Is it an accident?

Is it an accident if you don't hit anything? I have a bad habit - I crash cars. Since my first accident at 17 when I backed into a parked SUV, things haven't gone well. So a friend of mine joked with me once saying that I should keep a running total of how many days I go without an accident. She suggested I have a party or some kind of reward at certain days - 100, 200, 300, etc. That sounded like a fantastic idea to me, so I began. I was going strong at 465 - probably the longest I'd EVER gone when the rains came last week. Rain is great when you're sitting inside reading a book. Rain is not so great when you're driving on the freeway, especially in Michigan where they haven't quite figured out how to keep roads from flooding. So, here I am, zipping along on my way to Detroit for a church service project, when I round a corner and see that my entire lane is under water. Deep, deep water. I have another car next to me so I can't swerve over, so I grip the steering wheel and brace, as I feel my car lift off the road and begin to spin. That's when everything started to go in slow motion and I sat there in my rotating car thinking, "Should I brake? Would that make it better or worse? Maybe I'll just brake slowly." So I slowly depressed the pedal and prepared for the sound and feel of my car slamming into the center concrete barrier - a sound I know all too well. To my great astonishment however, I came to a stop without the familiar crunch of my side panel. Once I realized that my engine was also still running, I decided to try to drive out. I was facing traffic now, so I waited for an opening (not hard to find at 8am on a Saturday) and I slowly pulled out. As I did I noticed other cars who hadn't been so lucky. There were several bumpers, lights, etc floating in the water and one car in particular, about 100 meters ahead of me, getting loaded on a tow truck. I counted my blessings and started driving on to Detroit. That's when I noticed a peculiar sound. At first I thought I'd flooded my engine after all and it was just taking its time dying. But then I saw something strange out of the corner of my eye. I realized that odd noise I was hearing was a part of my car dragging along the road beside me. I quickly pulled over again and got out to inspect. I discovered that somehow (the force of the water??) the long metal bar that runs along the two driver side doors had come apart from the bumpers and was hanging by one lonely screw from the front end. My back bumper was popped up as well. I was on the phone calling Kelly when the tow truck driver I'd seen earlier drove over and offered his services. He already had a car on his truck, though, so I wasn't sure what he could do for me. He got out and looked at my car. "Oh - this is nothing. You want me to fix this? Push here," he said, indicating a spot on my bumper. I pushed and he banged and presto - the bumper was back in place. "If you give me a screwdriver I can take that bar off and you can drive home and have it put back on later." So I found a screwdriver in the trunk and within a few seconds I had a long metal rod in my back seat. "I'm a body shop on wheels!" he declared and drove off. So I didn't call Kelly, but got back into my car and drove to the service project, to the great surprise of all those from the church who aren't in the habit of having regular car accidents and aren't as immune to its acute psychological effects.


(This was my last accident - 465 days ago. I neglected to take a picture of the most recent one.)

So, the question in all of this is - does this count as an "accident?" Is my accident-free record over? Because that was the first thing that went through my head as I started driving again - ugh! there goes my count at only 465 days! However, as I've told a few people about it they've said, "What? that's not an accident! You didn't hit anything!" Yes, but my car was still damaged and doing a 180 on the freeway is not a minor thing. So, I'm not really sure. It sure would be nice to be able to reach the 500 day mark! :) I guess it's up for debate.