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You might be progressing through your life and feel that everything’s fine. If you make a single driving mistake, though, everything can change. Perhaps you make an unsafe turn, or you speed up to try and get through a yellow light. The next thing you know, you’ve totaled your car.
If something like this happens, you’ll need to adjust. We’ll take a few moments to talk about what those adjustments might entail and how you may feel about them.
You May No Longer Have a Car to Drive
Whether you’re in a two-car or a multiple-car accident, once the smoke has cleared, you might find you’ve totaled your vehicle. You might be pretty upset about that. Some people think about their cars as just a conveyance form, but others love their vehicles and spend a ton of time fixing them up and tricking them out.
Regardless of how you felt about your car, if you totaled it, that means no mechanic can save it. Maybe you damaged the frame. Once that happens, the vehicle will go to the scrap yard.
You may not have the money to replace the car. If you don’t, you’ll need to figure out other ways to get around.
You’ll Be Public Transportation-Reliant
If you can’t somehow scrape together the money for a new car or even a used one, you’ll probably need to take public transportation most places. If you have a job where you work outside the home, you’ll need to look into bus or train schedules.
If you live in a larger city, you’ll have many more public transportation options. In some cities, like New York or Chicago, you can get along reasonably well without a car.
However, if you reside out in the boonies somewhere, it’s going to be more challenging for you to get around. You might need to get a job where you work from home.
If that’s not an option, maybe you can get a bank or credit union loan. Some institutions will lend you money for a vehicle down payment if you can show them a steady work record and your credit isn’t too bad.
You Might Have to Get Rides from Friends and Family
You may also try to use your friends and family to get around. You might have to ask them for rides frequently, or you could try to borrow their vehicles.
This might work okay for a while, or it could be disastrous. If you ask a relative or friend for a ride almost every day, or you beg to borrow their car, they’re going to tire of it pretty quickly.
You do not want to become a nuisance, so you’ll need to look into other options. Maybe you can figure out how to get the money for a used car down payment, or perhaps you’ll need to stick with public transportation for at least a little while.
You Might Have to Tighten Your Belt
If you no longer have a car, that could mean you can’t get to work as easily. If you can’t work as much, you won’t have the cash flow you did before the accident.
If you don’t have as much cash, you won’t be able to enjoy as many leisure activities. You might have to cancel your streaming services if you have any. You might not be able to eat out as much.
You can shop at thrift stores or keep the clothes you have until you have more money coming in again. You can also buy food from Costco in bulk, or maybe Sam’s Club or whatever else is nearby. You can also purchase off-brand food and save a little money that way when you go grocery shopping.
If you planned on purchasing something like a new video game system, you’ll need to put that off. You also won’t be able to take a vacation this year until your monetary situation stabilizes again.
You Might Face Crippling Depression
You also might not feel the same way after the accident as you did before it. You might be a happy person normally, but after a severe car crash, you might feel like you’re suffering some sort of karmic retribution.
You might need to see a therapist so you can work through what happened to you. You may even need to go on antidepressants until you begin to feel like your old self again.
Whether what happened was entirely your fault or not, few people can shake off a traumatic car wreck and keep going as though nothing happened. One thing you should understand, though, is that most people do recover. It sometimes can take months or even years, but eventually, you should start feeling better.
You Might Need to Go to Rehab
Maybe you were under alcohol’s influence when the car wreck happened. Perhaps you ingested drugs and then drove.
If the police can prove that’s what happened by giving you a breathalyzer or through other means, you might end up in jail. Even if you can plead down the charges, you’ll at least have to attend AA meetings or do some community service.
Honestly, that’s probably not the worst thing that could happen. You might not feel like you have a problem, but the reality is that you decided to ingest substances, and then you got behind the wheel. That was a bad thing to do, and you need to face some consequences for that.
Hopefully, you didn’t injure or kill anyone because of what you did. If you harmed someone, it’s going to be tough for any lawyer to keep you out of prison.
Who was responsible will count for much of what happens to you after a car wreck. If it was entirely the other driver’s fault, you should be in much better shape.
If you caused the wreck, the best thing you can do is learn from it to make sure nothing like that ever occurs again.
