When I was 17 my family moved from suburbia in Littleton, Colorado out to the mountains of Idaho 20 minutes away from a tiny (population 600!) town called Kooskia. It was at least a large adjustment and more like culture shock, but I loved it. We lived in a large log cabin surrounded by 105 acres of forest, rivers, and rolling hills. So naturally we invited some of our friends from Colorado to come visit. Unfortunately it seems that just about everyone that came to visit got in some sort of accident. You see, the last few miles of road between Kooskia and our house were gravel. There were lots of windy bends and tight corners, with obstacles ranging from large pot holes and washboard roads to white tail deer and porcupines! Take note that gravel does not grip your tires as you round a tight corner at high speed. Rather, it is more like a sheet of ice. It slips and slides and gives at slightest hint of centripetal force. To make matters worse, some of the more benign looking corners actually sloped away from the turn making it much easier to fishtail and loose control.

Most teenagers feel that they are very skilled drivers and can handle the rigors of backwoods roads. When Rachael and Lisa came to visit they were no different. They drove the roads like any suburbanite would... as though they were driving on pavement. Well as you might have guessed, on their last day of the visit, as they were headed home, Rachael spun out in her Buick Skylark. She lost control going around one of those tight washboard bends. She fishtailed to one side and then the other overcorrecting each time. Her back end came all the way around, and she slid sideways off the road facing back the way she came, and jammed the back passenger quarter into a rock. The back tire took the brunt of the force and had gone flat because the seal broke between the tire and the rim. Shaken up but not hurt, they waved down a passing truck and we called the wrecker to pull them out of the ditch.

So here is the good news. Rachel had some good quality cheap insurance! The tire bead reseated and re-inflated without any problem, and the big dent in the rear corner was only cosmetic. The door and trunk still opened and closed nicely. Insurance paid out for the repairs and the wrecker service, but Rachael chose not to repair the car. Instead she took the cash and paid off her loan! Basically she traded a car with a loan payment and no dents for a scary experience, and a free and clear car with a dent! The moral of the story is drive safe, know your limitations, and have good quality auto insurance.




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