Lindsey had a car accident tonight while driving by herself to the PAC (Performing Art Center) for her holiday concert. I always ask her to call me on her cell phone the moment she arrives at a destination, but not while driving. It's actually illegal to talk on a cell phone while driving for the first six months after you get your license in Texas.
Some time had passed tonight while I should have heard from her by then, so I called Lindsey to see what was going on and left a message when she didn't pick up. She called me back--hopefully not while driving--and told me she'd gotten lost and had driven way past McNeil on Parmer, which goes on for miles and miles. (This was prior to the collision.) I told her to turn around and tried to explain the directions again. She was flustered for being late at that point, plus it was foggy and rainy and dark. Then a few minutes later my phone rang, and I heard a crying Lindsey, saying someone had run into her, and the Pathfinder has a big gash in it and sounded strange, and that she was scared. I told her to pull over. She pulled into a parking lot. It was frightening to me, although, and I stayed calm and told her not to worry, and as I had her on my cell phone, I called 911 on the other line from home. She was unaware of her location and couldn't tell me where she was, so I gave the 911 operator her number, then they called her to find her.
It probably worked out well for me to report the accident like that, because basically she was the one who hit someone else (not the other way around), and she had been the one who drove away, obliviously. This whole driving thing is so new and overwhelming.
Long story short, she hit a car while making a left-hand turn by misjudging if there was time to make the turn. She caused that car to spin and hit another car. There were no personal injuries to any of the passengers, but damage to all three cars. I drove to pick her up, then took her to what was left of the choir concert. She got a citation that said "FTYROW - left turn," which I believe means failure to yield right of way, and Kelly's Pathfinder needs to be towed to a body shop. Phew. What a night. Luckily, she's okay. Emotionally, she feels awful, but how else can she learn? I'm just grateful she didn't get hurt. It's also kind of hard not to think of the financial aspect, like how much the ticket will cost, how much our deductible is, how much our insurance rates will go up, and so forth. But all that is irrelevant, when you think about her safety. The moment I arrived at the scene, we embraced for a long moment and I just held onto her tightly. It is so scary to have my child driving!
For the record, in the past, she's scraped the right side of my Camry while backing out of the garage, there are black smudges on the front left side of my Camry which are new. And now the Pathfinder is starting to get broken in by Lindsey. There's no need to go car shopping any time soon during this "bumper car" phase we're in!
Some time had passed tonight while I should have heard from her by then, so I called Lindsey to see what was going on and left a message when she didn't pick up. She called me back--hopefully not while driving--and told me she'd gotten lost and had driven way past McNeil on Parmer, which goes on for miles and miles. (This was prior to the collision.) I told her to turn around and tried to explain the directions again. She was flustered for being late at that point, plus it was foggy and rainy and dark. Then a few minutes later my phone rang, and I heard a crying Lindsey, saying someone had run into her, and the Pathfinder has a big gash in it and sounded strange, and that she was scared. I told her to pull over. She pulled into a parking lot. It was frightening to me, although, and I stayed calm and told her not to worry, and as I had her on my cell phone, I called 911 on the other line from home. She was unaware of her location and couldn't tell me where she was, so I gave the 911 operator her number, then they called her to find her.
It probably worked out well for me to report the accident like that, because basically she was the one who hit someone else (not the other way around), and she had been the one who drove away, obliviously. This whole driving thing is so new and overwhelming.
Long story short, she hit a car while making a left-hand turn by misjudging if there was time to make the turn. She caused that car to spin and hit another car. There were no personal injuries to any of the passengers, but damage to all three cars. I drove to pick her up, then took her to what was left of the choir concert. She got a citation that said "FTYROW - left turn," which I believe means failure to yield right of way, and Kelly's Pathfinder needs to be towed to a body shop. Phew. What a night. Luckily, she's okay. Emotionally, she feels awful, but how else can she learn? I'm just grateful she didn't get hurt. It's also kind of hard not to think of the financial aspect, like how much the ticket will cost, how much our deductible is, how much our insurance rates will go up, and so forth. But all that is irrelevant, when you think about her safety. The moment I arrived at the scene, we embraced for a long moment and I just held onto her tightly. It is so scary to have my child driving!
For the record, in the past, she's scraped the right side of my Camry while backing out of the garage, there are black smudges on the front left side of my Camry which are new. And now the Pathfinder is starting to get broken in by Lindsey. There's no need to go car shopping any time soon during this "bumper car" phase we're in!
Comments
And thanks everyone for sharing scary events you've been in like that. It makes me feel not so alone and faulted.
I'm just glad everyone's okay.
I hope it's a good long time before Lindsey gets another fender bender and that you don't take too much of a hit on your insurance. I'm SO glad she was ok and that no one else was hurt. It's really good to have perspective on how much worse things might have been.