The Story:
Last weekend when I was home in Berkeley (which is my home now, as much as I have one) I got rearended on the freeway in Ani's car that I am borrowing for the summer. Ugh. And of course the person who rearended me pushed the Subaru into the car in front of me, and that into the car in front of him. Fuck fuck fuck.
All of this would be fine although inconvenient, except for the fact that while I had copies of the registration and insurance I am not actually one of the policy holders and am not authorized to make decisions regarding the vehicle's repair. Which would be fine and I would just deal with it and actually had, prior to learning I was not authorized to take action about any of this, already called Subaru of Albany, California, to arrange to have both the mechanical repairs and also the bodywork done. Which would be fine because normally all that would need to happen is the person in whose name the policy is written, in this case Ani, would simply speak with the insurance company and give her permission for me to take action on her behalf to repair the car except for the fact that Ani is now in Tanzania and does not have access to a telephone and as a result cannot speak directly with the person handling the claim. Which would be fine because in the last (not so gracious) email Ani sent me from the airport in Addis Abbaba, Ethiopia, she did not ask me if I was hurt in the accident (no I was not) but did ask me if I could give the claims agent her email address so they could communicate that way. Which would be fine except for the fact that the claims agent left a message on my voicemail saying that she has not heard from Ani and so there is nothing I can do with the car as of now. Which would be fine except that part of our arrangement was that I would take the Subaru that we have been sharing since January to camp for the first part of the summer and then bring it back in time for her return to the Western Hemisphere on July 28th because she wants to drive it to her grandma's house in Santa Barbara and her parents' house in Seattle.
The Lesson:
If she does not get in touch with the insurance people and I am not able to be authorized to deal with the claim and it is not only in Berkeley instead of San Francisco but also is in need of repairs, all because she was unreachable in Tanzania, there is really nothing more I can do to be responsible for this (which, as she wrote in her not very gracious email, she is glad to hear that I am willing to be). So that I guess is the best I can do.
yes. and amen. and she has until the second thursday in august to move it before street sweeping...
Posted by: alef | July 21, 2007 at 05:22 PM