Incidents and Accidents

This week the Listmaster has instructed us to come up with a list of ten things to do with the road. And what the Listmaster wants, the Listmaster gets (except when I am feeling rebellious, which is often, I suppose). 

While I am lucky in life, I've had more than my fair share of bad luck when it comes to the road.  Well, with cars, to be more precise. 

It all started way back when I was six and my sister was twelve.  She got hit by a car while walking her bike across an intersection like the good girl she was.  (Okay, so that's not really my bad luck, but it definitely had an impact on me - no pun intended.)  Her collarbone was broken but thankfully that was the extent of it, and she also got a nice little settlement when she turned eighteen, of which I was always quite jealous.  Perhaps my bad car luck is payback for that jealousy?

Then there was the time, back in my racing days, when one of my skis flew off the roof rack of my dad's car and went flying down the length of the highway.  My dad had failed to properly secure the rack because it was bitterly cold that day and we were rushing to get into the warm car.  To make matters exponentially worse, who should happen to be driving behind us and ended up driving over the errant ski?  None other than the boy I had a humongous crush on from my ski team.  Thankfully, there was no damage to his parents' car and he was unhurt.  Plus, I had an excuse to call him later and make sure everything was still fine.

Must have been more than fine, because that same boy and I later dated.  When we met up with some friends at a bowling alley, my purse and his car keys got stolen, so a friend had to drive us to his house an hour away, and he then had to break into his house, get another set of keys, and we drove back to pick up his car at the bowling alley.  The poor guy then had to drive me home and then drive back to his own house once again.

Fast forward to the time when the Hubs and I were living together in a rented apartment and we got back from a summer vacation to find the front end of my car crumpled into itself, still in its parking space on the street in front of our apartment.  Turns out some idiot had parallel parked a block away but had forgotten to set the parking break on his manual transmission Jeep.  The Jeep had rolled backwards down the hill, through an intersection, weaving across the street until it finally came to rest on the hood of the car parked in front of mine.  As you can imagine, my car is what cushioned the blow of that collision.

Then, in July of last year, I was on my way home from dropping Lilah off at daycare so I could work from home.  I was traveling (safely) straight through a pedestrian controlled intersection when a car turning left at the same intersection barrelled into me, causing my airbag to deploy and completely writing off my car.  I can't say the experience was fun, but I was lucky in that I was not hurt and Lilah was not in the car.  Everything, including her car seat, was covered by insurance since the other driver was 100% at fault.

Enter my new car, which is almost a minivan but just slightly cooler.  And if you call it a minivan, I will make sure you will never see the inside of it. 

A couple weeks ago, I was stopped at a red light, as were all the cars around me, including the car behind me.  I suddenly heard the crunch of metal on metal and then a second later felt the car behind me colliding into mine.  I cannot fathom what could have been more important than stopping at the red light, but apparently the driver of the third car thought he was above the rules that apply to the rest of us, and he rammed into the car behind me with enough force to push that car into the rear of mine.

Which brings us to today.  I am currently enjoying the unfamiliarity (read: cleanliness) of a courtesy car supplied by the collision repair center that is replacing the rear bumper of my non-minivan.

*Among these incidents and accidents, there have been a couple minor knicks and scrapes that have actually been my fault.  But they are in the tiniest minority.  What's up with my luck on the road?