I was in my 1st car accident tonight; traumatized

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My husband was driving me home from the animal shelter in his 2015 Subaru Impreza when we were rearended by another car. This is my husband's second accident, but this is the first one I ever experienced firsthand. As a result, I had a major panic attack, sobbing uncontrollably and feeling paranoid about other cars hitting us. The panic attack got worse when I got outside our car for my safety; I was crying about the accident, how cold my hands were, my migraine getting worse because of the accident (I took Ibuprofen before I left the shelter), and wanting to go home. I also complained about how the police and my in-laws were taking too long to get to the accident (they eventually took me home). Although the damage done wasn't as bad as my husband's last accident(meaning it's still driveable, but will need repair), it sure feels like it because of the impact I seem to have felt.

This is exactly why I don't want to learn to drive; no matter how carefully I may drive, I am scared I would be involved in an accident with a**hole drunks, sh*thead drug addicts, dumba** cellphone users, and just plain idiots who run stop lights and stop signs, as well as go way over the speed limit. If those drivers are removed from the streets, that would be awesome!

Yup. Everything right there, just... yup.

As I told my wife (OP's husband here btw), this isn't my first rodeo with this kind of thing, but it is the first one I drove away from. The gist of it is that it was stop and go traffic, and the driver behind stopped, went, and didn't stop again. Seemed young too. Kind of feel bad for her, when I saw her she seemed like a teenager still new at driving. I mean, good news is the speed was in the single digits and the car's very much fixable, plus I got both front and rear dash cam footage of it if insurance tries to fight me again (although not sure why they would, considering I never touched the guy in front of me).

In some sense, I'm glad you were there with me when it happened sweetie. I know it was very traumatic for you, and for that I am NOT glad, but I am at least happy that your first accident was a very minor one. If it ever happens again (and I hope and pray that it won't... two is exactly two more than I need...), you'll at least be more comfortable with the process. That's part of why I was so strong for you tonight, because I didn't have to have all those "what if" questions. They were answered last time, so I focused on you.

One thing is for certain though: once something like this happens, it might be a while, but trust me when I say it does get easier with time.

That really cheered me up, especially the first sentence. I love you.

Love you too!

I hate driving too.

Cycling is much more fun for me.

At least the accident is not your fault--automatically--since you were rear-ended. You won't get an insurance hike.

I'm glad you both are okay.

I'm glad you two are alright. I've been in three low speed crashes before, but the last one I was a passenger and since then whenever I ride as a passenger I get anxious, so I can relate to the anxiety you are feeling OP. That is pretty smart to have both front and rear dash cams. I think when I get my next car and start driving again, I'll do the same and get dual dash cams.

Sorry to hear that you guys were in an accident. And glad no one is hurt. The impact of a collision is really shocking. Makes you realize how vulnerable we are against these huge machines.
I look forward to driverless cars. They will take the element of human fallibility out of transportation.

I'd be scared of driverless cars. There's human error--but there's human correction, too.

If a driverless car veers of the road, there's no human that could get it back on the road.

I'm scared out of my wits even when I'm on Cruise Control LOL.

Shep: why would the insurance company fight you? This is an open-and-shut case. You were rear-ended.

Sorry that happened, that must have been scary. I'm glad you're okay.

This may come across as bitter, if it does, my apologies. The intent is friendly conversation, albiet long for the question asked.

The first accident I had, USAA tried to get me to admit blame for both hitting the car in front of me, and in an even more douchey move, for being hit at all. I didn't have any dash cam footage to back me up when I repeatedly said she was going at least 55 MPH and no brake lights were to be seen. If I had, there may be a reckless endangerment case against the driver behind me considering how long she had to stop -- in a 45 MPH speed limit zone, personally tested, there's a full 3.5 second gap from my position being first visible to impact, at a steady rate of 60 MPH. She said she was going 35 MPH, which would make it a roughly 6-second gap. I don't care how they try to spin it, that's distracted driving bare minimum, and she was cited for a 1-point "following too closely" violation.

This time around, considering there are no witnesses that stayed around, I'm quite happy to have my dash cam be the reliable stand-in. Never know what the other party would say to get out of it, but working at an insurance company myself (well, not anymore as of earlier this month -- IT department got split into our own company, but we're still next door), I've really heard a wide variety of crap people pull.

USAA is good to their own members from everything I've heard, but they can and DO screw you over if you're not with them and you let them take advantage of you. I have lots of issues with how they handled that claim, and have sworn to always recommend against them as a result.

Were you in the military?

If the dash cam shows the accident, there's no doubt that you won't be found at fault.