As you might have seen from my Twitters, Dan got into his very first car accident tonight. Not exactly the type of milestone or rite of passage to celebrate, but worth acknowledging, considering the stress and upset it’s costing us. And speaking of cost… we’re now going to be short several hundred for Christmas. Hopefully I can get some more work between this week and next week to make up the difference.
I’m very thankful Dan is alive and unhurt, and that the Hyundai isn’t totaled, but I am very angry over how the whole situation started. You know how a lot of men are with road rage and typical male my-nuts-are-bigger-than-yours arrogance, and Dan is no exception to it. Apparently, some shitfuck motherfucking ghetto trash asshole (henceforth he will simply be referred to as Shitfuck Asshole) is also struck by the need to become an arrogant prick on the road, met up with Dan, and the two of them clashed.
According to Dan, it started on the highway. He was in the right lane, going close to ten miles over the speed limited, and Shitfuck Asshole barreled up behind him, high beams blaring, and started tailgating. Yes, tailgating in the RIGHT lane, despite the left lane being open. After a few minutes of this, Dan pulled into the left lane to get some distance between himself and Shitfuck Asshole. SA followed, tailgating some more. Dan did a bunch of lane changing for the next few miles to shake Shitfuck Asshole. Then, when Dan was back in the right lane, SA again got behind him and tailgated some more. Dan noticed SA speeding up to finally pass him, and decided to get back at him, I guess, for all of the bullshit, and swung over into the left lane first. SA followed, but Dan sped up, got back into the right lane and then got off at the next exit.
This exit is a two lane one. Dan was in the left lane, behind three cars, at a red light. Next thing he knows, Shitfuck Asshole is in the right lane, right next to him, GETTING OUT of his car and coming over to the passenger side of our car. Dan panicked, like I admittedly would, and judged incorrectly that there would be enough space between the front of SA’s car and the back of the car that was in front of Dan so that he could get the hell out of Dodge. Well, Dan got through the space, but scraped THE ENTIRE LENGTH OF THE PASSENGER SIDE OF OUR CAR against the front of SA’s piece of shit little Honda. I guess the only “good” that came of that was that Dan ripped off the Honda’s bumper in the process.
Dan headed directly to his brothers’ apartment complex, which was his original destination. He realized he had a flat tire (front passenger) and parked the car in the first spot he found, and pulled out his cell to call his brothers to let them know what was up. As he’s on the phone with his 24 year old brother, who should pull up alongside Dan but Shitfuck Asshole. The probability of SA living in that apartment complex is not very likely, which means as soon as he collected his bumper he followed Dan.
Dan’s brother heard the guy cursing and screaming at Dan, and Dan cursing and screaming back, so he hung up, called 911, and then went out to try to intervene.
Long story short, the cops came, nothing got physical (thank god; otherwise I’d be blogging about bailing Dan out of jail), information was exchanged, and the cops agreed not to cite Dan for leaving the scene of an accident (which he technically did), given the circumstances. He’s not sure what happened with the other guy, because at that point Dan made his statement, and the cops were done with him, so he and his brothers went back inside.
When Dan first called me to tell me about the accident, I was worried about him, and of course, potential damage to the car. I think the first words out of my mouth in regard to the car was, “Please tell me it isn’t totaled”, since, you know, I’ve been there, done that.
Well, the car isn’t totaled (THANK GOD THANK GOD THANK GOD), but there is the little matter of a flat tire, which will require the purchase of four tires to replace (they need it done, but I planned on doing that on the 26th, so we’d have a little more $ for Christmas, since we have a lot of people to buy for). And there’s also cosmetic damage on the entire passenger side, from the front door to the back wheel well. It’s mostly cosmetic in terms of just needing touch-up paint to fix, though the scrapes are pretty wide. Part of the back wheel well is crumpled up, though (I think that’s what hooked the Honda’s bumper and ripped it off), and a piece of trim on the front passenger door is destroyed). It would be several thousand in repairs, I’m sure, but we’re skipping the reporting route because it’s not worth the insurance spike and bad record.
