September '93 Accident In September 93 I was involved in a bad accident. Over the course of my life I have been involved in several car accidents. Most have involved my parked car, however there have been others. At work I had several tasks I was working on under contract and in house I had just completed the major work for a multi-featured HR application using MS Access. The application was quite sophisticated and brought together several autonomous in-house programs into one package. Everything could be done from the one application and I had spent quite a bit of my own time putting together the program. I had received quite a few good reviews for the program that would be put into use with the start of the new fiscal year. My frame of mind -- Life was good. The morning of the accident was a bright and sunny, a Saturday I think. No visibility or weather issues. I was meeting my mother on Fort Meade to take care of some things. I was coming from the Crofton area. While traveling north on Annapolis Road [RT 175], just outside of Fort Meade, an older Red compact car of some type, coming from the opposite direction turned into my path to gain access to the Firestone Tire Center [I think] that used to be there. This is and was a 4 lane street. I was not traveling fast -- there were several fast food restaurants in the area and the post was right across the street. At the time it was a rather busy area so normally one did not go speeding through. There was no light or other traffic device at the entrance to the Tire Center and I clearly had the right of way. The left turn by the other driver into my path was sudden and when I realized what was happening I could not get over. I don't remember which lane I was in but I thought there was another car in the other lane. [The police report should be clearer.] My front end smashed into the passenger side of the little faded red compact car. My airbag deployed which caused a nose bleed and my knee hit the dashboard really hard [was sore for quite awhile]. Other than that I was fine. Initially I did not know I had a nose bleed. There were two people in the other car. A very heavy black man on the passenger's side and a younger black female driving. They looked initially to have injuries and were taken to Kimbrough the Hospital on Fort Meade. I did not want nor did I seek medical attention. The police wrote the accident up and several people who witnessed the accident also provided the same details I did -- she cut me off suddenly and I had nowhere to go. When the father [surname Williams] of the kids pulled up to the scene, he jumped out of his Volvo and screamed what had I done to his kids. The guy on the passenger side did not look like a kid. I looked at him baffled and said something like -- check with the police. I was shaken. My car was towed, my mother came to get me, we went to her house. I had my notebook [computer -- the latest copy of my program -- documents I was working on for deliverables, etc.] and some other things in the car which I transfered to her car. I stayed the night. I called Kimbrough to find out how the driver and passenger were, I cannot remember what was said. I called my insurance company later that day -- Saturday to report the accident. The following week, I called my insurance company again to find out the status and whether or not they had spoken with the other driver. I wanted her insurance company to pay for all damages to my car. I was in my office when I made this call. My insurance company indicated that they had indeed gotten a call from the other driver, she had hired some big law firm that handled issues of this nature and that their appeared to be some problems. They also informed me they had not received the police report yet. I was a bit angry. I said in a loud voice, [I remember going to the offices of the people on either side of mine after the call to apologize] -- I don't care if her attorney is Jesus Christ Almighty -- you will not only not pay out on any claim she is making against me you will also do everything in your power to insure that my car is repaired under her insurance. They said they would get in touch with me when they received the Police report. As it turned out the young lady had no insurance and was using the default offered by the state of Maryland for drivers that fell into this category. She had also had an accident the prior week on the Baltimore beltway. I called Cher's parents who lived in the same neighborhood, -- [my parents had moved away sometime earlier] as the father of the "kids" -- to ask about them. I believe they indicated they knew of them but not well. The repairs to my car were extensive. I had to go back a month or so later because the steering seemed to have a mind of its own. The repair shop claimed to have forgotten to put a strut or something in. The steering problem was corrected. This accident was unavoidable. I have looked at this incident often in this time frame. *Updated 03.09.06 -- shouldn't rely solely on spellcheckers -- rdt