For those of you that don't know already, I have some sad news. Back on the 6th, at like 7 PM, I was on my way to a mock trial meeting when I was side-swiped as I was going through an intersection. It was a really nasty hit, and my car spun like 7 times and landed like 50 feet away from where I was initially hit facing the wrong direction (after going completely over the curb and onto the grass and then back onto the street again). My airbags went off and everything. Luckily, I wasn't hurt at all, just a little shook up. But, I definitely have to give myself credit in that I pulled myself together pretty quickly and did all the right things (found out if the other driver and her passenger were OK (was two girls that were like 17 - 19 years old driving what looked like a brand new PT Cruiser) and then called 911 right away). It happened at an intersection between a regular street (which I was traveling down) and an off-ramp to the highway. I definitely had the green light, but unfortunately the girl also told the police that she had the green light and since no one else stuck around who might have witnessed it, the police officer could only put on the report that we disagreed and there were no independent witnesses. This really sucked, because it meant that I'd have to deal directly with my insurance company, and my rates would probably skyrocket even if I didn't do anything wrong. The Saab was towed away, and a few days later was declared a total loss by the insurance company since repairing it would cost more than it was worth. This also sucks, since I've had that car for quite some time, and all my friends and I have all had a lot of good memories in it, and now it's just gone basically. So for the time being I'm driving around in a Ford Escort that my insurance company is paying for. However, there is some good news at least. While on my mock trial invitational tournament trip to Yale, one of my other team mates told me that two of her friends had witnessed the entire accident and saw exactly what happened. I was a bit skeptical at first, but I spoke with one of them and they really did witness the whole thing. They were driving right behind me and confirmed that I did have the green light and the other car did run the red, and they knew all the details (the make of the other car, the location, etc.). I've spoken with the police officer who filed the police report, and she is going to try and contact one of them today, and assuming everything goes good, she'll amend her report to note that the other girl ran the red, and most likely her insurance company will pay for everything. So, I'm just waiting for the cop to call me back now, but at least this is better than it was a couple of days ago. Plus, when the other driver's mom (at least I think it was her mom) showed up at the scene, she seemed really nasty and obnoxious, and spent like the entire time talking to the cop without me present (no doubt trying to find out how exactly she could lay blame for this on me), so now I feel even better that I'm vindicated...or soon to be anyway.
