It doesn’t rain it pours!!

I’m not sure if I have mentioned it or not but our little runabout car (my lovely little first real car) needs a new engine. She is old; been a favourable ol' darl for all these years (she was born in late 1992). Anyway, her lovely new engine is costing a little packet, which is something we hadn’t banked on – especially after the expense we paid for the other car just a week earlier.

So, we have been without the little runabout for around 3 weeks. We have loaned a car here and there from the relies and for the most part have been travelling along as best we can.

As you can probably tell, we haven’t had the best run of luck with our cars of late and that tradition continued today when...

A DAMN COUNCIL BUS RAN INTO MY PARKED CAR!!!

Yes, you read right! My car was parked in a commuter car park at the local busway station, absolutely no where near any bus access. In fact, the only access to the carpark was vehicle access which at the best of times is a tight squeeze for your average vechile. So, when Trevor rang me at lunch time today to say the police had rang him and my car had been taken out by a bus, I laughed. I laughed out loud at the impossibility of such an occurrence. It was so far out I thought we had been taken for a ride by some prankster. I absolutely would not believe it until I had spoken to the police myself and/or seen the damage to my car.

After many phone calls, it was indeed confirmed that my poor car had been taken out by a bus – in the middle of a busy commuter carpark 500 metres away (on a different side of the road) from bus access. Our car was towed from the scene along with another couple of cars. It seems the poor (and I say ‘poor’ in the most endearing kind of way NOT) lady bus driver, who for some reason or another decided to take a detour through the commuter carpark. Being the carpark it is, well...err...umm it is meant for cars not buses. It seems my little lady friend the bus driver (who had only been on the job for 5 days), could not manoeuvrer her big old Council bus out of the carpark without taking a few extra cars along for the ride. It’s unfortunate that one of those cars happened to be mine.

The car was towed from the scene when it was determined it was un-driveable. Trevor was able to (after much running around) access the car and retrieve the all important items such as the car seats, stroller and the like. The cosmetic damage isn’t too bad. From what we can tell it has more to do with a problem with the wheels. Apparently the car that took the brunt of the bus came off second best.

I’m grateful there doesn’t appear to be a lot of damage. Never the less though, we are without a car for the foreseeable future which is a complete and utter nightmare. This is especially so when we are one car short already. I have spoken to the insurance companies involved, both mine and the Council, and it seems we are able to get a hire car at our expense and if all goes well, it will be reimbursed once this matter is concluded. I can’t say I’m happy about this at all! It sucks we have to shed a cent; really it does. I am also annoyed that the insurance company will only cover the base cost of hiring the vehicle and not the insurance options to reduce the excess – I can tell you now, I will be buggered if I am driving a hire car around with a $2000 excess – no sir re!

Anyway, I suppose, what is done is done – there isn’t much we can do about things now. I have to wonder though, whether this so called bus driver got her licence out of a weetbix box!