"I popped my tire."

Let's set the scene. It's late in the afternoon of New Year's Day. Old family friends come over to visit, and my brother offered to take the son for a ride in his fairly new Mustang. I was given a ride in about a week before that, it's pretty fun! :D

About ten minutes later... *ring, ring*

Dad picks up the phone and hears, "Everybody is OK." (Yikes! Just what every parent wants to hear.) "I popped my tire. I hit a curb. I'm at the bottom of the hill."

So my dad and the visiting dad drive down to check up on their sons. They come back in a short bit, laughing and shaking their heads. Dad asks me for my camera, and I offer to go down the hill instead. My sister and the two visiting sisters joined us. We all wanted to see what Ben's popped tire looks like. I wasn't understanding why they couldn't just change the tire and go on their merry way?


Perhaps it's because Ben understated things a little when he said "popped my tire." :P

Yeah, popped tire, bent the axle, tore up the side of his car. Not exactly the simple tire change I was envisioning!


He also blocked the road and police were needed to keep the traffic away from the accident.

Ben's right, everybody was ok. No other cars, people or things were damaged, just his car.


From what I was able to pick up, Ben was doing a 180 turn around (a half-donut, actually), going about 10 mph (hence why no air bags went off). He swerved a bit to avoid something in the road (sounded like debris) and overdid it and smacked into the curb. And absolutely no alcohol was involved.


You should have seen how hard the police officers were laughing with my camera in my hands! Then just for fun, they wanted me to take pictures of putting Ben into handcuffs.

I think their grinning faces kinda gives it away.


The officers were very nice though, and Ben didn't even get ticketed.

I was a little surprised though, I was sure they'd be frayed out after a day of chasing down people who've partied too hard. Perhaps they were just relieved to see it was mainly a case of testosterone overload in a 20 year old guy. ;)


The car got towed to my parents house (just 1.5 miles from the accident). Last I heard, Ben was calling the insurance on the 2nd - the day my husband and I left.

Ben guessed it'd be about $4,000-6,000 in repairs. It's all his responsibility too. He bought the car (half of the cash up front), he's paying the insurance and gas.


Both of my parents took the whole accident very calmly. Mostly laughing and some eye rolling. As far as accidents go, this is definitely one of the better ones to have. Perhaps it'll make Ben drive a little more carefully... perhaps not. :P

Leah