Well it was a crappy Monday…A crappy Monday to beat all crappy Mondays!
Brian had his first Monday off in months. He had planned to go to work and put on the new tires he’d ordered for his truck. While his existing tires weren’t bald, the tread had worn down and he was driving on the full size spare since the Summer. Basically these tires had 50K miles on them and were due for some new ones.
Since he was headed in that direction, I had him take David to school so I could sneak in a few extra ZZZZZZ’s. Only once they left I couldn’t fall back to sleep so I headed into the bathroom to start my morning routine.
I’d been in the bathroom a while when I heard Brian’s voice…”Pammy, get out here we need to talk”. OK, not sure about you, but when my husband says, “we have to talk”, I get nervous…like he does when I say it. From inside the bathroom I said “What?”. “Come out here!”, he says. I go out where he proceeds to tell me he rolled his truck down what I now know is a 30 foot snow covered embankment.
OK, when Brian is home on a day off, he loves to needle me a bit…so I responded with “Bullshit, how’d you get home!” as I start walking out to the front windows…guess what, no truck outside…then I look at his face! Ashen is a good word, he looked like he’d seen a ghost and he was shaking.
“OH MY GOD, are you OK?” He said he was, but I think he was in shock. I called the Sheriff, Sara, to report it and he told me the story.
Brian was taking David to school. At the 4-way stop where the highways cross, he had a hard time getting the truck started moving forward after the stop. His truck is rear-wheel drive and there was nothing in the back of the truck to help the rear wheels make contact with the road. He proceeded around the corner to drop David off at school then went around the block and back to that 4-way stop only this time he was going to turn left and head to where he works.
Once again he had a hard time getting the truck moving from the stop. As he crept toward New Leipzig, he traveled Hwy 21 where it goes down following the lay of the land then back up the other side. He was creeping up the hill when he started to drift to the right and once that front passenger tire clipped the road…the back end slid out from under him and he rolled down the embankment resting on the hood just before the river.
Poor guy, thankfully he was belted in…he just white-knuckled the steering wheel and rode through it. The driver and passenger windows popped out during the roll. Brian managed to get unbelted and climb out of the window and then had to climb up the snowy embankment. Once he got to the top several cars were stopping, one man, the bank manager, got Bri in his car and brought him home.
You would think the story would end here…but it doesn’t…it gets worse! Brian is fine, thankfully! Just a few bruises and some stiffness where the seatbelt was. The sheriff had the truck pulled out and dropped off behind the house here. We called AAA, our insurance carrier…a company that has always been there for us. My parents only ever had AAA insurance. While filing our claim we find out our policy had LAPSED!
Unbeknowst to me or Brian, we were uninsured and had been since 9/10! Here it was a month after the fact and no insurance. How did this happen???
AAA says that they sent us a letter back on 8/10 saying that they were not going to continue covering us after the current policy ended on 9/10. The reason: because I didn’t have a ND driver’s license.
Now, back in August, life was frustrating cuz I was anxious to get out of the rental! Because there was so little to do, I’m SURE I would have remembered getting a letter from AAA stating this…and knowing how I am I would have jumped all over it. I don’t recall this letter…can’t find it in ANY of my AAA paperwork…NOTHING! Regardless of any of that, they say they sent it…and that’s it! End of discussion, we are hosed!
Here is the Silver Lining…and trust me, I had to work to find the Silver Lining…but there is one and it is this: Thank GOD that the accident occured with the vehicle that was paid off, and that no other vehicle/person/property was involved, and that it alerted us to the fact that we were currently uninsured…something that was rectified before anyone got into a car. The alternative(s) are just to scary to consider.
So things happen for a reason…we don’t always know the reason at the time…we do in this case, and it was a doozy!
Needless to say, we are in need of a vehicle, preferably a 4 wheel drive…if you know of any, let me know.
Filed under: North Dakota, Observations
