A young girl rear-ended us - going pretty fast too! We had stopped, and out of nowhere, ka-boom! The rear view mirror flew off it's holder, the ash tray flew out of it's holder (we don't smoke, so it's only been opened a couple of times even) and my son's sunglasses flew off his head into the back seat. He had a caster from my bed on the floor in front of him, but luckily, it didn't fly anywhere. I've been a stickler for not having junk in the car ever since taking care of a little boy who was in a car that was rear-ended, and he was holding his skateboard. The skateboard flew up and hit him in the head, causing a skull fracture.
Never again for anything as heavy as that caster being loose in the car! Sheesh!
I was hurt some - the crash really jolted my back; it felt like a lightening bolt zipping through my spine. My son was a little stiff, but ok. I walked it off pretty well, though, and only feel a little stiff today.
We pulled into the parking lot of a nearby store to wait on the State Tropper - the girl was on her cell phone with her family, then asked us if it was ok to just call in for the police report, since (her family was telling her) it might take hours to wait. My son was quite annoyed at her attitude - ("oh yeah - 'I inconvenienced you by crashing into you, but I really don't want to be inconvenienced by waiting!' - oh brother!") - I calmly told her, that my car had at least $200 damage, and we would all wait for the trooper to arrive.
He got there fairly soon, really, and wrote out the report - including a ticket for her for careless driving. I stayed calm and talked with trooper in "professional" mode (which is such a useful mode to know how to use) and he was very supportive - the trooper said he was glad to see we all had a good attitude about things. I was being the "calmly in charge" one (wanting to keep the young girl there, too) reiterating that "everyone makes mistakes" kind of thing.
Even though the experience was not fun, it was a good thing for Chris to see how to handle these types of events. Unfortunately, the next step will be dealing with insurance and a body shop - ugh! Maybe I can get the insurance to pay for a massage! :)
