12:25 PM, Jun 15, 2006
Ow
I was driving south on 4th St in Leavenworth, going to lunch with Geoff, and as I approached the crazily busy intersection at Marion, a large line of cars formed in the left lane to turn into the Price Chopper parking lot. To avoid being delayed by this, I used the right lane, which was largely clear, with traffic moving about 30-35 miles per hour.
Meanwhile, a woman of highly advanced age made her only fast move of the day, propelling her 2002 Toyota Avalon sedan into a left turn. Unfortunately, that fast move ended quickly, with her halting for no apparent reason in the middle of my lane. I had about fifteen feet to bring my car to a stop, from 30 miles per hour. The front right corner of my car struck the passenger-side doors of her car at a low speed, but enough to severely dent her car, and shatter the plastic housing of my right headlight.
I hastened out of the busy intersection, with her driving in front of me. She stopped, cockeyed, in the middle of the street onto which she was turning, to assess the situation. She moved with glacial slowness as I urged her to pull into the adjacent parking lot so we could get off the street.
A bystander named Kim did a fantastic job seeing to the only injury sustained in the accident. The aged woman, named Marjorie, suffered the shifting of a square inch section of the loose skin on her elbow, causing a superficial wound that bled a lot.
I called the police, who arrived within 90 seconds and got right to work. Within another minute, EMS people showed up and bandaged Marjorie up nice and tight. Geoff said that his neck wasn't feeling quite right, and is going to go and get an X-Ray done. Now, I have a fair nasty bit of paperwork to do, and probably about $1500 worth of damage to my car.