Car Wars

Maybe it was providential. I had been thinking about replacing my beloved old Toyota Echo; browsing Autotrader and kicking some tires on car lots, but I wasn't committed to the idea. It came and went and came back again, so I decided to move away from my yearning for newer material things and go to yoga instead.

There I was toodling my way to the yoga studio and BAM! Suddenly my Echo was mating with the Hyundai of a woman confused by the meaning of the colour red in that hanging thingie over the street.

I pulled over, retrieved my license plate from the middle of the intersection and met the cyclist who saw everything and was kind enough to give me his number. The driver who hit me was flustered, but friendly, and quite candid about the fact she was confused and panicked when her light turned red and she was stopped too far out in the intersection. She was blocking the trucks trying to turn onto the street so they told her to go. Of course she was in the right turn lane so they didn't know she intended to just shoot straight out into the intersection. Which she did, encountering my car driving through the green.

An officer showed up, took our story, handed out an accident form for us to fill in together and whispered to me that this was the most civil car accident he had ever seen. And why not? It was a lovely day. No one was in dispute about the facts. We couldn't change the outcome. There were no injuries. The other driver was already quite anxious and had a heart condition, so we were keeping it mellow. Why freak out? Her car was towed away and I mistakenly believed mine could be driven home. Well, technically it could. If I ignored the grinding sounds and the fact that it would no longer turn right.

Because it happened in Quebec and the other driver was at fault, I found myself at the mercy of her insurance and in a lengthy waiting game. It took three weeks to get the news that my beloved Echo would be written off and I had to find a new car within 4 days if I needed the rental car to do so. How hard is it to find a good car in Ottawa or Gatineau on short notice that is not black, white, silver or grey? Harder than you would think, and they go fast. I managed to find something that makes me happy. I am now the owner of a bright red cherry of a car that is under the impression a door is permanently ajar… but that is a story for another day…