<p>I was backing out of our driveway, and there was a car parked on the street on the other side. I guess I just didn’t look carefully enough (I really thought I’d looked), but I hit it. I was in a rush because my mom needed an errand run at a place that closed at four. The neighbors were extremely nice, but it’s a new Volvo, so it’ll be pretty expensive to fix. They’re willing to not go through the insurance company. My parents (moreso my mom than my dad) are really angry. My mom screamed at me for about an hour, threatened to sell our house and move out of this school district (she’s not a big fan of our hometown and says I’m the only reason she’s staying here). She also threatened to take away my college money (which I don’t think will happen, probably). I just feel horrible about damaging the neighbor’s car (mine wasn’t damaged at all) and even worse about disappointing my parents.</p>
<p>Sorry you had a wreck, Elizabeth. Your parents need to realize that most teenagers DO have at least one wreck. They should be glad that yours did not involve injury to you or anyone else. AND-your car isn’t damaged! It still is not good, and no parent or kid likes to deal with this, but it is very common. This is why insurance rates are so high, especially for teenagers. It takes some time to get used to driving. It was an accident- your parents will settle down.</p>
<p>Accidents will happen Elizabeth and parents get angry - but - they still love you and in a little time they’ll get over it. After all - nobody was hurt and tha’s the important thing. Hope you feel better!!</p>
<p>Oh-oh. Well, my initial reaction as a mom would be to go off for about an hour too. (once I get started, I’m awful) :(</p>
<p>First of all, count yourself lucky that this happened to a nice neighbor, therefore, no police report, moving violation, bumped up insurance. Also, I am sure you will be a lot more cautious from now on. 
I know that Volvos are really expensive to fix, well, all bodywork is way pricey. Can you offer to pay a part of the cost out of your own savings? And work towards the rest?</p>
<p>elizabeth: While I understand your parents anger, as a parent myself I have been there to one degree or another, I know that once the vent/rant is over, they will calm down and put it in perspective. For example, while being careless is not to be easily excused, you did not get behind of the wheel of the car drunk or high; you did not cause injru to another, or yourself. It is property damage, pure and simple. Perhaps a dose of good faith and contrition, such as offering to help pay for some of the damage, or the insurance deductible, would be a way to start the healing.</p>
<p>Elizabeth,</p>
<p>when I read the titled to your thread, I gasped. Hey I am not young as I used to be so don’t shock us like this. I am glad to know that you are ok. If your mother is anything like me, it is just an emotional vent to get off the feelings (a little anger, some guilt and fear-what if you had gotten hurt running this errand for me and I told you to hurry). She will get over it the car will be fixed and it is replaceable but you aren’t. She is probably not as mad at you as she is at what happened. I am with concerneddad, see what you can do to make a good faith effort to pay some of the cost. This too shall pass</p>
<p>So…on her first driving lesson with my wife, elder d., going a big 5 mph edged out of the driveway and plowed right into the side of the neighbor’s truck. Unfortunately, it was big truck, and a little car. The hood of the car went under the truck. Totalled! (not the truck, the car.) We tried not to kid my d. too much about (she was already traumatized), the insurance company gave us $1,600 for a car that cost $1,200, and we bought exactly the same car (a Ford Escort wagon), same color - red, only this one was a 1995! and has a real rear-window defroster! Oh, the luxury of it!</p>
<p>Goes with the territory. Hey, now that you’ve had this one, you are likely to be more careful from now on, so consider it part of your safety curriculum. </p>
<p>Give your mom a big kiss, tell her you’re glad that she cares about you, and, if you’re in the mood, buy a new hat.</p>
<p>It’s good that no one was hurt! Cars are much easier, cheaper, and less painful to fix than people. </p>
<p>Your first step should be to take a couple deep breaths. An auto accident is not the end of the world - especially a fender-bender. You have the option of contacting your insurance company; the neighbors cannot prevent your doing so. Your insurance company should handle all the interface between you and your neighbors. That’s what you pay those big premiums for. (BTW, those premiums are about to go up. Be sure to offer to pay the difference to your parents.)</p>
<p>Your parents may seem furious, but they are probably secretly relieved that you and everyone else are unharmed. Have you ever noticed that when something BIG happens parents are quiet, but they rant and rave about small things? It’s just the nature of parents. Yelling is a way of saying, “You did something very dumb, but we’re delighted you are safe.” Your parents will calm down in a few days.</p>
<p>first time I tried to park in a parking spot (not even parallel, mind you) I jumped the curve and came three feet from hitting a large building. I got the accelerator and break mixed up. It happened three more times before I got it right. We learned that my mom (cangel) should not ride in the car with me while I am learning to drive. Haven’t had any wrecks since then (knock on wood several times). But seriously, it happens to all teenagers.</p>
<p>Elizabeth…I think I would be equally irritated…except I have done the SAME THING twice in my own driveway. Once I hit my husband’s car broadside (what was it doing behind the garage anyway???), and the other time I hit my son’s car (what was IT doing there?). I told the story to a friend who hit a UPS truck in her driveway. It was an accident…and unfortunately they happen. Your parents are concerned about your safety (my husband and my son were just plain furious). Fortunately the only things that got hurt were some cars and some feelings. Those things can be mended…thank goodness.</p>
<p>hi Elizabeth, my s skidded my car into a snow bank and smashed the fender in a few weeks ago, this after considerable boasting about how well he could drive in snow 
What annoyed me the most was that instead of apologizing he sort of brushed the incident off as just a bad day behind the wheel. So show ample contrition – it will work wonders.</p>
