No Matter How Careful…

Wednesday July 21 2010

Admittedly, I’m not the best of drivers. I sometimes go over the posted speed limit, especially when I know I have a long drive ahead of me. I’ve had my share of accidents (driving too fast in the snow, crossing a traffic light during a signal change, backing out of a parking space). Sometimes I get into accidents which are unavoidable… I am not sure how I could have avoided my accident last Friday short of simply “not being there.”

I was traveling on Nutley Blvd heading towards Microcenter in Vienna, VA, during my lunch break with a co-worker. I saw an HVAC contractor in a big Ford F-150 carrying two AC units about to turn left onto Court House Rd, so I diminished my speed slightly since I was about to go through an intersection (Nutley Blvd and Court House Rd), but it was a green light and I was going straight. The HVAC truck was 2 lanes (turning lane and center lane) away from me.

As I approached the intersection, the HVAC contractor abruptly decided that he wanted to turn right onto Court House Rd rather than left. He proceed to cross three lanes (turning/left lane, center lane, right lane) and I just happened to be in his path. I was hit on the left, my front end was sheered 3 inches, and on the right as he crossed my path and torqued the front end of my Nissan XTerra with the back end of his fully-loaded F150.

So what became a 45-minute run to Microcenter became a 2-hour accident, report to the police, getting my XTerra towed, and talking to his HR (it was a company vehicle), his insurance company, and mine.

With the amount of damage done, I was afraid that Progressive (my insurance company) might decide to simply salvage the XTerra rather than attempt to repair it. We expected $2,000-$3,500 in damage depending on what else was seen once we got a clearer look at it. I spoke with my agent and asked at what point does Progressive cut their losses. I was told “75% of the vehicle’s value, which for you is $5,000, and we expect this to be under $3,000 in parts and labor.”

And so here I am… I have a fully-equipped (power windows, sunroof, satellite radio, leather interior) Ford Focus from Enterprise until the XTerra is repaired. It has a 4-cylinder engine, gets 29mpg, and runs a little rough/tight, but it’s a pretty decent rental while my XTerra is in the shop. I do miss the Nissan XTerra though, and this also means that Kiyomi is riding only in our Subaru Forester until we get the XTerra back.

I don’t know what else I could have done to avoid that accident.