The Trouble With Parked Cars

A little over a week ago I was sitting in the office working away when a man walked in and asked me, "Do you have a Camry?" It took me a minute to realize that I did because I was only borrowing my father-in-law's Camry. He told me that I should come outside because there had been an accident. I couldn't believe it! I walked outside and this is what I saw.

At first it is difficult to understand exactly what happened so let me walk you through it. The secretary from a neighboring business was asked to go outside and move the truck that you see in the picture. However, she was not aware of the trailer that was attached to the truck. As she turned the trailer caught the black Honda Civic, but it didn't stop there. She kept going and dragged the back fender of the Civic into the front fender of my father-in-law's Camry. Basically it was a bad day for the secretary. It tore the bumper off of the Civic and scratched the whole passenger side resulting in $3,500 of damages. As for the Camry, we were lucky to escape with a dented fender costing a total of $1,400 to fix. Pretty crazy story, right? But it gets worse. The truck and trailer belonged to the company, but they were not insured. The owner of the company took responsibility and paid the $4,900 in damages out of pocket, so basically a bad day just got worse for someone.

Almost one year ago from the day of this parking lot trailer rampage my Cadillac was totaled, and yes it was parked. It was in front of my house when a woman driving a Lincoln on her way home from a bad day was crying, veered off the road, and hit my Cadillac going 30mph. Other than sore ribs she was ok, but the Cady was not. The back end was destroyed and the insurance company deemed it totaled and that was the end of the Cady. That was a bad day. I loved the Cady, but life went on and one year later here I am again...talking about parked cars.

So what is the trouble with parked cars? You aren't in them! I consider myself a pretty good driver. I've never been in an accident on the road, but that's two parked cars in one year. In the end there is only so much you can do. Drive defensively, drive responsibly, but if someone decides to hit your unmanned vehicle, laugh and take a pic!