I have to admit, when Dan got home I ran right out to see the damage, and it was very hard not to cry. I’m so glad that Dan is okay (I don’t think I can stress that enough) and that the car is fine, but I’m really upset over the damage done to the side of the car. I don’t know about you guys, but I like our things to LOOK good. We work so hard to pay for that car, and we’ve had it for three and a half years and have done our best to keep it in like-new condition…
And I’m mad because Dan DID do his part to aggravate the situation. He should have gotten off the first exit he passed when this guy started to act weird. Or just stayed in the right lane and let the guy tailgate for a bit. I’m sure he would have eventually passed. And later, when he KNEW Shitfuck Asshole was behind him but was getting ready to get into the left lane, Dan should have KEPT his ass in the right lane, instead of jumping over in the left, just to get in front of the guy and piss him off. I’m sure that’s what sent Shitfuck Asshole over the edge, since it was right after that little stunt that the guy followed him off the highway and confronted him at the light.
Ugh. Ugh, ugh, ugh.
I just hope that Dan has learned something from this. For YEARS I have been cautioning him and warning him about his holier-than-thou attitude concerning other drivers, that one day it was going to get him into trouble. Dan’s big thing is with speeders. Dan thinks that if HE is already speeding, and someone comes up behind him wanting to get by, then they have no right to be going that fast, blah blah blah, and Dan won’t move over to let him past. Or in some other scenario he’ll speed up or slow down or merge or do SOMETHING to stop the other driver from doing something that Dan doesn’t approve of him doing. Like I’ve tried to tell Dan, first, it’s not HIS place to judge, and second, who knows what these other drivers are like, and how they might react.
Well, he certainly met up with trouble tonight…
I’ll probably take some pictures tomorrow, in the daylight. Right now I have a writing project I need to try and knock out before bed, since I now have four new tires to purchase on Monday morning, and I kind of need money in my PayPal account in order to do that.
As for the rest of the night, once I get my writing done I’m going to spend some quality time with my husband before we go to bed… and after we get into bed. As mad and upset as I am about this, I’m glad that he wasn’t hurt. The car, in the end, is just a car, and I’d gladly take it beat all to hell and back as long as Daniel came home to me without a scratch on him. ♥
Sorry to hear about this. I’m glad Dan is ok.
To be honest, the description of what SA was doing makes me think he was either drunk or high on something – there was no reason for him to be such a jerk in the first place.
Glad Dan is ok though.
Charity´s last blog entry: Proper Work Attire
Ugh, that’s awful Jenn. Like you said, thank God Dan came home safely and the car isn’t totaled.
Ugh, I’d be pissed off at him for that too. There is no excuse for that behavior from EITHER of those guys and I hate when they get the attitude. It’s just another asshole who you’ll forget about eventually. I hope you can get a few good projects soon to make up for the cost of repairs. It is definitely good no one was hurt and it wasn’t totaled like my mom’s ended up being. Still having a headache over that, arrrrgh.
Amanda´s last blog entry: I just want to shut down
Oh my gosh! That’s really scary! I’m glad he’s all right! You car is fixable, your husband is not!
Gah at road rage though. It never ends well!
Holly´s last blog entry: Improv theatre and a very skinny Santa
Wow, that sounds scary. I’m glad Dan is okay and that the car is fixable! What was that guys problem? I hope he at least got ticketed or something. I don’t know what it is with guys, Rob is the same way! He thinks it’s hilarious to “box them in” because, shock!, he is not the King of the road. We get into arguements about it all. the. time. Maybe I should make him read this. Ugh!
Andrea´s last blog entry: Christmas, the season of jerks.
Ugh. That sucks. I know how that goes. My husband had such a bad stint of just being oblivious and scraping things/other cars in parking lots, etc. that our car looks like crap right now. I’m glad he’s safe and unhurt from all of the instances, but I’m embarassed to have such a ghetto looking car for the time being thing because I like my things to look new and taken care of. Best of luck with the repairs.
