History DOES Repeat Itself

OK, here's the background. It's May 2002. I'm about a week or more away from going to Ohio on vacation. I'm going to work via my normal route. At 2nd Street and Arkansas Avenue, there's a stoplight. I stop, of course. Light turns green. I proceed on through--and get plowed by a truck running a red light. Car gets totalled, just after I had paid it off. In fact, the same day, the title for the car showed up in the mailbox.

That brings us to today. I'm 10 days (basically) from going to Ohio (via St. Louis) on vacation. I'm coming back to work from lunch on my normal route. At 2nd Street and Arkansas Avenue, there's a stoplight. I stop, of course. Light turns green. I proceed on through--and get plowed by a SUV running a red light.

Of course, there are subtle differences (the first wreck smashed into the back door on the driver's side, today's took off my bumper coming from the passenger side) but it's just aggravatingly familiar enough.

The biggest difference, hopefully, will be in the settlement of the accident. Last time, the guy swore he had a green light as well, which meant I had to get a witness down to the cops to give a statement. This time, the girl had a blowout as she was trying to slow down for a yellow light and careened crazily through the intersection, so it's pretty obvious who is at fault here. And, thankfully, we have two cars worth driving now instead of really the one we had last time, so it's not as much of a hardship. Plus I think they'll actually be able to fix this car--I sincerely hope they won't total it! Adding a car payment on to what we already have would not be good.

Anyway, I'll try to keep this saga updated here. They said the police report would be available probably Thursday, so that's most likely the next time I'll know anything.