Freak Accident

Have you ever had a freak accident? The kind that you have never heard anyone else have?

I had one on Saturday night. I still can't explain how it all happened, though my imagination has figured out possible scenarios.

I had attended the missions conference workshops at the Avalon church in the morning, had an afternoon nap, and then got the floors vacuumed, saw that I might not make it for the Rally evening at my home church, (Erindale), so skipped washing the floors and had a quick supper of leftovers, and left.

I followed my usual route, east on 23rd Street, then onto the short Jamieson that curves along the tracks until I get to the intersection where I can make a left turn onto Idylwyld - to go north. I had to wait at a red light. It was snowing lightly again, as it did in the morning, so I knew to go slower and watch out that I would not follow any car too closely and end up skidding into it when braking.

Once turned onto Idylwyld, facing north - suddenly BAM! A Big Black something socked into me at my left door window! I was stunned, and wondered how a big truck could get at me from that side?

Someone on the street knocked on my window and motioned me to get off the street to the right. So I did, and ended up on the parking lot of a Tattoo parlour.

Two men showed up at my left window and when I rolled it down they accused me of running into them in the Walk path. Huh!?? I couldn't even picture how that happened.

They wanted to call the police, making sure I got into trouble for this. I assured them that if none of us needed an ambulance and my vehicle could still drive, then we just needed to inform our insurance agent and work it out over the next few days. (I had someone scratch my car a few years ago; he called the police only to be told to report it to our agents.)

I gave them my driver's license number and name but the one man could not read it so he insisted on writing it out himself (on my hood). I asked their names and addresses too and wrote them down. The other man said he was homeless.

Finally we were able to part ways and I went on towards church. Before long I saw that my side mirror outside my door was only showing me inside. So I rolled down the window and tapped so that it went back to its right position, showing traffic behind me. However, then the window would NOT roll up again!

(I recall Dad having such a problem once, and the door had to be taken apart, or at least a panel or two, to put the window back on its track). There was a cool breeze blowing in so I turned up the car heater, but I felt thankful that it wasn't a really big problem.

The missions rally was almost over. I got in the last half hour, and then went home. That evening I went online to the SGI site to report the accident. (I knew no one would be in the office to answer phones). I did the best I knew how, but felt that I could probably manage the cost of having the window fixed.

When I went out on Sunday morning to drive to church I saw my left front tire was rather soft. (How did that happen?) I'd brought along a big towel to hang over the door to keep out the snow if it started up again.

After church, I told Ike Thiessen; he wanted to see it. When he came up and saw the window and tire, he quickly decided I should follow him home and he would take care of things.

Turns out he had an air compressor and was able to put more air in my tire. He also found a large clear plastic bag and cut it up to tape over my window frame with black Gorilla tape. As I was trying to help with that, I saw that my back window was down about a quarter of an inch. However, when I tried to roll it up, it would not budge either.

I thought the SGI site said they would call me to arrange for and assessment appointment - likely in their shop. But they didn't call yesterday. So when I've finish with this issue I plan to call them, add to my report, and ask if I need to come in for an assessment or just go to my regular auto repair shop and get the work done.

The last time I dealt with them they wanted to call my car "totalled" and to pay me for it. It was at the start of COVID and I didn't want to be without a car. More so, when I found out that they wanted the parts of my car. I had to buy it back from them by paying for a complete safety check ($400-500) but that didn't include the scratch from the minor accident.

So my strength and stamina has improved this week, thanks for those prayers! But now please pray that this will get cleared up fairly, and then I can go shopping for a smaller car.

P.S. Just had a call from SGI to confirm my claim and give me an appointment for assessment on Nov/15th However, I may check what my mechanics would charge, and if I prefer I can drop my report. Hmmm!

[Back to Archives Index ] ~~ [Back to Main RoseBouquet Page]