<p>Elizabeth - I did the same thing…backed out of townhouse garage into the alley - and into a car (WHAT was it doing there???) - I was so upset that I put the car in gear (instead of park) - got out to look at the damage - and the car rolled forward, hit the end of the garage and knocked through the wall, pushing all the cabinets about 2 feet into my kitchen! My car - barely scratched…neighbor was nice…kitchen got fixed…all was good…I DID get teased alot!</p>
<p>Wild Child taught himself how to drive by sneaking out at night with our cars before he even had a learner’s permit. He learned how to drive a stick shift by trial and error (in the middle of the night) but managed to total his sister’s car in the process while she was away at boarding school. He misjudged a left turn and got hit by a car which had the right of way. A short time later, after he actually had a provisional license, he rolled H’s Explorer on the way to go mountain biking. He was on a gravel road, going too fast, skidded and over-corrected. He and his friend-girl should have been killed since the car was flattened, but they were fine. He didn’t touch a vehicle for over a year. You can not even imagine what our insurance costs!</p>
<p>Of course your parents are upset. What a pain in the neck! But I am sure that they are relieved as well that no one is hurt, and it won’t go on the insurance record. My son came home from college and bought his first car this year. Because he was still at home for a couple of months, or so he said, he asked to be continued on our insurance which he would switch over when he went to his job with 3 months. Well, he totalled the car. And the cop car he hit too. We are being sued for $1million dollars. But, when he was taken for an exam in the hospital, the ER doctor did not like the description of pain S gave that he had been suffering intermittantly for the last year. He had checked it out with the student health clinic at college, but never mentioned it to us. Being a highlevel athlete, he has learned to cope with pain. And it was intermittant. Well, he nearly lost his kidney which was swollen from a pinched or clogged tube. Into surgery he went. So the accident was in some ways, a blessing. Not that H still doesn’t cuss him out when we get word about the issue. Accidents are bad things, and we are not supposed to be happy or lackadaisical about them. Nor should we let an accident where all walk away undamaged be something that drives us nuts.</p>
<p>Parents live in fear of their kids getting in car accidents. I know I’d be screaming too, but it’s not really about the monetary damage. It’s about the instant extrapolation that you are not a careful driver and the fear of a much more serious accident. Learn from it and be more careful. Driving is a huge responsibility.</p>
<p>Hugs to you Elizabeth. I’m sure your mom was just freaking out and didn’t mean what she said. Moms (and dads) can do that when angry/frustrated/scared!!</p>
<p>Mom of WildChild…our oldest son did something similar. We didn’t let him get his permit or take driver’s ed until he brought his grades up. So, unbeknownst to us, he drives a (girl) friend’s car–actually her parents’ of course–and drives it into a tree right in our subdivision. Nice.
:mad:</p>
<p>We made him pay for the damage as we certainly were not going to report it to our insurance! He got a job and paid the whole thing off in about 8 months. It wasn’t a Volvo, but still. At least no one was hurt!!</p>
<p>And it is a great thing that you weren’t hurt either!!</p>
<p>Elizabeth, I second everything the other parents have said. It’s the kind of thing I would probably yell at my kids for, but I also know in the scheme of things it’s not so awful and I’d regret scolding as soon as I collected my thoughts. It sounds as though you and your neighbors are handling it very well. I’m quite sure that having had this experience, it will be years if ever before you have a problem backing out of a driveway again; it will probably also condition you not to park opposite other people’s driveways in case they have a similar lapse of vision. </p>
<p>I hope things are better already.</p>
<p>And the cop car he hit too.</p>
<p>LOL oh that just sucks…</p>
<p>Oh, I could tell some stories about friends and their accidents.
I pride myself on being a good driver, even though I’ve inherited my mom and grandma’s lead foot, and have never gotten into an accident. That’s certainly not to say that I haven’t done anything stupid before (i.e. after a bad day at school, I drove off with the gas nozzle still in the tank hahahaha god, that was embarassing - no damage to the car though) - it just has never resulted in an accident.
That lead foot has resulted in multiple tickets however. Within two years of getting my license, I got three tickets hehe. Fortunately, I haven’t had any in the past two years. I’m also fortunate that my mom is awesome - she wasn’t even mad when I brought those pink slips home. She mostly just laughed at me for getting caught. </p>
<p>But I agree with what has been said - teenagers will get into fender-benders and such. The best thing is for parents to be understanding and for the teens to be contrite and to learn from the mistake. Personally, I think we should have much better driver training than we actually do in this country. I’m thinking we should have something along the line of Germany’s system. There’s a reason getting a license is a big financial and training investment over there, but their drivers are much better for it - the accident rate on the autobahn (along which there are many places with no speed limit) is a fraction of US freeways.</p>
<p>Elizabeth - My senior in H.S. D is usually a careful driver for a teenager, but she accidentally bumped the car in front of her while stopped at a light on a downhill on the way to school at 7 am. There was damage to the other car, but it was very slight. Imagine her horror when the driver of the other car got out and it was her math teacher, who is known for his lack of humor. By the end of the day, the whole school knew about it, and he announced her to the class as, “The girl who tried to kill me this morning!” To make it worse, the news reached her older brother, who is far away at college, within a day via the IM network, in a much exaggerated version, even though I had decided not to tell him because she was upset enough without being bothered by her brother about it. I hope your parents calm down - I was pretty aggravated at my D, but I didn’t have the heart to yell because she was upset enough already.</p>
<p>A neighborhood hs kid hit our parked car and did about $6000 damage. His insurance would only pay $5000 so we were stuck for the difference unless we wanted to drag the whole mess into court. We took the cash but I’m still pretty unhappy that we came out less than whole and the other party never even apologized. Be nice and fix their car right.</p>