I got rear ended last night. I was driving in the left lane of a 4 lane highway with a concrete dividers. As I was driving, I saw congestion ahead in both lanes, and a police vehicle on the shoulder at the intersection ahead. I took my foot off the accelerator so that I could smoothly and safely slow to a stop at the congestion point. I believe I was close to or at a complete stop, but I'm not 100% positive.
Suddenly point, my vehicle was struck from the rear by the driver behind me. She collided with the right rear of my car, spinning me to the left and into the concrete divider. At this point her vehicle collided with mine a second time, in the front left quarter panel.
I distinctly remember the instant of the collision, experiencing a split second of disorientation as I wondered what just happened, and instantly realizing Oh shit, I've been rear-ended. This realization hit me as my car hit the center divider -- I was looking directly at the concrete divider. It then registered that I had been hit a second time (broadside) while still I was going sideways down the highway, and in a detached manner, I thought something like Oh shit, I've been hit a second time, broadside. I wonder how this is all going to play out.
Shortly after coming to a stop, I felt pain in my ribs on the right side, about in the middle. The pain was caused no doubt by the seat belt. I also noticed a puffy feeling in my left cheek. I touched both locations and concluded there were no serious injuries. In the back of my dazed little brain housing group, I kind of wondered if the Nissan logo from the steering wheel was imprinted on my cheek. I then realized that my air bag hadn't deployed, ostensibly because of the angles at which the collisions occurred.
I distinctly recall thinking about how well the safety aspects of the car performed... I was rear ended, but had no neck pain at all, because of the headrest design. (I'd previously disliked it when the new headrest design was released, because I couldn't effectively use it as a headrest anymore, but when I'd heard it was about preventing whiplash, I begrudgingly accepted the design change. After the accident, I thought "that was pretty cool.") I looked around and the cabin was fully intact. The seatbelt held me in place. If the airbag had deployed, wouldn't have hit the steering wheel, and I wouldn't have this bruise on my cheek accompanied by a black eye, but geez... in the grand scheme of things, that's insignificant.
After the collision, when the police arrived, I saw that the young woman who had hit me was quite rattled. I asked her if this was her first accident. She said it wasn't her first accident, but was the first time where it was her fault, and she apologized repeatedly and profusely. I told her that it was okay. We're both alive and we walked away from the collision, so no worries. I had a a choice between being a dick and being kind, which was no choice at all. Kindness is always the best way forward.
The cops were good too. They saw that the young woman was rattled and operated in a professional yet compassionate manner to calm her down. At the end of the event, one of the cops handed me the driver information sheet and started saying that this contains personal information. When he said that, I replied that I'm an IT Security guy and that I really appreciate him saying this. He followed up by saying that the sheet had the necessary insurance information, so there was no need to contact the other driver directly. As a girl dad, I appreciated that he said this in order to protect the young lady driver.
It was a crappy situation, but everyone involved performed as their best selves. Even though I went in feeling like a pinball, I came out feeling the overall good of humanity. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go stretch my neck.
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