The Cost of Getting Hit By a Car

Those of you who follow my Twitter and Tumblr already know that I got hit by a car on Saturday.

(You also already know that I’m fine, so we’ll just get that out of the way.)

I was walking through a crosswalk in Capitol Hill, and the car hit me in the middle of the crosswalk as it came to a full stop. I was surprised more than anything else, because I saw that the car was slowing down as it approached the crosswalk, which is an everyday sort of thing, and then it drove into the crosswalk and hit me, which is not at all an everyday thing.

Because I was surprised, and because I knew as soon as I picked myself up off the ground that I was not seriously hurt, I didn’t think to get the driver’s insurance, license plates, or contact information. To be fair, the driver didn’t offer it. She got out of the car, asked me if I was okay, I said I was, I started to walk away, some bystanders shouted “get her insurance!” and I turned around and she was driving off.

This meant that later, when I went to the clinic to confirm I was, in fact, okay, I paid the $90 against my deductible myself.

Should the driver have paid the $90? (Or, more specifically, should the doctor’s visit have been billed to the driver’s car insurance?) Probably. But I’m counting myself really lucky here. The doctor said the same thing: you are really lucky.

So in another scenario, when I would have had the presence of mind to say “hey, I might have some medical bills down the line, how about I get your insurance information so you can pay for that on my behalf,” I might have saved $90. But I’m still rocking the “you are really lucky” thing, so I’m not fretting over the cost.

Here are a few additional expenses that the driver wouldn’t have paid for:

$10.71, for pho (after the doctor’s visit, I decided I needed to feed my slightly-sore muscles rare beef, like that was important to the healing process)

$3.27, to watch Bachelorette on Amazon (I figured I should spend the rest of the weekend resting and watching movies all day)

$3.27, to watch Mean Girls on Amazon (yes, apparently I was craving comedies about dysfunctional female friendships and hierarchical bullying)

All in all: incredibly lucky.

And if you ever get hit by a car, get the insurance. Even if you think you’re going to be fine.

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