'96 Jetta vs. '00 Solara. Jetta wins.

I got into my first car accident on Saturday. My first-- EVER--collision. Sure, people have hit me before... as in backed into me in a parking lot as I was driving, or hit-and-ran (is there a past tense of that?) as I was parked (allegedly, obviously I wasn't there to see it; but I don't know how else to explain the huge fender dents that have mysteriously appeared over the years).

But never in a moving accident. My record is (was) squeaky-clean: Not one insurance claim, not one moving violation (not that I haven't been at fault; or is it my fault the officer(s) have chosen not to cite me? :)

And so that is why, after slamming on my brakes and ramming into the car in front of me 1. which had suddenly stopped after the car in front of her braked, barely hitting him, and 2. whose brake lights I couldn't see illuminated due to the setting sun behind us, the victim and I got out of our cars and I said, "uh, what do we do now?" (after apologizing profusely, of course). My new BCF (Best Collision Friend) and I were both car-crash-virgins and both on our way to Second Jobs in the Mall, next door to each other even, so we called our places of employ and then spent the next few minutes pretending to know what info we were supposed to be writing down as we took cell phone pictures of the damage and other cars whizzed by yelling at us for being stopped in the left lane (because four lanes each way on a city street just aren't enough).

Then the real excitement happened.

I hear sirens, and see an ambulence and fire truck going down the other side of the street, and think, "wow, there must be a real accident somewhere..." and then they make a u-turn at the end of the grassy median and head towards us! And then, from the opposite direction, a man comes jay-jogging across the traffic and tells us that the Victim hit HIM, albeit without damage, and that he didn't want us to think he had just driven off so we would blame him from afar. He also said that he had called 911, and hung up because he'd been put on hold for a while (nice). No WONDER they sent the cavalry out to inspect (the cops and a tow truck surfaced later). I know it was all just-in-case, and I felt bad that so many civil servants had put in all that effort unnecessarily, but it also struck me at that moment as dramatically funny... and I would have been laughing, except that I was too upset at my mistake, the ensuing cost of my insurance deductible, and of course the demise of my perfect driving record.

On the bright side, there were no bodily injuries (except my pride) and all that insurance I've paid over the years will buy me a nice new hard-water-stain-free and insect-fossil-free hood, bumper, grate and headlights. Yeah! And in the meantime, it's super-fun to be driving along to work and hear a *clunk* and realize that my headlight has fallen out, yet again.

(I did finally tape it in place today, but have not yet as-requested-by-mi-Padre duct-taped the hood down. He's convinced it could fly up as I drive. I'm convinced I can't even open it by yanking, it's jammed shut at the latch, and I am freakishly strong.)

Soo... anyone want to lend me their car while mine is in the shop? I have an almost-perfect-driving record, I swear :)

p.s. the Jetta involved only suffered surface scratches, not even a dent. 21st-Century Japan does NOT want to get into a fight with 20th-Century Germany, I am TELLING you.