Well my record is officially broken as of Wednesday. Previous to that I have driven in Montana for over 25 years without a ticket or accident.

I’m still ticket free, but my accident free days are over. It was a good run while it lasted.

I Was Just Sitting There

I was the first in line at the stoplight on Fowler facing north when a car going east on Huffine decided to make a right turn going too fast.

Yes a nice young lady slammed into the side of my gas guzzling SUV crunching the driver door and miscellaneous scratches down the driver’s side. (Not the photo above)

Thankfully no one in either vehicle was injured so that was in itself was a late Christmas gift.

While I didn’t appreciate the damage to my vehicle, especially since it’s our only one, I did feel sorry for the other driver.

She was driving her husbands car that didn’t have all wheel drive and that corner is notorious for being slippery anyway.

So the police came took all our info and sent us on our merry way. The other driver got a warning rather than a ticket and I told the officer I agreed with that.

It was just bad luck on her part.

Both insurance companies, hers, and mine contacted me and dates and times to do the necessary estimates and things were all done in one day.

Very impressive — since we’re still in the holiday season — sort of.

Some Final Thoughts

Since the light I was sitting at was red, and I was sitting still, I really wasn’t paying that much attention to east bound traffic.

However, out of the corner of my eye is this fast approaching bluish gray blur. While it did happen in a spit second on reflection it did seem to happen in slow motion.

Grasping the steering wheel a little tighter, telling the wife that we’re going to get hit, and bracing for impact.

Obviously there was no evasive action possible to avoid the collision.

While I was not at fault it still impressed on me that driving on Montana roads and highways during the snowy season requires a little extra attention.

Maybe that’s why I’ve been accident free for 25 years.

Sometimes we put our brains in autopilot while driving so we can think about other things.

I’m guilty of that but I think after this experience I’m going to be more conscious of what’s going on around me.

What about you? Comments below.

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