Little tin cans

Had my first accident where I was at fault today. This also happened in the Aveo, so I’ve created a new category in my blog since apparently I’m going to be writing a few something-bad-happened-in-my-Chevy stories.

Anyways, we were driving down to Ponte Vedra and we came upon some construction. I didn’t realize it was construction until after the accident, but oh well. The truck in front of me had stopped, and I assumed it was due to a red light. When he started moving again, so did I, but I made the error of looking down for a brief moment to grab my sunglasses. When I looked up, the truck was no longer moving, so I slammed on my brakes, but I ended up hitting the hitch on the back of the truck.

The collision was at a very low speed, and luckily the other driver took no damage. Unfortunately, the Aveo is apparently made from aluminum foil with plastic paneling, as the front bumper looked like someone had poked a spear right through the middle of the bumper. The force of the 3 MPH collision was also enough to pop some of the braces connecting the front bumper to the body, and to bend the metal rebar behind the bumper. One mitigating factor for Chevrolet is that I hit the cross-sectional area of a fist, not another bumper, so I’m not surprised that my car took damage.

There was an officer already there, supervising the construction or something, and she said that I was the third accident to happen there in as many hours. Not that I’m surprised or anything. A traffic patrol officer showed up within minutes, and he let me off without a ticket since neither of us wanted to report an insurance claim, and since the damage was minor. The fact that I wasn’t a big jerk about the whole thing probably helped too. ;-)

Unfortunately, although the damage was minor, both the bumper and the rebar supporting the bumper need to be replaced. The initial estimates are from $600-$700, which will be clarified after the mechanic has removed the bumper and checked for other damage. If it wasn’t for the fact that the bumper had popped some of the pieces connecting it to the body I would probably just let it be since there is still no engine trouble even after all that has happened to the Aveo. However I’m afraid the bumper will fall off later or something if I don’t get it fixed, so I’m gonna just cough it up and pay for my mistake.