Car Crash - My First One

            Recently, I came somewhat close totaling my newly bought black Acura RSX-S. It was in nearly flawless condition before the accident, and somewhat less so after. Here are some pictures of the car before the crash.

And you're not getting any pictures of it after. As a side note, I'll never understand why people post pictures of their damaged cars on the internet after they stupidly crash them. Damaging my vehicle to, cost-wise, beyond repair isn't something that I find particularly enjoyable nor cool. (Hey everyone! look how big of a dumbass I am! Isn't it great? My insurance will now skyrocket! But at least I have this awesome picture of my beat-up car to show you all!). Hopefully these pictures of my undestroyed car are enough for you to understand that even a small dent on this car is pretty painful.

             What I do feel worth talking about is the accident itself. It's easy to think of an accident that everyone walked away from unscathed as being insignificant. In the long run, I suppose it really is. In the few seconds that it takes the crash to happen, though, a lot can be going through your mind. To that end, I'd like to present to you what was going inside my head as it all went down. Although this may seem excessive, I doubt I'm the only one who has this kind of reaction when a 7 figure purchase ends up getting nearly destroyed in front my eyes.

            I'm driving across the college parking lot, looking for my friend. I'm going roughly 30 mph. I hope I never get used to driving a car that isn't a beat up '97 Nissan Sentra. I can't believe how fast this thing accelerates! The sun peeks over the trees ahead of me and starts shining into my eyes, blinding me. I put my foot on the clutch, move the stick into into neutral and gently press the brake. It's funny how the brain works because not 3-4 seconds later, I hear a crash. It's almost like my brain skipped a few frames, because there was nothing leading up to it. Just a crash. There's smoke in front of me. I just hit something. Maybe it was just a deep pothole. Shoot, did I mess up my rim again? That's funny! It sounds exactly like it does in the movies. And there's smoke. This is bad. I don't think it was just a pothole. I sit there for a moment while my car stops. A sign skids in front of me, and although I stop quickly, the sign keeps on going. Holy crap that sign went far!

            My brain goes ballistic.

            Shit! There is smoke everywhere. I must have fucked up the car really bad. Fuck! I just bought this thing! Am I really going to have to buy myself a crappy piece of shit to drive to work everyday? This thing is awesome, or was awesome! Fuck, I'm a moron. Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck. Why the fuck was that sign even there? It was right in the middle of the damn road!!

            I turn my head and notice that the right airbag deployed. FUCK! This seriously must have been pretty fucking bad! Oh my god. I don't even want to see what the front looks like. There's no way this thing can actually start.

            I get out of the car, going into the mother of all hissy fits. I stomp my feet on the ground repetitively, and bawl, tearlessly. Really? I can't last more than three months in a nice car? I have to crash it that fast?! Really? What the fuck is wrong with me?! Noooooo... I think I'm gonna cry.

            The first thing I notice is a fluid trail behind my car. Fuck! There's no way this isn't going to cost a shitload of money to repair. I look inside my car again. Oh, the smoke is from the airbag, not the engines. I didn't realize airbags were that small, though.

           I slowly walk towards the front of the car. Fuck... This won't be pretty. The front bumper has one dent in it. Hey, at least I won't have to change the headlights! I kneel down to find the source of the fluid leak, and see that it's a disconnected plastic hose. Those can't be too expensive to repair, right?

           I stand there for a moment. I really wish this didn't happen. Can't I pretend this didn't happen? How the hell am I going to get to Chicago on Friday? Am I really gonna have to drive in my non air-conditioned Nissan? My god, this week was supposed to be a GOOD week, not a week straight out of hell. Maybe if I close my eyes, something about this will have not happened.

            Fuck, I should pop the hood and see how bad it is, right? I'd rather see now than find out later.

            I walk over to the driver side door, and pull on the lever to pop the hood. It pops. Thank god, at least THAT isn't broken. I walk over to the front of my car, lift up the hood, and lock it in place. This doesn't actually look that bad. Hmmm. Maybe this repair job won't be that expensive after all. Only 1 to 2 thousand.

            I close the hood and the windshield catches my eye. What the fuck?! The windshield is cracked?! HOW! There's a dent in the bumper where I hit the sign! It's on the left side! The windshield is cracked on the right!
            Oh, that's right. The airbag cracked it. Are airbags supposed to do that?! FUUUCKKKK. Why me? I'm not a bad driver. I'm really not. I drive conservatively to save gas. This car gets 28 mph highway and I drive city driving and get 27 mph. Why me?

            I open my phone and call home. My brother picks up.

           "Hey. I just crashed my new car."

           "Really? I'm actually not surprised," he responds.

All in all, repairs were 6k (roughly half the value of the car), and insurance covered all of it. It turned out that the only damage besides the obvious was a destroyed radiator, and what I saw spilling out of my car was radiator fluid. Despite the fact that everything turned out okay, it's not an experience I'd like to repeat, and I 

I learned a valuable lesson that day...
Actually, no I didn't.

--GLV