AHS Students Face the Problem of Fender Benders

Imagine pulling into a parking spot in the AHS parking lot as you hear the dreaded sound of two pieces of metal striking one another. You gently push the door open, hoping and praying the damage wasn’t as bad as it sounded. A dent is visible on the car next to you, and you panic and in fear you walk into school. 

Not all fender benders occur in parking lots, such as freshman Grant Sturm’s incident. Sturm was at a stop sign leaving the AHS parking lot when he was struck by a truck. “I didn’t report it because there wasn’t much damage,” Sturm said. Like many high school kids, Sturm didn’t know what to do in this situation.  

According to Megan Roberts from State Farm in Atlantic, Iowa, it is always best to have a police report of the accident on file. It will help the insurance company decide who’s responsible for paying for the accident. Even though it may be scary to confess to a fender bender in the AHS parking lot, there is no punishment unless it was a reckless driving case, vice principal, Matt Alexander said.  The school is not responsible for reporting the accident, but they will encourage you to report it to the police.

 

“Now I’m scared to park and I just park where no one else parks,” Junior Cambry Miller said following her fender bender in the school parking lot. Miller was pulling into a parking spot and hit the bumper of the truck next to her. Miller’s mom came to check out the dent and they decided not to report it to the police.

Depending on who caused the fender bender will determine who’s insurance rates may go up. The make and model also play a big role in how much money will be coming out of your pocket. In junior Taylor Hansen’s fender bender she had a dent and a few scratches on her car. It also loosened the rear panel on her car. “The incident wasn’t too horrible,” Hansen said. The average cost of a fender bender is around $2,995 to $7,444, according to Esurance.com. Although fender benders are a pain for everyone, the more expensive the car is that is being hit, the more expensive it will be to repair it.

According to an AHS needle poll 63% of students said they had not been in a fender bender at all. Alexander said that there are maybe one or two that get reported a year in the High school parking lot. Roberts said that insurance agents get more deer accidents reported than fender benders. “If we get 12 a year that would be a lot for fender benders,” Roberta said.