My poor truck...

[Maria]

I'm having a rough week and what I'd really like to say to people, just... yeah. So I'm venting here, where it's safe. Got a little bit long, but... well, I talk a lot, I guess.

We have 2 vehicles, my truck which drives well and has air conditioning, and I am in love with it. Seriously. I keep a microfiber cloth handy so I can dust the crevices while waiting at red lights. You know the weirdo who's at the car wash the next morning after a dust storm, even though it kind of looks like it might storm again today? Yeah, that's me.

The Husband's car neither runs well nor has air conditioning, and given that he bears strong resemblance to a hyperactive moose, every switch, button, or moving part inside is broken. (The car is slated for replacement when mine's paid off.) So The Husband asked if he could take my truck to work, since I had a day off school. We're starting to see temps around 110F this week, so I just mumbled something about wanting it back in one piece, and went back to sleep.

20 minutes later, I awoke to him calling me to say, "I wrecked the car." It took me putting shoes on and looking for my keys, before my brain engaged enough to realize that he did not wreck the car, he wrecked MY TRUCK! How, you ask? Well, rush hour traffic was moving along at 35mph, so he figured he could just trust it to continue like this indefinitely, giving him plenty of time to decide how to write a program to solve P vs. NP. And traffic did continue at 35, indefinitely... except for the part about 5 minutes later, where it came to a dead stop due to an accident ahead.

He noticed just in time to hit the sedan ahead of him at only about 15-20. $6,000 in damages to our vehicle, plus my guess is 2-3k for the other vehicle. And while the official report states there were no injuries, the other driver called our insurance company within just a couple hours, asking how to get medical bills paid.

I'm trying not to say anything to him about how stupid this was. I can tell he feels foolish about it, our insurance costs are going to be more memorable than anything I could say, and it's not like I've never, ever made a dumb choice before. I was just darn lucky, and learned my lesson without doing damage. And as my mechanic pointed out when he saw it, the radiator, a/c condenser, and a few other parts probably were coming to the end of their lifespans anyhow. But just... I mean... I JUST redid the braille on all my driver-side control buttons, and, even with the seatbelt, he managed to hit the dash hard enough to break every last one!

Anyway, thanks for letting me vent. If you see that I might need some advice, feel free, because this whole at-fault thing is new to us.

[shopgirl15]

I don't really have any advice to give, I mean our family car did get totaled in an accident some short years back but it was the other driver's fault, not ours - but the experience still sucked. I am really sorry you have to deal with this.

[bhskittykatt]

Hubby had just replaced a fender on my car two weeks before a drunk driver totaled it. That he'd just replaced it merely added to the pain. Ugh. (Hubby had paid for and replaced the fender because he had gotten my car into an accident a few months prior...grrrr)

Hope your insurance doesn't go too high. Hope you are able to fix up your truck as well. That's never a fun situation to deal with.

[Maria]

That he'd just replaced it merely added to the pain.

I vaguely remember reading about this between final exams, I can imagine it was just, ugh.

Thanks for the good wishes. The truck is being repaired, fortunately. I don't know what we'd have done if it were a total loss... I'd probably be a lot more freaked out than I already am. But there are some little positive things, there's about $1500 in maintenance and replacing worn-out parts, that won't happen because those parts got damaged/destroyed in the impact. Not the way I wanted things to get done, but at least it's something, you know?

[AccountingDrone]

What is it with husbands?

Mine did this to my car 2 months after it was paid off, thankfully I hadn't gotten around to dropping the level of insurance from full collision to the state minimum!

[Cobrabubbles]

So sorry to hear about your truck! My hubby has managed to be in two at fault accidents in three years both times with my car, never his. I feel your pain, I wanted to rant and rave at him and call him every name in the book and tell him just how stupid he was, but it doesn't help and he probably feels bad already. You just kinda move on and not let them have the keys EVER again lol.and they say women are the bad drivers :-)

[Arcus]

People wonder why I don't like to let others drive my car. If there is going to be a dent, I don't want anyone but me to feel the guilt.

Then again it's been so long since I was in an accident (12 years and not my fault) that my insurance is very low. The difference between $500,000 coverage and state min is only about $12 a month.

As for who is a better driver, I found that there is an equal number of men and women drivers. What they are doing is different though. Around here if I see a car weaving in its lane, 75% chance it's a woman on her cell phone (even though it's illegal to talk on one without an hands free.) A car that is speeding, weaving though traffic, or following too close is most likely to be a man. Not always the case, but that is what I noticed over the last 7 years and 400,000 miles driven.

The single worst driver I've seen... A former coworker that would read a book while driving. 7 totaled cars in 4 years. And those were just the cars he was driving. I don't know how many of the cars he hit were totaled as well.

[Caractacus_Potts]

When I was young an naive I let anyone use my car...until one day I got the keys back and was told the car was a mile away and in several pieces.

For over a year I let no one drive my car until someone I thought was a close friend begged and wheedled for over an hour. When I went out that night my car was safe and sound in a parking spot...but it wouldn't actually move. Come to find out my so called friend had been doing donuts in the parking lot, busted the transmission and had pushed the car into the parking spot before coming in and handing me my keys (forgetting to mention the busted transmission and donuts).

That was 25 years ago and I have let two people drive my car since then:
1) A friend I loaned my $800 beater car too after he signed an agreement giving me his $3000 motorcycle if ANYTHING happened to my car (it was raining and he had a date, I made him give me the bike keys and the title in addition to signing the note in front of witnesses)
2) My father. If he totaled my car I know he has the finance's and moral integrity to buy me a knew one ASAP.

I would let my wife drive my car if she wanted to but she knows everything above and I think she is too afraid of getting in an accident to take it.