Black Betty Gets a Boo Boo

In December 2002, I got my first grown-up job. Along with my grown-up job, I got a grown-up car.

I call her Black Betty. She’s a black four-door Cavalier. She’s not cool or “glamorous” but she gets me where I need to be (primarily work and home). We’ve been a lot of miles together with little or no incident (there was that one time in the parking garage at work I scraped a cement pole. But it’s cool.)

Until this weekend - Black Betty got in an accident.

Sunday morning at 11 a.m. I was heading home from KT’s apartment in the Rivermarket. I was parked on the block over from her place and pulled on to Delaware (the street her apartment faces). I was probably going 10 or 15 mph, had my seatbelt on, and all of the sudden felt a bang. I look back to see that there was a truck pulling out from a spot where it was parallel parked, now inconveniently lodged in the side of my car.

I stop in the middle of the road and get out. The other driver steps out of his car, and I simply say, “Well, you hit me.” He agreed and we start to exchange insurance information. Just before he pulled off, I go to look at his damage (I would say minimal to none…he pretty much scraped the dirt off my car onto his). When I walk to his truck, I see he’s enjoying an ice cold Bud Ice in his cup holder. Yep, at 11 a.m. on a Sunday. I wonder if he was having a late night or an early morning?

Fast forward to this morning. I call my insurance company before 8 and leave a message that I was in an accident. TG tells me he’s already talked to them, and I need to call his insurance company so I do. I tell Judy the policy number he provided to me and she says it’s invalid and has been for a couple of years. All I can say is, “Awesome.”

So, I proceed to call Al, the person I was in the accident with. I tell him the insurance he gave me wasn’t valid and does he have other information. He says he’s at work and will call me back in a couple of hours. He ends up calling back within 15 minutes and says, “Actually, I was going to report it to your insurance because you hit me.”

Are you effing kidding me?

My only response at this point is, “Well, that’s not true.” And we go back and forth like that a couple of times before I say, “Do what you have to do” and hang up.
I end up going to the KC police department to file a report. I suspect he doesn’t have insurance so he’s trying to blame me. Like Black Betty threw herself at a sideways trajectory into his parallel parked car.

My insurance company has been super cool so far. We’ve got some places we’re going to see for quotes to get her all fixed up. The plan is they pay the damages and then put a lawsuit on him if he ends up being uninsured.

I think I’ve learned a couple of key lessons through my first accident:
1. Don’t trust unsuspecting people you’re in a car accident with. Al seemed totally cool with being at fault until this morning. I should have called the cops and filed the report. Which leads me to number 2:
2. Call the police. No matter how minimal. That way the cops can determine who’s at fault. And can take action if the other person’s drinking when they hit you.
3. Love thy Cavalier. Even if she isn’t cool or glamorous, I don’t want her getting banged up by other people.