The Inevitable - It's Happened

Wednesday, January 16, 2008
I got a call from my Smart Boy this morning at about 6:45 a.m. He was driving to school on slick roads, and he skidded through an intersection. His car slid into an island sideways and came to a stop. No one was hurt, but the rear wheel of his Hooptie is now bent at about a 45 degree angle.

So I called the tow truck to pick up the car at the school and tow it to the dealership for repair. I don't know how much it's going to cost to fix - I'm waiting on an estimate.

Poor kid. The first accident is always a trauma, even when there's nothing you could of done to prevent it. At least he wasn't hurt, even if he was shook up a bit.

Such is the way of first year drivers. That's why he has a Hooptie.

24 comments:

John the Scientist said...

Gald he wasn't hurt.

Janiece said...

Thanks, John. Me, too.

Tania said...

Whew, glad it was pretty minor to everyone but the car. ::pets hood of car::

Poor kid. Don't tease him too much about it.

Janiece said...

Tania, I'm glad, too, and his Hooptie is a pretty safe vehicle (1993 Honda Accord).

However, I won't tease him at all. My Smart Boy is a good kid and a cautious driver, and the intersection where it occured is tricky when the weather's bad.

It was just an accident, and I told him when I gave him the car that I expected he'd have one in the first year of driving - it's really almost inevitable with inexpereinced drivers. I assured him that when (not if) it happened, as long as he wasn't being a dumb-ass (talking on the phone while driving, drinking and driving, etc.), we'd just deal and move on. And we will.

The bummer for him is that he's going to be without wheels for a bit while we get it repaired.

Shawn Powers said...

You made me google, "Hooptie" -- because apparently I'm so lame I didn't know what that was. :)

Glad he wasn't hurt. My first accident I totaled the truck I had worked all year to buy, and wrecked 2 snowmobiles I had borrowed from my boss. Not cool.

Black ice... I'm not a fan.

Janiece said...

Shawn, that story is really depressing. I feel bad for your teen-aged self!

Black Ice = Teh Evil.

Tania said...

I was 17, driving 10 mph at about 10 AM, and slid into a light pole on campus at the university I was attending. My poor Toyota (the one with 300,000) still has a small dent on the frame from that incident. I wasn't sure what to do, so I drove to the campus security office to report my accident. I had to pay for the light pole (my insurance paid). I ended up working at a building near my light pole, and would drive by it every day for over ten years. At one point I contemplated putting a plaque up:
"This light pole paid for by Tania and State Farm Insurance, November 1989"

So, I kinda identify with your Smart Boy. Poor kid.

Janiece said...

Tania, I got rear-ended the first day I drove to school when I was 16. Hence my empathy, too.

Nathan said...

My first accident was totally not my fault.

The engine fell out and trashed the entire undercarriage when I ran over it. It was an extremely noisy and bouncy accident.

Anonymous said...

I'm approaching having three teenage boys driving at the same time. Stories like yours - even the ones with the (relatively) happy endings, give me the heebie jeebies.

You seem to have handled it well. I hope I have your fortitude when it's my turn.

Jeri said...

I'm glad he's ok and it was a relatively uneventful accident!

My 18 y.o. should get his license in a couple of months - which is when my younger one will get his permit. Oh, my insurance rates!!

We have an old dented Ford Taurus for them to drive - it's run down enough to be a hooptie, but hasn't been after market accessorized at all.

Janiece said...

Welcome, camsavwin. Actually, the ending really isn't as happy as I'd like - the repair is going to be pretty darn expensive. Fortunately, my Hot Cousin's Smart Man is the service manager of our dealership, and so we can get a price break. It's still going to be in four figures, though. My only advice to you is to just assume the accident(s) will come, and then handle appropriately. Less shocking.

Nathan, I would expect you to have that kind of accident - it just seems to suit your personality.

Jeri, we use the term Hooptie for any old, over 100K mile POS that's appropriate for teen drivers. I really can't see my Smart Boy putting rims or anything like that on it - too flashy, and he likes to fly below the radar.

Tom said...

Janiece, glad he's OK. But your attitude is what I'm most impressed with. So sensible and realistic. Good for you!

I'm with Shawn. I'd never heard hooptie before. In El Paso, where I grew up, we called those cars "beaners" because that's what the Mexicans drove. There they were characterized by fringe around the windows, puffy dice hanging from the rear-view, and a plastic Jesus on the dash.

But I can't talk. My first car was a 13-year-old '56 Sedan DeVille purchased for $150. No aftermarket, though. The only thing not stock was the back seat, which was replaced by a twin mattress after I burned a hole in the original seat. The mattress was slightly smaller than the original rear seat!

Shawn Powers said...

Now Tom, with a mattress in the back, that's what we might call a "shaggin' wagon" -- but probably not what you want to call a teen's vehicle. Not your own teen anyway. :)

Janiece said...

Shawn, I really don't want my teen's boyfriend or girlfriend driving a car with a mattress in the back seat.

Otherwise you'd end up hearing the standard "hit them in the face with a shovel" sound effect - *TONG*

Shawn Powers said...

Hey, don't look at me -- Tom's the one with the shaggin' wagon. I'm just calling a spade a spade.

(Hmm... a spade is another name for a shovel, I am starting to look more guilty... *TONG*)

Jim Wright said...

Glad he wasn't hurt, Janiece. And it sounds minor enough that it will be a good lesson, which all new drivers need.

Me? I wrecked my dad's year old Chevy Blazer, not totaled - that came later.

- Hooptie must be a navy thing, that's what I always called 'em. But, for true hooptie effect - he should drive it with the bent tire, woka woka woka ...

Shawn Powers said...

Thinking about the car itself -- it might not be wise to put 4 digits worth of green into a '93 Accord...

Maybe time for hooptie shopping?

Janiece said...

Jim, I actually got "Hooptie" from my Hot Cousin's Smart Man. When I was in the Navy, we called them "Guam Bombs" or some other regional derivitive.

Shawn, we just bought this one in November, and the repair costs are less than a comparable car would cost, especially with the discount. If the repair bill had approached the cost of the vehicle, I'd be a shopping fool.

MWT said...

Man, even my car accident stories are boring. All of my teen incidents were parking lot fender benders and paint scrapers. My mother got into more spectacular accidents in that timeframe than I did.

Jim Wright said...

MWT, you should have grown up in farming country - you'd have much more exciting teenage car stories.

A friend and I once sunk his mother's brand new (really, it had less than a 100 miles on it) Ford Torino window deep in the muck of a green onion field - over 100 yards from the road while trying to do "James Bond" reverse spin at high speed. It took two large farm tractors and one very irrate farmer to get it out. We were 17, if I remember correctly, and it took two month of washing dishes at the local fast food joint before we could raise enough money to pay back the insurance deductible and for several dozen bushels of scallions.

Good times, good times.

I also once hit a deer with my motorcycle, but that's another stories.

Janiece said...

Jim, in my experience, those times are only "good" in retrospect, not while they're actually happening. Just sayin'.

Shawn Powers said...

I think the part where it was the other kid's mom helped make the story a bit better. :)

But yeah, that's one of those fine wine stories. It's more enjoyable the older it gets.

MWT said...

Ahh... mud flinging teens. We have those. Or had, rather. There's this triangular shaped wedge of ground at the edge of the campus property where three roads intersect, and they used to like to wallow their trucks in it. This was irritating because we were trying to prettify it with grass and flowers and such. We finally caught someone at it redhanded, gave his "but boys'll be boys!" parents a stern talking-to, and he ended up picking up garbage along our roads for a good long while. Thus far we've had no more troubles with mud wallowers.