rivka

First off: I'm not hurt. Just shaken up.

I was in a single-car accident this evening on my way to English Country Dance. I was raining lightly all day, and as I came around a hairpin exit ramp I lost control of the car. It started with a wobble, and then suddenly I was spinning around and there was nothing to do but wait for the impact. I hit the guardrail - not very hard - and came to a stop parked neatly at the curb, but facing the wrong direction. I checked to see if I was hurt. Nothing hurt, but I recognized the numbness of shock. I looked down at the dashboard and saw the orange "check engine" light, so I turned off the ignition and got out.

Then I remembered that my cell phone battery was dead, and that the phone had turned itself off in self-defense. I sat down on the guard rail, turned my phone back on, and dialed 911. The 911 operator passed me on to the Maryland State Highway Patrol, but by the time I finished explaining my location to the dispatcher a cop was already pulling up. A good thing, too, because my phone promptly went dead.

The Highway Patrol guy doesn't win any points for kindness or sympathy. He asked me if my car was drivable and if I could turn it around. I told him I didn't know how to tell whether it was drivable or not, and he said he couldn't make that decision for me. He went and called for a backup officer, and I sat on the guardrail and cried.

The cop came back over and I asked him if he could contact

curiousangel for me. He let me use his cell phone, but I had barely got Michael on the phone when the cop started telling me that his backup had shut down traffic on the ramp and that I needed to turn my car around and re-park it. So I only had time to tell Michael that I wasn't hurt but had been in an accident. I asked him to call our insurance agent, but then I couldn't tell him anything else because I had to move the car.

Worst three-point turn of my life. I was shaking pretty badly. But I got the car re-parked at the side of the ramp, facing in the right direction. The cop took my license and registration, and I sat on the guardrail again and shivered, and tried to prepare myself for the fact that I was going to have to drive home.

They brought back my license and registration after a few minutes, and gave me a card with the responding officer's name and badge number and the case number for the accident. I got back in my car and drove home, about which the less said, the better. I kept the emergency flashers on the whole time because I didn't really feel up to highway speeds, and because I knew that I was driving in an impaired condition. I had two more hairpin freeway ramps to negotiate, and on each one I felt as though I was going to go spinning out of control again at any moment. I mean, I was taking them very slowly, but I'd taken the other ramp slowly too. I thought that having another accident within a few minutes of the first accident would leave me completely unhinged. But I made it home without incident.

curiousangel had been watching for me, because as soon as I parked the car and started across the street he came running out to hug me. We looked at the damage together. The bumper is pretty messed up, and the left headlight and turn signal assembly is stoved in. There's a dent at the edge of the hood, but it's not too bad. The grille is kind of bent and pushed in. I know it could've been a lot worse.

While we were standing in the street looking at the car, someone came speeding up the street and honked at us to get out of the way. That's when I really lost it. I leapt out of the way, and then I just stood there in the street sobbing and sobbing. My nerves were so shaky that being honked at like that scared me absolutely to death - I couldn't even pretend to hold myself together anymore. So we stood there for a while, me crying and Michael hugging me, and then we went inside and had some tea and called

wcg and the State Farm 24-hour emergency hotline.

I'm mostly calm now. We talked and talked and talked about the accident until I calmed down.

curiousangel isn't mad at me. I'm not particularly upset with myself, either. We have insurance to pay for the damage, and our premiums shouldn't go up by too much because this is the first accident for which one of us has been at fault. I didn't do anything wrong - I wasn't driving recklessly or speeding or anything. It was just bad road conditions and bad luck.

Except, good luck. I'm very lucky that no one was following me closely, or I probably would've been hit. And a collision would've done a lot more damage - to me and to the car - than just spinning around and tapping the guard rail did.

My back has really started aching. I'm sure it's just stress, because it didn't happen until about two hours after the accident. I'm going to take some anti-inflammatories and a muscle relaxant tonight, and then I'll take it easy tomorrow.

What a way to start my vacation. I debated whether I should go dancing tonight - if only I had just been a little more lazy...