A "not so good day" for the Jetta

It's 8:00am this morning. I'm pulling out of my alley and, for some reason, decided to take Snelling Ave instead of Fairview (my usual route). I'm not sure why.

As I was turning from Snelling to Como Ave, I thought to myself "why did I go this way today; it feels weird to drive a different way to work."

As I passed the St. Paul Campus on Como Ave, I remembered I needed to stop by the Student Union to take measurements of a countertop for a new food concept we're adding at work. "I'll do that now since I have a few extra minutes." It's 8:30am by now.

All of a sudden, I see a car blaring at me down the street. It's not slowing down at the Yield sign in front of it. I gunned it to avoid collision as I was already entering the intersection. BAM! I feel the impact of another car slamming into the back driver's side corner of mine.

The accident spun my car 180 degrees and I landed against a curb. It's pouring rain and I can't really see anything except a young girl getting out of her car. She comes over to me to make sure I'm OK. I'm fine - no injuries; more pissed at the situation I find myself in.

I called the police and exchanged information with the other driver. We waited for the police report for the next hour. The rain had stopped so I got out to get a closer look at the damage. It wasn't good. My bumper was hanging off. The other car's license plate stuck into my car. My wheel / axel was bent and the side of my car dented. Obviously not drivable so I called a tow truck to take my car to the auto body shop.

Bottom line, I'm glad we're both OK. My neck and shoulder are progressively becoming sore today. Andi thinks I should go to the doctor tomorrow just in case. I think I probably will just to cover my bases.

The pics don't do the damage to my Jetta justice. You can't really gather the dimension of the wheel bend and damage to the axel. While the estimate of damage hasn't come back from the shop yet, they roughly gauged it over $6,000. Thank goodness for insurance.

The worse part about accidents is the headache of insurance claims and being without a vehicle. I got a rental car this afternoon (which my insurance tells me I won't have to pay for since the accident wasn't my fault). As nice as it is to have a vehicle to drive, it's just a pain to deal with the situation all together.

Thanks to my wonderful friend Suzanne and husband Andi for hauling me around today. There are definintely worse things in life ... but this is not how I anticipated my Thursday shaking out as I left for work this morning.