I was rear-ended at a stoplight. I had stopped for the light, but the guy behind me didn't get stopped in time. Hannah was with me in the car....and despite my lawyer training, today I realized that I am the worst accident victim ever. I collected the guy's name, cell number, insurance company policy and phone numbers, driver's license number....and that's about it.
Type of car? Nope.
Cross-street? Nope.
License plate number? Nope.
Pictures with my phone? Nope.
Geesh! I swear I am actually a good attorney. I was so overwhelmed and unsure of what to do. They guy who hit me was really apologetic and admitted fault immediately -- I'm not sure if he knew what to do either! (He was also really upset that he'd hit someone with a baby in a carseat!) I'd heard on the radio that police weren't taking accident reports because the roads were a little slick and it was lightly snowing out, so I didn't know what to call or do.....So we exchanged information and I ended up filing the police report on-line later in the day. I called my insurance, who told me to call his insurance, who asked me a lot of questions and then told me an adjuster would call. By the time she called it was after 5pm. We had to find a place to get my car repaired and get a rental, but she said she'd only authorize a rental if we knew our car would be done within a week.
Saturday morning Jon and I took our car to the repair shop and called the adjuster telling her we needed a rental over the weekend. We never heard back from her...and discovered the only authorized rental place was only open until noon on Saturday and then not at all on Sunday. On Monday morning I called Enterprise at 8:05am and when I told the guy I needed to use the "we'll pick you up" service, he told me that the first pick-up was available at 3:30pm!!!! When I was like "um, I need to go to work today" he told me that "well, I usually get 24 hours notice on these things"....yeah, like I had 24 hours notice that I was going to be in an accident! In the end, I had my sister-in-law take me over shortly after 9am and they had the car ready for me by 9:20 and then I was off to work. What an ordeal.
At least the damage was fairly minimal (bumper and exhaust) and Hannah and I were both fine. Regardless of the condition of the car and the inconvenience of everything, us being safe is the most important thing.
Epilogue: My car was ready two weeks later...and it was over $1600 in damage. Fortunately, I didn't have to pay a thing and was given a rental the entire time.
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