the bouncy jarring feeling of hitting the car while I instinctively slammed on the brakes. And then I pulled over, wondering why I couldn't see clearly. My glasses had flown off with the impact.

Thankfully it was a school zone and we were going under 20 mph. I'm fine. She's fine. The air bags didn't even deploy. Her car was barely damaged, but I bent my hood in and knocked out a headlight.

Dangers of Claiming Responsibility

The first thing I said when I got out of the car and later when the policeman showed up was that it was my fault.

My parents advised me later that I was never ever to do that again.

We had a few conversations about it over the next week during which I became irritated and frustrated. I was the one who fell asleep. I ran into her. Who else's fault could it be? Was I supposed to lie?

Apparently if you say nothing in a car accident then the courts can call it an accident. They rely on the officer's report and may ask you questions and assign fault to multiple factors. But if you claim fault, even with those same factors in place, and someone else is sufficiently injured then you could be responsible for their care for the rest of their life even though it was still an accident. And that's the extremely simple version.

The whole thing makes me very glad I'm not a lawyer or in insurance.

I want to believe that two reasonable people, even with an arbitrator, could work things out. But it's not just two people. It's them and their companies. And there's no guarantee that both or either are reasonable. If I had crushing medical bills because someone had accidentally run into me then I'd likely not be reasonable either, no matter how accidental the incident was. 

If this boggles your mind too, then try out this article on what to do after an auto accident and this deeper discussion into the nature of fault.

Economics of Totaling

My car was 1995 Geo Prism (same assembly line as a Toyota Corolla) with 107,000 miles on it. My mechanic took one look at it and said the insurance company would probably total it.

I was quite confused, as I'd driven it down there, although I didn't want to repeat the process because I wouldn't call it safe, exactly. Wasn't a totaled car one that was folded up like an accordion or flattened like a pancake? How could a good sized dent and a slightly raised hood qualify?

Apparently when it comes an insurance company declaring a car a total loss it's not about CAN it be fixed, but whether the repairs are more than the market value of the car. 

Unfortunately, the market value of the car is not the real replacement cost, especially in situations like mine with an older car or when you're partway through paying off your loan. We were figuring we'd get another couple years out of this car, maybe more. It hadn't needed anything more than basic maintenance for three years. Our newer cars (one after the other) had been less reliable than this one.

But now it's gone. Poor car.

I'm told the parts will be salvaged and I'm receiving a check about three times larger than I was expecting based on the blue book value. So that's a good thing, although still not a lot of money. I just wish I wasn't replacing old reliable with a car payment.

In case you're not familiar with the concept either, here's some basic questions and answers on total loss and a bit more conversational and emotional version.

An Exercise in Definitions

I'm grateful that the car accident was minor. If I'd fallen asleep/blacked out like that on the highway then it could have been much worse.

Mostly I was just reminded about the variable nature of definitions and how much weight and story can lie behind seemingly simple words when used in a different context.