Today while driving to Green Festival LA, I got in an accident.  A car was merging into my lane and I was watching it, letting off my gas so it could get in.  Suddenly, the car behind it decided to also merge into my lane, but then I guess the first car had braked, so it had to swerve and cut in front of me, which caused me to swerve to avoid it.  I managed to narrowly miss it, only to roll off the shoulder into the mud and slide right into the guardrail.  The one good thing today?  Bruins beat Trojans 38-28.  😀

First an ambulance stopped to check on us, then a tow truck pulled over but it wasn’t with my insurance, then this CHP officer came along, and then the firetruck pulled over briefly.

A total of three or four CHP vehicles stopped at one point or another, and I had to explain what happened over and over as each batch came. Three of them asked if I wanted to file a report and by the third, I had one thing clarified: the only thing filing a report would do is confirm that I am to blame for hitting the guardrail. Ok seriously, why would I file a report so you can charge me for the guardrail?! So random.

Oh, and while talking to the ambulance ladies, we happened to witness another crash right in front of us as a car got rear-ended. Eventually all the law enforcement personnel migrated between our two sites and finally figured out that we were two separate incidents.

Just as I was reacting that I might not hit the car in front of me, I realized I was hurtling towards the guardrail and the mud was too slippery to stop in. In retrospect I should have stayed on the road more or maybe even swerved again (though that could have caused me to spin out), but alas I hit. Boom.

Oh my poor car! One of my first reactions was relief that the airbags didn’t deploy. That must mean I had slowed down enough that the impact wasn’t as bad. When I went to open my door, it got a bit stuck and creaked (see video).

The AAA tow guy couldn’t get my car to start without some serious shaking and coughing from my poor Corolla, so he called in a flatbed and pulled it away from the guardrail in the mean time.

And there she goes, getting atop the flatbed for the ride to the tow yard.

The tow guy thought the axle might be broken – yikes! We’ll see what the ultimate verdict is.