And the 5th car was...

This is how it happened......

My cousin and best friend Amaya & I were on our way to catch a movie with "The Bunch". One of my favorite families, consisting of Val, Daniel and their kids Danny, Hannah, Hayley, & Mia. AKA my CA nieces and nephew. Yes I have bi-coastal nieces and nephews. My CA ones don't get as much blog attention as my NYC ones, but they're loved just the same, promise!

Being an out of towner I rented a car. This time I landed a 2008 Nissan Xterra.
Bright yellow Bumble Bee look aside, it's way cuter and more fun to drive than the Dodge Magnum Pimp-Mobile I had last time.

I followed Amaya, who was driving her very cute '98 Honda Civic.
On I-880 about 10 minutes from our destination, a very big truck (Ford we think) in front of Amaya slamson its breaks and stops. On the freeway, in the fastlane. Amaya, in turn, slams on hers, and I slam on mine. I see the truck and Amaya come to a halt in seconds ahead of me, while I am trying my darndest to follow suit.

In 5 seconds I had a million thoughts going through my head along with a million things in front of my eyes. I could see Amaya staring back at me through her review mirror, bracing herself for the inevitable, as I was praying for the opposite. I was horrified that I'd crush her small car between these two big trucks and, just short of stopping completely, I hit her. I didn't manage to just hit her though, I managed to shove the right side of her car under the truck that she had just narrowly tapped.

We all sat there for a good 30 seconds without moving. Waiting for more cars to hit us and watching them swerve and dodge successfully to avoid it. Simultaneously we emerged from our cars to see why the hell we had all gone from 70mph to a dead stop and there it was: a SOFA in the middle of the fast lane and 2 big trucks parked in the lane moving the furniture. A sofa and 5 cars lined up behind it. As if that wasn't eye popping enough, the man with the truck in front of Amaya had his adorable dog in the back AND his 7 months pregnant wife. We quickly made sure everyone was ok, CHP was called immediately, and we pulled off at the nearest exit to exchange info. All of us EXCEPT the Sofa people, who pulled onto the freeway and never looked back. They did put the sofa's next to the center divide though. Thanks.

The back of the truck was fine, and my car was fine too aside from the fact that my front license plate broke off the bumper and slid 3 cars up the highway where Truck Man retrieved it. Amaya's car was all kinds of scratched and mangled, but she wasn't which is all I cared about.

As we exchanged information with the extremely nice Truck man and his wife, we amused them with the fact that Amaya and I were cousins. After addresses/insurance info was exchanged it was amusing to everyone to discover the man and his wife are Amaya's neighbors and have a vacation home in her condo complex! The Officers who responded to the scene were equally flabbergasted and also very, very nice.

We got really lucky. Lucky that we were all paying attention and re-acted instantly. Lucky nobody was glancing down or messing around or going faster or following closer. Lucky that we all have full coverage, lucky nobody was hurt, lucky we were all mature, kind adults who knew how to handle the situation in the safest manner possible and move on with our lives a little more thankful than we already were.

The best part, if there's a best part, is that I got to share my very first car accident with my cousin, and she with me. In separate cars. With pictures. What an adventure!

Damage Done to Amaya's Car
Ouch.

She was sad it got a Boo-Boo
I was happy I had Full Coverage!

Don't worry we still love each other VERY much!