Beware of Silver Toyota Minivans

I got in a car accident last night after I left the office.

The minivan in front of me had to stop abruptly in fast and heavy traffic. I stopped just short of hitting it. And the guy behind me plowed his minivan into me. Then I hit the van in front of me. So I had two impacts. Nice.

It sucked. It was really really violent. That may seem like a stupid statement (really? your car accident seemed violent? duh!) But it was such a horrific noise and jolt and impact. And judging from how sore my body is this morning...umm....yeah. It was pretty violent.

The irony is that my minivan barely looks a little crumpled. The rear bumper has shifted out of place and has a big gouge in it, but everything still works fine. My front bumper has a crumpled licence plate and I don't know if there is more damage under that. The Toyota dealer will find more problems I'm sure.

I haven't really been in a car accident as an adult. It just feels different from this perspective, maybe because I'm a mom now?. I am glad the big kids weren't in the car with me. Peevers was in her rear facing infant seat. She was asleep when we got hit and she started crying like hell. The first thing I did was check her. I gave her her sucky (pacifier) and she went right back to sleep. I was shaking like a leaf and that point. I knew that she was okay on a deep innate level but you just can't help but be shaken up by the potential that someone could have hurt your child.

I was talking to Brian on the phone as I was hit. I wish I had a recording. I said: "wow! (or maybe it was an expletive) I am about to get in an accident. Oh it's okay, I stopped...NO I AM GOING TO GET HIT" or something like that. Then there would be a noise (Brian said it didn't sound loud on the phone but I remember it as really loud) followed by Peevers crying. Then I told Brian I had to get off the phone but I was all right. And I didn't call him back for ten minutes. Poor guy.

It took over an hour for the police to fill out all the paperwork. I got a "ticket" for not having my current insurance info in the vehicle and will have to go to the courthouse to show my proof of insurance or pay a $600 something fine. Gah. Just what I need: another errand on top off fixing the van, buying new car seats (!? Is this really necessary?!) and numerous Chiropractic appointments. And I am stiff as an old lady today: top of neck, bottom of neck, midback and lowback...geez! Whiplash is no joke people.

As I was driving home I ran over a rabbit. I drive a deathmobile.