pain in the rear

Yesterday I was rear-ended!

I was on my way home from getting my hair done (a few new blonde highlights) and had stopped in for some groceries. When I came out of Harmons it was raining. Of course, this would be fine normally but I was driving the jeep which had no windows or roof other than the "bikini top" that covered a bit of the driver and passenger. I dumped all the groceries in the passenger seat so they wouldn't get soaked and headed home.

I pulled up to a stop at a light only to be rammed from behind and pushed forward into the vehicle in front of me. Are you supposed to pull out of traffic in an instance like this? Seems to me that in some driver's class I've been told that the officer likes to see the accident "in situ". I quickly dialed 911 and asked them what to do. Well, the driver in front of me pulled off into the parking lot beside us and the car behind me pulled off too so I pulled behind and didn't bother to wait for instruction from the 911 operator.

The driver of the car behind me came over as I was looking for damage to my rear-end. I told her that the police were on their way - I had called them. "Why????" she whined. Really? I said "Well, when you hit me, you pushed me into the car in front of me . . ." I guess I convinced her. There was no way I was just going to talk with her and get insurance info and hope that it all worked out! It would have been my luck that she gave me bogus info or gave her insurance company a different story once it came time to deal with fixes. I didn't want to end up paying for the damage to the car in front of me because we didn't get a police report.

Of course, through all of this, it's raining on us. I stood outside the jeep since I was getting just as wet sitting inside the jeep. And the crenshaw melon I had sitting on the front seat had been propelled off the seat in the accident and landed on my tomatoes!

Well, the good news is, the officer was quick and it was pretty painless, no one was hurt, and it doesn't look like the jeep sustained much damage at all. The back door/gate shuts a little bit differently but the spare tire mounted on the back seemed to take the majority of the force. In the front, the license plate ringer is no more and the plate itself is wrapped a bit around the bummer bit all in all, the jeep is made for scrapes and came through well.

The bad news is that the officer said that insurance companies would work out who had to pay for who. It could be that they would find me at fault (HUH????) and my insurance might have to pay for the damage of the car in front of me. When the officer said they might find me at fault I slipped out with "because I was at a stop and was rammed from behind into the car in front of me?" Oh, I'm a snot. I shouldn't have said that. I felt bad for being snide and told the officer thank you for his help. Insurance company potential problems aren't his fault!

What a pain in the rear (pun intended).