Accident in Canada

I picked AJ up from his camp in Canada yesterday morning.  We were still a little northeast of Toronto when we decided to make a pit stop at Tim Horton’s on the way home. 

Shortly after merging back on to the highway, we moved over to the left lane because traffic on/off the highway in that area gets heavy and we knew that we didn’t need to exit for nearly another 3 hours. 

Suddenly the van in front of us stopped.  I hit the brakes and we came to a stop with some breathing room between us and the guy in front of us.  Unfortunately, the car behind us did not stop and pushed us in to the van in front of us. 

The van has nearly no visible damage, though the driver complained that he doesn’t think the steering is quite right anymore.  The vehicle behind us sustained some pretty severe front end damage.  And our car got it from both ends.

There are some things that indicate that the repairs may be more than the value of the car.  KBB.com puts the private party sale value of my car at close to $1000 or slightly less.  At a minimum, the hood and right front headlamp assembly need to be replaced.  Plastic wheel wells and both the front and rear are cracked/broken and need replaced.  The trunk previously sat flush with the back of the vehicle but is now raised 1/2”-3/4” on the left side above the height of the rest of the car body, so something has clearly shifted there.

There were no apparent injuries to people, despite one of the passengers in the at-fault vehicle stating that she wasn’t wearing a seatbelt and had knocked her head on the windshield or dash.

In our car, it was an act of God that neither of us got hit with a flying ice scraper.  The scraper had been sitting in the back window of the car and after the accident, it was on the dash, just above the steering wheel.  I had to ask AJ where it had been sitting previously because I couldn’t figure out how it got to the dashboard.

My insurance company had to transfer the claim to the Canadian division and I am supposed to hear back from them on Monday to move forward on their evaluation and the claim.

So, with the insurance claim filed, we had to figure out how to get home.  My policy didn’t cover a rental car and the US division of the insurance company couldn’t guarantee that the at-fault driver’s policy would cover it.  In addition to that, all of the major car rental companies were out of cars.  The one small company that had cars available informed me that they could not rent me a car if I didn’t have rental coverage on my personal car because, unlike any company I’ve rented from in the US, they don’t sell insurance for their rental cars. 

I had forgotten my personal cell phone at home since I typically carry only the phone I use for work.  My personal phone has international roaming but the work one does not.  The tow company was already a little irritated that I had made a call to the US to reach my insurance company so I decided that it was unwise to ask to make another call to one of my friends.  The tow yard didn’t have wifi and wouldn’t let me use their computer to look up alternative methods for getting home.  Instead, they had their teenage son attempt to look up trains and buses to Michigan.  I was pretty sure that there was a train from Toronto to Lansing or Flint but he couldn’t find any.  The best he could get was that it looked like there was possibly a Greyhound bus from Oshawa (closest town with bus station) to Flint. 

So, we cleaned out the car while waiting for a cab.  The cab took us to the Oshawa bus station where I learned that there were no buses from that station to the US for yesterday or today.  However, they could get us from Toronto to Detroit.  So, we took a city bus to the train station; took the train in to Toronto; and then walked about 20 minutes to the Greyhound station.  As we were waiting at the bus stop for the city bus, I was finally able to get a weak wifi signal during which I posted the accident and asked if someone would be able to pick us up.

I lost wifi access again until we stopped for dinner within a 10 minute walk of the Toronto Greyhound Station.  Sorry to put people in to a panic!

My friend Kate started mobilizing ways to help.  She ensured that someone was checking on the dog and organized her own life in order to come pick us up, while also asking if anyone else was available.  Then she helped communicate information to Kevin and to me so that we could connect after I crossed the border.

We had wifi for a little while at the bus station and then had access to on-board wifi on the bus.  The on-board wifi was a blessing even if it was unreliable and slower than dial-up.  (The passenger commenting that his dial-up internet access in 1993 was faster than the on-board wifi was not joking.)

In the middle of all of the craziness, it is clear that God was providing for us. 

First of all, when we packed AJ’s stuff for camp, we used the giant suitcase and packed even his sleeping bag and pillow into it.  This allowed us sufficient room to pack all of my tools and other items that we needed to clean out of the car when we left it.  It’s also a roll-away suitcase with a cord for attaching other luggage so we were able to pull it with the sleeping bag and a small carry-on attached.

Since it was just supposed to be a quick trip up and back for me, typically I would have just thrown on sweats and flip-flops and headed out.  Yesterday I kept thinking (no coincidence, I am sure) that perhaps it would be better for me to wear jeans (warmer), a hoody (warmer than just my short sleeve), and wear athletic shoes (better support for dragging a heavy suitcase all over Toronto). 

I also decided on Friday that it would be less hassle for us if I packed food for the day instead of having to stop places to eat.  So, I had a small hard size cooler packed with what turned out to be exactly enough food to get us through the train ride in to Toronto, the bus ride home, and (for AJ) the car ride home.  Literally the only time we had the opportunity to stop for food was on the walk from Union Station to the Bus Terminal, which is when we stopped at Tim Horton’s.

Everyone was very nice, answering questions and providing directions with clarity and kindness.  The on-scene police officer even made jokes, telling the at-fault driver and her passengers that his 8 year old had done all of the roller coasters at the theme park that they were heading to so they better do it right and ride them all.... because no one wants to be shown up by a little girl.  The only person who gave me a hard time was the baggage guy at the bus station because he didn’t want to handle my overweight bag.  In addition to paying for the overage, I told him that my son and I would be happy to do all the loading and unloading of the bag so that he wouldn’t have to worry about his back.  After that, he informed me that he would load it but that I would be responsible for unloading it later and he put a big yellow “Heavy Load” sticker on it.

Even the boarder patrol officers were really nice and actually sympathetic about the wrecked car.  “How did you end up on Greyhound?  Was it the only option left?”  Yeah, pretty much.  Zero hassle about the odd contents of my suitcase and a lot of curious questions to my son about the cool camp from which he was returning.  I listened to them talk to a lot of people and there were some who were questioned in definitively more detail.

Through the whole thing, my son got to see and practice first hand how to handle a crisis:  pray, ask questions, develop a plan, execute.  Of course, he also got to deal with me falling apart after all the details were arranged but he handled that pretty well, too.  He did a great job helping out and handling things all day.

And to add to all that, God has provided me with the best friends ever; people who were willing to re-arrange their schedules and sleep in order to help us out.