Jani aggravates road raging idiots too in the same “my penis is totally longer than yours” fashion.
As a result, he’s still desperately searching for unbroken parts (mainly the passenger-side front door) to our rare-type (don’t ask me what type, it’s a car and that’s all I understand about it) car after managing to get into a crash in August with the estimate financial damage of 1300 euros – which isn’t much, but still.
Men seriously need to get over it if someone passes them on the road. Why is it such a big fucking deal? x_X’
I’m glad Dan’s okay and the car didn’t get totalled, and *hopefully* this will teach him a valuable lesson. Even if the other guy aggravated him, he should remember it’s *not* okay to play in traffic with the other big boys – especially since he’s a family man!
Jonna´s last blog entry: I feel like crap on a stick
You know, I hope he learns from this. GOD FORBID he had your kids in the car and it was a worse accident. Even incident like that can cause injuries.
Kate´s last blog entry: fingers crossed
this may make me look bad, but I think I’m a lot like Dan when I drive— although I’m not sure if I would take it to that extreme, but still. I don’t think it is just a guy thing– or maybe the little testosterone I have is taking over my estrogen when I get behind the wheel. Or maybe it’s just because I grew up with two brothers… there’s a lot of competition with brothers. =D
In any case, I’m glad he is okay!
Jessica´s last blog entry: Twilight
Oh gosh, that’s scary. I saw your Tweets, and yeah, I totally hope Dan is OK.
Damn that sucks. My husband is the same way. Although I must admit, mine would have gotten out of the car when SA approached, making matters even worse. My darling husband doesn’t know when to call it quits. It’s like you said… you don’t know what’s going on in the other persons head. In fact we have court on Tuesday because of a similar sittuation. Some assclown punched his fist through our driver side window in the middle of some good ol road rage.
I’m glad Dan is ok. It was pretty smart of him not to go directly home. SA seemed like a crazy man and you don’t need people like that knowing where you live.
Lisa Marie´s last blog entry: Grungy
A similar situation happened with my boyfriend recently, he sped up to pass this one car before the two lanes turned into one, and this car started tailgating him, high beam flashing, and horn honking. They neared a turn and the car nearly spun out, and they continued to follow and “annoy” my boyfriend for a few blocks, he went to pull over into an abandoned parking lot to lose the idiot, and surprise surprise the other car followed in. This ticked my BF off so he approached the car ready for a fight, the other car rolled down its window and a WOMEN started to get out of the drivers side! My boyfriend backed off, and just “exchanged words” with this idiot women! Then my boyfriend reported her for aggressive driving to the police.
I am still surprised that a women would do such a thing! Following an unknown car into an abandoned parking lot… especially when you see someone getting out of their car toward you and she tried to do the same? Yikes!
I’m just glad that Dan is alright, and that a car is only a car. The other guy will have more damages to repair, such as attaching his bumper. Try and just encourage Dan to just phone the cops to report a “wild & aggressive driver” – that should turn out better than taking matters into his own hands….
Too bad the other guy did not hit you first, as his insurance would have to pay for the damages. What about the other driving making a claim against you? Hopefully your car insurance system is not like mine.
Aidan´s last blog entry: Are they Open Yet?
Heh, my dad does that sometimes when we almost get into accidents and the entire family’s in the car and he’ll start going off about the other drivers. How they’re all irresponsible and how the other driver could have gotten us killed – and it’s usually my dad turning left or something and driving too fast. But I’m glad he’s fine and the car’s fixable.
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I love the font on the title of these entries.
I’d be pissed at Dan too. A lesson learned the hard way? Probably so, but his Christmas is the one that should suffer not yours. I hate to say this, but perhaps your mother could start floating some of that money you give her as a bailout most months back your way to ensure all is Merry This Christmas?