Wednesday, May 13, 2009

First Car Wreck We Didn't Cause

I've been in several car accidents but this was the first one with one of my children behind the wheel!
It happened several months ago while driving home from Seminary. It was the age old situation where you get stopped behind someone who is turning, they start to roll forward, you look over your shoulder to make sure you are clear, then slam on your gas to "shoot the gap" BEFORE checking to make sure the car in front of you has actually turned. Rookie mistake.

Funny thing was after he hit the car he slammed on the brakes as I was simultaneously yelling at him and so he assumed he had done the wrong thing and proceeded to let off the brake and step on the gas. For the life of me I couldn't figure out what the heck he was doing. I followed that up with more yelling "STOP, Stop what the heck are you doing!". After that he wasn't confused anymore.

The rest of the story is very long and drawn out as is any vehicle confrontation in India. There must be hours of sitting around talking and analyzing the situation before you can even think about a resolution. The idea being, to convince anyone who will listen its the other guys fault and to see how much money you can squeeze from them in the process. It didn't help that technically Big T doesn't have a license and shouldn't have been driving in the first place. Suffice it to say after an hour and a half of sitting around trying to resolve the situation Richard showed up and me and the kids left. A half hour later it was resolved. What can I say, Richard is a man who can get things done. Didn't hurt that he nearly ran the man over when he wouldn't get out from in front of the vehicle that was taking me and the kids home.... again, LONG story!

Initially we offered the other driver 2500 rs (approx. $55USD) and he scoffed at me. When we paid to have it fixed a few days later it only cost us 16000 rs (approx $30USD) to fix the bumper good as new. Repair work is extremely inexpensive here. He should have taken our offer instead of holding out for more. Come to find out later it was a government vehicle that he could have gotten fixed free of charge and simply pocketed whatever money he got from us. He thought since we were white foreigners he would go-for-the-gold but because he was so greedy he ended up with nothing!





(Bumper of the car we hit)

14 comments:

Mrs. Smith said...

I am so glad my son of driving age is not a blog reader. If he found out that your son was allowed to drive, I would never, ever, ever, hear the end of it. Never, ever.

Special K said...

If its any concelation he hasn't driven since! :)

grammaDawn said...

Does he want to? I'm so glad that we didn't have any of that with any of the girls. I really hated driving with them and glad that's all in the past!!

Special K said...

He hasn't even asked. I think it freaked him out just a bit! :)

Wendoyoublog in Colorado said...

Oh, I hate those drivers who start to go and then don't. One cost me about 800.00! Does that make you feel better about living in India?

It better.

Sorry Tay for the bump....R to the rescue.

Anonymous said...

This story sounds very familar and it had the same ending. Maybe when he is 18 he will get a driver permit and drive legally. I rode with him once and he seemed to be a pretty good driver so I think he will survive. He didn't total three vehicles like your brother. mom

grammaDawn said...

By the way, my nephew wrecked 3 cars before he was even close to getting his license, I don't think he even had a permit...at least I've never heard of a state that gives permits to 3 year olds.
True story.

Leenz said...

Your poor van has bad luck! Maybe because it spent all that time in Amsterdam.
PS - I hear you'll be around this summer...

Rena said...

Russ buckled up the hood of our nissan sentra when we were in grad school for that very reason. Oh, and I spilled my glass of milk all over my lap when he hit the suv in front of us. That was the worst part. Russ fixed the hood...by holding it shut with duct tape! we rode around with duct tape on our hood for over a year.....true story. aaahhhh grad school, poor as all get out. but we could afford duct tape!

ps. you had better call me if you come to UT this summer! you hear me?
435-849-5855

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