ace’s blog

Well, after owning my second Toyota Tacoma in my lifetime (as of August 1st, I will be 26) for about 4 months, I’ve destroyed number 2. In about 40 seconds, I caused over $17,000 worth of damage to my beautiful truck. But enough about my truck, I must say that I was very scared for my son. He was asleep in his car seat just snoozing away, waiting for his daddy to take him home and what does daddy do but hit a couple of concrete barriers in the pouring ass rain! He woke up screaming after the first impact and I immediately turned to see that he was alright and I didn’t even see the second impact. We were alright, both got away with a few bruises but that was the most scared I’ve ever been in my life. If anything would have happened to Aaron, I don’t know what I would have done with myself.

Meri, Aaron and I all went to the Progressive Claim Center here in Jacksonville to get the rest of the my stuff out of the truck and we saw the damage from the second impact. I hadn’t seen it yet because of how the truck was resting on the concrete barrier. After seeing that second impact, I can say without a shadow of a doubt that God was looking out for my son and myself on that day. It is difficult to understand how someone could walk away from that accident with only a few bruises. I hit the first concrete barrier going about 50 MPH. Sure I hit the brakes before I hit but wow. I must have gained a lot of momentum after the first impact because the damage from the second impact made the damage from the first look like a fender bender! It is scarry to think that I could have killed myself and my son because I was driving too fast for the conditions on that day.

The accident happened on Saturday, July 2, 2005 at 4PM. I was in the shower this morning (July 7, 2005) and noticed that my knot on my right forearm had turned into the largest bruise I think I’ve ever had!

The speed limit is 65 MPH on I-295 and I was going 50 MPH. I guess that was way too fast for the rainy conditions that day. I thank God that I was the only vehicle involved in that accident that day. I’m sure I would be getting sued if any other vehicles had been involved. What a terrible phone call for Meri to get on her last day at work!

So now on top of moving to Tennessee on July 16th, I’ve got to buy a new truck! Normally I would be happy about buying a new vehicle but dammit, we just bought that one and we got such an awesome deal on it! Turns out the deal we got was better than we thought! Since progressive it going to declare the trucka total loss, they are going to give us a check for $21,450 for the truck after taking away the $500 deductible. Of that $21,450, $17,600 will go to the bank, and the rest (approximately $3,800) will go to the bank of Pete and Meri. Aaron will get a generous savings bond out of the deal, probably another $1,000 before we’re done spending money. That boy will be set for college…only 17 more years to go!