Utter Stupidity

I have done it: I have caused my first car crash. And very stupidly at that. Luckily the driver of the other car and I are both fine, but I feel very dumb. And I still don’t know how much the repairs to my car are going to cost. I had pulled out of my parking spot and was about to go through an intersection in the parking lot. I saw another car coming on my right, but I was convinced that I would clear the intersection before he ever got there. It didn’t even occur to me that we might have a problem. Clearly that was a gross miscalculation and by the time I realized it wasn’t going to work, it was too late. The other car hit the right rear wheel section of my car. Thankfully the other driver wasn’t as angry as he might have been and mostly seemed annoyed. It appeared that his car only suffered cosmetic damage. We exchanged information and he went about his way. I thought I’d just drive over to my insurance agent since their office was nearby, but that was when I realized my car wasn’t going anywhere. It made an odd grinding noise and a few feet later I noticed I didn’t have brakes. So I pulled into another parking spot and called AAA. They asked me what town I was in but I didn’t know if I was in Gilbert or Chandler so they had to look it up and finally concluded I was in Gilbert. They told me that before their driver towed me away I’d have to file a police report. They also told me I’d have to wait 2 hours for a tow truck to come and get me. Of course this also happened on a day when I hadn’t recharged my cell phone and so my battery was running low. However, I remembered that there was a Sprint store nearby. Before heading over there, I called the Gilbert police and they told me that because the crash had taken place on private property, there were no injuries, and there was no hit-and-run, I didn’t need a police report. OK. So I went over to Sprint and asked the guy at the store if I could charge up my phone there. He hooked up my phone and I just waited for my battery to get back up to a level that would sustain a long phone call to my insurance company. Back in my car, I called the insurance company, told them what happened, how it happened, and gave them all the information from the other driver. At that point I still had about 45 more minutes to wait for the tow truck, but he came early! I was very relieved. I showed him the damage and told him about the brakes going out, and from what he said the repairs might cost, it sounds like it won’t be too bad. I really hope that the repairs will be in the range that he mentioned and that they won’t end up costing us a small fortune. I don’t care about the looks of the car, so I don’t need for them to repair anything that’s purely cosmetic, but the car will definitely need some work to run again since the brakes don’t work (the guy said I’d need the brake line replaced) and there was that odd grinding noise due to the wheel being crooked. What a stupid accident—entirely preventable. I always complain about bad drivers, and there I go and do exactly the kind of stuff that I complain about. I guess there’s a first time for everything.