car accident

Got in a car accident tonight, on the way home from seeing Four Brothers. I was traveling down Fremont Boulevard in the Centerville district. Apparently something was going on at the Afghan Theater and there were a bunch of people leaving it. Some lady in a Mercedes had pulled into the right lane from the curb, and I was in the left lane, traveling along, merrily chatting with my beautiful wife. All of a sudden, the lady in her Mercedes decides to make a u-turn, and she freakin u-turns right in front of us. I hit the brakes and the horn, and end up hitting her car right near the trunk on the driver's side.

We pulled over to the side of the road (facing the other direction, she got her u-turn), and there were a bunch of pedestrians around. The accident happened right in front of a Fire Station and apparently one of the firemen called the police; he told me a cruiser would be there shortly to take the report.

When we pulled to the side of the road, we saw a man get out of the car holding a small child. He disappeared rather quickly after Janelle said "I hope he was in a carseat." He wasn't in a carseat. The people in the car asked if we were alright, we said "I think so." They said they were alright as well. The lady then said "are you going to report this to your insurance? Because I want to pay for it out of my pocket, I don't want my premiums to go up." I told her I wasn't sure, but I wanted to take her info down.

About that time a cop showed up and we told him what happened. The lady's version is a little different than mine, apparently. She didn't mention that she was doing an illegal u-turn to the policeman. Go figure. But for some lame reason the police can't write that sort of thing down, so hopefully she won't contest it when I report it to her insurance company. The policeman marked it down as a "rear end collision" on the report, which I think is bad for me. That is stupid, because it was clearly the lady's fault. I hope she stays honest and doesn't challenge my story of the events.

Just thinking about her contesting it makes me annoyed. She seemed nice enough, so hopefully that won't be an issue. There was very little damage to her car, maybe a bit of a scratch. Mercedes' are tough, man. Amazing what cars made out of metal can take. Our Saturn lost the front license plate, and the bumper is coming off. Hopefully that is the extent of the damage. And hopefully we're dealing with an honest girl here.

Anyway, just thought I'd share before I go to bed.