So, I get in from a wonderful (although extremely cold) trip from New York City on the 12th. I promptly got sick and was unable to come back into the office until Friday the 16th. That morning, I left just like usual and made my way across town to my son's school. As I was patiently waiting to turn left into my son's school (and yes, I DID have my turn signal on), the great big Waste Management garbage truck rear-ended me. Now, I had been at a COMPLETE STOP at least long enough to let 5 or 6 cars in the line of oncoming traffic to go past me, so it's not like I had JUST stopped or anything. I had been stopped with my signal on. Let's see, that's 3 brake lights and a blinking turn light on the back of my minivan. You'd think that would be enough to catch your eye, right? Apparently not. The garbage man ended up pushing my van about 10 yards or so. After I stopped skidding (and just barely managed not to hit a truck coming towards me), I jumped out of the van to check on my son in the back seat. The first thing he said to me was, "Mommy, that hurt my back". Of course, upon hearing this I became very upset, not to mention irate. The idiot garbage man didn't get out of the truck. He just sat there looking at me like, well, like an idiot. I got back in my van and moved to just inside the school parking lot. The stupid garbage man is still sitting there where he was when he hit me, so I wave to him to get out of the road. Incidentally, when you have an accident and your vehicle is drivable, you MUST move it out of the way of traffic. This IS AN ACTUAL LAW. Anyway, he pulls into the parking lot and still won't get out. To be fair, he had already seen that I had a child in the back seat, and I probably had more than a little bit of a crazed look about me. After all, this is my child, not to mention the fact that I'm pregnant as well. I was scared to death. So, the guy not getting out made me even madder. I gave him something akin to The Rock's "Just bring it" hand gesture. He finally gets out and comes over. Did he ask how we were? No. The first words out of his mouth were, "Do you have a cell phone?". He didn't act like he cared or was worried about anything at all. For my part, I'm very proud of myself as I refrained from cursing. However, I felt I was well within my rights to yell back at him "No, do YOU have a cell phone?" He then said, and I quote, "What are you getting so mad for?" I was so livid, I could only sputter something about "4-yr old" and "pregnant" and finally just commanded him to pull up the rest of the way into the parking area. Everyone was concerned. Nick's teacher called the police and the principal let us into the office and offered me coffee and juice, since all my drinks ended up way in the back of my van.
Anyway, when the cop got there, the stupid garbage truck driver was at least honest about everything. In fact, this is what he told the cop. Apparently, he was absolutely not paying attention, and when he finally realized that I was stopped, he panicked and hit the gas instead of the brake. Before accelerating, he was going 45 mph. So it seems my initial label of "idiot" certainly applies here. Yada, yada, yada, he got a ticket, Nick and I got a trip to the emergency room. Him for his back, me for everything else. I was cramping, my right arm was hurting, my left hand was numb, and the rest of my body was slowly becoming unmovable. Xrays of Nick were fine, xrays of my arm were fine, but they wouldn't xray my back because of my pregnancy. They wouldn't give any kind of drugs, either. Now, before you gasp, let me tell you, there ARE prescription pain meds you can take while you're pregnant without hurting the baby. So it's ridiculous that the E/R doctor would tell me I have whiplash and to take Tylenol. What???? E/R doc told me to call my OB who told me to call my primary, who told me to go to CHP Urgent Care. So we went to urgent care, got some drugs and finally were able to go home. It being a holiday weekend, all of the body shops were closed. The insurance guy for Waste Management was kind of annoyed that we didn't take the van in on Friday, but sorry, we were a little busy making sure we were going to live, ya know? We did get a rental van through their insurance. Since then, we've found out the van is totaled and we have to get a new one. The insurance guy is being slick trying to rush us through this whole thing. Last time I talked to him, he said he'd have his appraiser let him know what the van's worth, and he'd give that check to the bank and that's that. First of all, we owe more than it's worth. Second of all, I don't think so. I'm still in big time pain. The one day I started feeling a little bit better I did some laudry, and ended up back at square one. I've had to call an attorney. I'll let you know what happens. By the way, I'm definately not sue-happy or anything, but I gotta tell ya , I'm kinda sick of being screwed by the big man. I'm the one who's been inconvenienced here. We're expecting a child and I have no extra money for a down payment on another vehicle. Not to mention the fact that if we'd been in a car like my old Mitsubishi we would be dead (and no, I'm not exaggerating). So, in closing, just a bit of advice. If you're stopped and you see a garbage truck behind you, get out of the way.