22 June 2008

Are you a Good Karma or a Bad Karma?

You be the judge. Was this good karma or bad karma?

Many years and a few cars ago, I drove a Dodge Intrepid. It was a metallic eggplanty-blue.

[Google search provided approximation:]


With this car, I had six accidents in the course of a year and a half. No joke. Six!

None of them were my fault.

You can get that look off your face. It's true.


I paid nothing and my insurance company kept me without raising my rates because, as I said, none of them were my fault.

The accidents ranged dramatically. Some of the more spectacular ones:

  • a Volvo station wagon hydroplaned sideways into me on Rockville Pike;
  • a muffler detached itself from the car in front of me and pounced, bobcat-like, at me on Route 70;
and my all-time favorite...
  • a tractor-trailer, that's right--an 18 wheeler, sheared off my driver's side fender while I sat on a Beltway entrance ramp at a dead stop--you should pardon the expression--waiting for an opening
Fun, right? How many people can say they've been hit by an 18-wheeler and lived to blog about it?

Boyfriend at the time: Hello?

Me: You're not going to believe this.

Boyfriend: Honey, you didn't have another accident...

Oh, but I did. I had an accident approximately every three months. It got to be a sickening joke between the two of us.

And I began to wonder what message the universe was trying to send me.

I walked away from all six accidents. I had the occasional bruise and, that freaky, shock feeling of "what just happened??" where you can't seem to get your brain to focus, and an adrenaline-induced ache like you wouldn't believe, but no real damage.

The car would go into the shop each time and piece by piece the entire frame was replaced (except the roof) 'cause danged if I didn't get hit from a different direction each time. But it was predominantly just body damage. Dramatic, ugly body damage. The car was always fixable. I'd get it back and it would look and drive like it had before.

After that year and a half period: no more accidents. Not one since then and it's been a lot of years, driving the same crazy DC area roads.

I eventually traded the Intrepid in with ~120,000 miles on it and got a reasonable amount for it.

To this day, I don't have any idea why I went through that or why I stopped going through it.

So, here's my question: Was I lucky or was I unlucky? Was this a good car or a bad car? Was the universe saving me from the morons around me or was it playing Hackey Sack with me?

I dunno. You tell me.

9 comments:

Kristin said...

Not sure about the karma, but I'd say the car was pretty good to you (as was the insurance) if you walked away without injuries to person or pocketbook.

I'd probably say good karma, just 'cause I'm a glass half full kind of girl.

Barbara said...

I had a similar spate of accidents in 1972 in DC. However, the last of 3 was my fault and I always blamed it on the fact that I had gotten quite stoned on marijuana the night before so I paid my debts and gave up weed. Sounds sort of like finding Jesus, yes? I've had a very clean driving record since that short period when I thought I was bewitched.

Reya Mellicker said...

I bet there was some astrological transit going on during that period of time, some head bashing transit or another.

What kind of wisdom did you acquire from all those accidents?

Very cool post!

Rahul said...

It was probably Karma Chameleon.

I'll be here all week!

Bilbo said...

Not only are you lucky, you are the East Coast Luck Distributor. Will you ride with me?

J.M. Tewkesbury said...

I had a car with karma like that. It was my first car--a Honda Civic. Shortly after I bought it, some guy rearended me at a red light. After that, nothing too dramatic until I moved to D.C. Then it was a series of "you've got to be kidding" incidents.

First, I had a very large tree limb break and fall on my car. Result: Shattered windshield, dented roof and hood.

I had it back from the shop two weeks and it was stolen. Unfortunately, the police recovered it two weeks later. I had to have it detailed and never really did get the smell of pot out of it. Plus, they wrecked the right front fender, so that had to be fixed.

Then about nine months later, I was coming home from my parents. As I was cruising through the light at 15th and Rhode Island, some idiot to the right decided to cut across my lane to make an illegal left turn for a parking space they'd just spotted and I smashed right into them. That totaled my car and, as much as I loved that little thing, I couldn't have been happier.

The bummer? I'd just finished paying it off two months earlier.

I don't think you were unlucky. But the car certainly was. Unfortunately, you just happened to be in the car, so I guess that makes you unlucky. Hm. So much for my initial reasoning and reassurance.

Capitol Hill 20210 said...

I don't know if I would have gotten rid of that car, sounds like it saved your life, especially the 18 wheeler thing. I had an experiance with an 18 wheeler on Kentucky's I-65 - I was driving my Aunts 1990 300 ZX (the year of this was 1994) and I was flying along and a freaking semi's tire decided to fall apart and hit the car which forced me off the road. Scared the living crap out of me. He actually turned around and came back. Did some major damage to the the 300 ZX - hence why I didn't buy the 350 when it came out.

I have had bad lucks with Honda's they attrack state troopers like no tommorow. And my 03 Accord caught on fire - so thus I will never another Honda.

GreenCanary said...

I think the car was had been built atop an Indian burial ground/nuclear waste dumping ground and was thus CURSED! And the curse weakened as bits of the car were replaced until, finally, the entire body was brand new and the curse was lifted.

That, or you're just plain lucky.

lacochran's evil twin said...

Kristin: Thanks for weighing in.

Barbara: Glad the "spell" is lifted for you.

Reya: Wish I could tell you I had a great epiphany. I did come to believe that I was here for a reason. Not sure what the reason was (warning to others?) but since I could have been taken out over and over, I figure there's still things I need to do.

rs27: *tap*tap* Is this thing on?

Bilbo: I'm picturing a badge with all these lucky symbols on it!

J.M.: I'm thinking you could have wound up with much worse smells than pot! That tree limb incident sounds pretty freaky. Glad you weren't in it at the time.

CH 20210: Wow, those semi tires are huge! Glad you made it through!

Green: Very creative hypothesis! :)