So today is my mom’s birthday (happy birthday mommy!!!) so that is a good thing. However oddly enough things on this side of the planet weren’t as festive for me. Today (for the first time in my life) I got in a car accident and it happened near the airport in Lisbon, Portugal. This was no “adventure”, it was a nightmare!!! I posted pics of the cars…I didn’t take them to post (I took them just to keep a record) but figured I might as well post them since I already have taken them. Anyways it has been a very traumatizing day. Here’s the story:
We were on our way to drop off some hard drives for shipping to this cargo place near the airport and from past experience it has been very difficult to find these shipping places. Anyways when we got near the airport I could actually see the building that had been described to me (by the shipping lady) so I was quite happy. We didn’t exactly know how to get there but I figured if you can see it you can get to it! Anyways we saw this ramp leading towards where we wanted to go…I didn’t see any do not enter signs or anything for that matter so figured we should try going on it. I was a little weary of the ramp so I drove with a lot of caution. Mid way down I saw a pedestrian sign facing me so I was relieved – phew we’re not going the wrong way. Anyways after that we came to an intersection in which our lane seemed to end off in a very weird way, which again confused me. So before making a turn I stopped the car and looked both ways – no cars in sight. So there I went turning the car slowly and all of a sudden I see a bunch of cars heading at us. Now for that split second in this scenario I’ve been told by many that your life flashes in your head but that did not happen for me…the only thing I could think of way OH CRAP… Well there were two lanes on the road and we were very luck that only one car (which was breaking) hit us head on. Neither cars were damaged too much. The lady that hit us immediately got out of the phone and started crying and called her husband (or someone). She didn’t speak English and man was I ever getting worried. Peter was surprisingly calm though which is good. Then since we were near the airport the airport security came and helped contact the police. After some waiting I called my insurance company and they really didn’t seem to think it was a big deal. They pretty much said the car is 100% covered and if it’s drivable you can keep it as is or fix it at one of the Peugeot dealers and we’ll cover the full cost. The police were really very nice and tried hard to speak in English and the ladies family didn’t seem to angry either. I was still quite flustered and after filling out some police papers the police men just started laughing and told me not to worry. I still didn’t find it overly amusing but hey it could’ve been much worse! And they didn’t even give me a police report! They said it takes 2-3 weeks to process. I guess it was good that I didn’t get it ticket cause clearly it was my fault. I don’t know how things work here in Portugal but things seem to be okay. All I really have to do now is write Peugeot a letter telling them what happened and that’s all. We went to a nearby Peugeot dealer and they told us the car was very drivable or we could fix it but it might take 2-3 days to order the necessary parts. We’ve opted to wait till Paris to get the car fixed. Anyways that was what happened.
I am still very pissed that this could have happened. Apparently the ramp I was coming down was also going in the other direction so I have no idea what was with that crosswalk sign. Also it was again very weird that when I stopped at the bottom of the ramp I didn’t see any cars but once I turned there were so many. One reason for this was because this on-ramp was pretty close to a big round about so I’m guessing the cars turned onto this road at the same time as I turned. Well I’m very lucky nothing happened and reconstructing the whole thing in my head I really don’t know what I could’ve changed other than not going on the ramp in the first place. Peter and I have decided though that from now on if we need to go ship something to the airport we will park the car at the airport parking lot and then walk to the cargo place nearby instead.
Well that’s pretty much this not so great day…thankfully everything is fine. We’re gonna stay here for one more night.
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