It happened in a flash, unexpected. I was driving alone my IS 300 on the highway in Toronto, stop-and-go traffic, plenty of space all around me, when a dusty old Buick slammed into me from behind.
First the shock, followed by a surprising quietness and a head full of racing thoughts. I angled towards the shoulder, eyes locked on the other driver, making sure to write the license plate number on my windshield with my finger.
Thanks to my Lexus dashcam, I have footage of the accident:
At first glance, the damage doesn’t look serious. I had been coasting with the flow of traffic, and that movement reduced the impact to a visible imprint on my back bumper.
I call the police, but was informed that no officer will be dispatched to an accident with no injury. Thankfully, this isn’t the case — we are both fine. Instead, we have to drive to a Collision Reporting Center to make a statement and have the damage photographed and assessed.
There’s little drama as we exchange information. I do my best to photograph the cars, and before I know it, it’s back out onto the highway with a CRC programmed into my GPS.
In my twenty years of driving, I have never been in an accident. I didn’t know about the rush of emotion that occurs a half-hour later, didn’t know about looped “what-if” scenarios that would play out in my head, or the post-traumatic stress every time a car pulls up behind me. The experience has been entirely new and wholly unpleasant.
Even so, I’m thankful it was minor in every regard, and that my biggest worry was the paint shop matching Atomic Silver just right. That is, until I went to the dealership…
This IS 300 AWD was made possible by the folks at OpenRoad Lexus Richmond, the premier Lexus dealership in British Columbia and a proud sponsor of Lexus Enthusiast.
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