Literally...
Wow, I can't beleive how long it is since I wrote the last post.
Firstly, I am doing well with the not calling myself stupid.
And whilst I am not thinking of myself as stupid so much, I've not been doing too well recently. Not from the self depreciating side of things, but just the last few weeks have been tough for an unknown, unseen reason. But that is for another day, another post. (Don't worry, I am / will be fine!)
Since 16th June I've been on a different journey. One of recovery and dealing with insurance companies.
Travelling home, in start / stop traffic we were going between 0 and 60 mph. Go, stop, go, stop. At one point it seemed that we were at the end of the jam and going. Back to 60. And then stop. Not slow down, dead stop.
I had seen the car behind and wanted to make sure that I neither hit the car in front, nor was hit by the car behind. So trying to balance the brakes between the two.
So, I stopped with about 3 foot between me and the car in front. Totally tensed, but stopped. Then there was a big bang, and scrape as the Renault behind me hit the rear quarter of my car and scrapped down the side. It probably took a second or so. It seemed like hours. I thought that I could hear each panel buckling. Each plastic trim panel snapping and popping out.
Then it stopped.
And as I relaxed and started to swear in my head there was a huge bang as a second car used my towing hitch to stop.
The guy in the Renault said he stopped in time, but was pushed into me by the Tesla that hit him. I honestly don't know if that it correct or not. Once I stopped, I stopped looking in the mirror.
So, I used the SOS button in the car for the first time. And am really impressed. After checking there were no serious injuries that we could could see the operator organised the emergency services, and sent them to the location of the car. All without me having to figure out exactly where we were. Sometimes modern technology can be something more than a way to turn yourself into an emoji!
We closed the motorway for somewhere between 30 minutes and an hour (seemed longer)...
The Renault was destroyed. The front and rear just disappeared, and one of the rear wheels was hanging off. The front of the Tesla was also removed. You could see the frame of the chassis that the front end mounts on and the front wheels no longer worked.
Mine? The rear quarter was gone. The side was not looking good. The boot floor was not quite the right shape and one wheel had a red streak where the Renault was pushed along it. But it ran, and moved under it's own power. I was quite impressed to be honest! The battery was missed by inches. Something that probably saved it having to be cut apart! (I've seen accidents where the battery has started to smoke and they have had to cut the rear of the car to isolate it!)
And three people stepped out of the car. That fact still astounds me. And is why I am still not angry that it happened. If it had been a fender bender that caused a little damaged I probably would have been much more annoyed. As it was the fact that no one was seriously injured is the main thing.
I say seriously because whilst I had pain at the time, the paramedic who checked me out (the police and paramedics take it *very* seriously when you start to say that you have back pain after that type of accident) said that it was muscle pain, and that I would feel worse the next day (I did). But that went away and I was fine until two weeks later when I was putting on foundation and *cring* I could barely move my arm for pain in the middle of my back. Yes, I know, doing makeup, very cliche...
After a week I thought that seeing as I had had the accident I would check with the doctor and it turns out that I have a displaced vertebrae. It's been x-ray'd (my manual therapist wanted to make sure nothing was broken before she started to make sure that she didn't make it worse) and there are no breaks, but wow, was it painful.
Over the last week I have started to work out again, something that I had stopped for a few weeks to make sure I didn't cause more problems, and most of the time it has been fine. On Saturday I pushed too much and paid for it with pain that needed paracetamol to stop. So I know not to push that hard again, not yet at least.
The car is now back on the road having had 5 weeks of repairs to the bodywork and chassis (so pleased it could be fixed - I was looking for a replacement in case it was written off and there are no other examples of that car, in that spec in Nederland at the moment!) and we are now just waiting for the insurance companies to stop arguing so that I can get my excess and no claims back (my insurance has paid for the repairs to date). Being stationary I think I can say that it was not my fault, but the other two companies are arguing over who is to blame for causing it and so I am not getting money back yet.
And, still, I can't believe that modern cars are that good that such a serious accident happened, at such high speeds and energies, and three people just stepped out of their cars after it happened...
