Milestone

Today is a landmark occasion. They say to expect to be in car accident about once every seven years. Any more than that, you’re a bad driver. Any less, you’re lucky. Today I am two months shy of my seven year anniversary of legally driving behind the wheel. Today I got in my first car accident. Now, before I go any further, I am ok. My car has looked better, but it is still totally drivable, as you can probably tell from the pictures. Micah has agreed to take me to the junk yard this week. At that time we will replace the left headlight and blinker so that I am legal to drive at night. After that we will solicit the help of a mechanic friend to make sure my bumper and hood are stable – we want to avoid future incidents, if possible.

So, the worst part about being in this accident is that it was my fault. Absolutely, no questions asked, 100%, MY FAULT. I was driving to work this morning and there is a roundabout intersection I pass through about a half mile from my home. This morning, I slowed as I approached the roundabout, looked left to see if anyone was attempting to enter the intersection or was already in the intersection. I then looked forward to see if there was anyone already in my path or moving into it, and then left again just to be sure nothing had changed in the second or two that had passed. Seeing no one, I began to accelerate.

In my defense, I was driving to work shortly before 9:00 am and heading east. For those of you who have been out of school for a while, sun rises in the east and sets in the west. For those of you who have been out of Utah for a while, there are mountains in the east which block the rising sun until well past dawn. As I was driving, the sun had just peaked over the mountains and was severely impairing my vision.

Now, as I accelerated into the intersection, the nose of a dark colored car peaked out of the sunspot. I knew I was about to collide with it, so I hit my breaks and veered hard right. For a brief moment I considered going left behind the back of car – opposite of the flow of traffic – but realized I would totally wipe out of the whole rear of the car if I did that. So, I continued right and to my dismay the car, who hadn’t seen me, was exiting the roundabout. She straightened out from her turn making it impossible for me to avoid hitting her. So, today I’ve hit a milestone. Today I was in my first car accident (as a driver). For my first accident, I was at fault.