Author Topic: Rear-ended on first car commute  (Read 3039 times)

CommonCents

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Rear-ended on first car commute
« on: January 21, 2014, 12:00:40 PM »
Just moved to a new house, and today was our first car commute ever for either one of us, outside of in college internships.  Used to just take a train, now it's a car ride+different train ride.  (I know, going backwards in mustachian ways to many of you folks, but it is right for us!  In the summer we're going to try out biking it.)

Well, we were rear-ended by a large commercial truck within sight of the train station.  Not an ideal start.

The pros/silver lining:
1. Other than some back/neck pain (we think quite minor, but we're crossing our fingers on it for the next 2-3 days as we see, took some advil but that's it so far), no injuries.
2. We have cash to buy a new (or new to us) car.
3. We can borrow a car from family in the meantime.

Unfortunately:
1. We think the car will be totaled, because it was a 2002 Honda Civic.  If it's not, it's now worth a lot less for a later sale/trade-in after having been in a major accident.
2. We had planned to drive the car another 2-3 years at least until we have kids, and then were talking about possibly keeping it as a second car.
3. Getting out to where we can borrow the car tonight, with the blizzard hitting at that time, is pretty bad timing, and we likely still need to work tomorrow.  We can't work from home tomorrow really easily because of not having internet set up until Sat.
4. There's never a good time for this to happen, but in general, this is pretty bad timing.  We have enough to deal with right now in terms of getting settled in the new house (unpacking, getting internet set up, getting plumber in tmw to hookup dryer, getting permits for the dump - now to a car not registered to us for a while, etc) and selling off the condo.

Just really sucks.
/vent over

MissStache

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Re: Rear-ended on first car commute
« Reply #1 on: January 21, 2014, 12:06:17 PM »
Oh man!  What a kick in the nuts from the universe.  Sorry- but glad you guys are ok.  Just a warning:  you will probably start to hurt a lot more over the next couple of days.  Muscle strains like that tend to get worse after a night of sleep (in my experience).  I would invest in a heating pad if you don't have one!

Frankies Girl

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Re: Rear-ended on first car commute
« Reply #2 on: January 21, 2014, 12:08:35 PM »
Oh man!  What a kick in the nuts from the universe.  Sorry- but glad you guys are ok.  Just a warning:  you will probably start to hurt a lot more over the next couple of days.  Muscle strains like that tend to get worse after a night of sleep (in my experience).  I would invest in a heating pad if you don't have one!

+1
I have been hit twice like that, and both times, felt okay that day, but the next week, lots of muscle aches. :(

Hope the guy that hit you had decent insurance, but so sorry this happened to you.

Elaine

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Re: Rear-ended on first car commute
« Reply #3 on: January 21, 2014, 12:11:59 PM »
THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU DO NOT FOLLOW THE DIVINE TEACHINGS OF MMM.

Just kidding, that sucks though- glad you're ok.

CommonCents

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Re: Rear-ended on first car commute
« Reply #4 on: January 21, 2014, 12:16:15 PM »
Oh man!  What a kick in the nuts from the universe.  Sorry- but glad you guys are ok.  Just a warning:  you will probably start to hurt a lot more over the next couple of days.  Muscle strains like that tend to get worse after a night of sleep (in my experience).  I would invest in a heating pad if you don't have one!

Yeah, thats my worry.  We have a gel pack we can heat in the microwave...but it's in the old condo unfortunately.  :(  We had planned to go over to the house and bring over anything in the fridge/freezer either tonight or (more likely) tomorrow) along with mail, etc.  With the blizzard and needing to get out to the other car, we don't have time now.

This has also made me realize how fortunate we are to have family to rely upon.  Both sets of parents offered their extra cars to us (which would involve a 4 hour round trip for my parents to drop a car off).  If we didn't have that, we'd have to move back into the condo and live on the air mattress to commute, or rent a car.  And while I think the truck *should* pay out loss of use to pay for a car rental, I'm not clear they actually will. 

CommonCents

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Re: Rear-ended on first car commute
« Reply #5 on: January 21, 2014, 12:19:08 PM »
THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU DO NOT FOLLOW THE DIVINE TEACHINGS OF MMM.

Just kidding, that sucks though- glad you're ok.

HA.

Yeah I think on the one hand I should have tried harder to persuade my husband to bike commute immediately, in the winter, but then I think:
1. We wouldn't have yet anyhow, because we'd need to get a bike for him and fix my bad tires.  Been way too much going on to do that.
2. We couldn't get out t-passes switched over to the other train for the rest of the month, so we would have needed to drive to (the old) train station anyhow or double pay for the rest of the month.
3. Getting hit by a car as a biker hurts a whole heck of a lot more!

Ashleylizbeth

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Re: Rear-ended on first car commute
« Reply #6 on: January 21, 2014, 12:23:15 PM »

Hiya!
This is my first post but I had to chime in.. I work in physical rehab ice for 72 hours after that heat. Don't leave it on for more tha 15 min at a time and 2 hours in between each application.
Sorry about the accident!!

Thegoblinchief

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Re: Rear-ended on first car commute
« Reply #7 on: January 21, 2014, 01:45:42 PM »
Hard to teach neck stretches over the internet, but consider doing these to preserve range of motion.

For each, do until a faint stretch is felt, hold for 3 seconds. Do 3.

1. Tuck chin downwards.
2. Tilt head over to right. Tilt head over to left.
3. Turn head over to right. Turn to left.

I had major neck problems and pretty in-depth exercises to do for a long time, but this quick stretching routine every morning knocks all most all of my muscle pain down. Hopefully you won't need PT.