Well, I've been there...maybe even worse.
I lived in a rural area when I was 15 (back in the 80's). Everyone drove early without a license because there were no police. I do mean RURAL.
At 15 years of age I needed to go over to the farm about 3 miles from our house. On the way back home, I took the "long route", 10 miles of backwoods roads. I'm in a 1980's model Chrysler "K" car station wagon, lime green. Stylin, yo.
Windows down, radio on, time of my life. I come up behind a red car going 30...it's annoying but I'm still about 2 seconds back from him. Stupid song comes on the radio. I look down, fiddle with the radial knob (oh, yes...it's a stock radio with analog knobs for tuning). I couldn't have looked away from the road for more than...oh, about 2 seconds.
I look up....red car is stopping in the road about to turn left, waiting for an oncoming car to pass. I panic......AND SLAM ON THE CLUTCH.
Yes, I smashed the clutch to the floor. Not the brake, oh no...that would have WORKED. A 15 year old, not paying attention and not being used to driving, out on an unsanctioned drive "the long way back"...slams on the clutch under pressure.
I collided with the rear end of the red car before he had come to a complete stop, so it wasn't a major crash, but bad enough.
That red car? Yeah, it was a 68 Camaro, freshly painted 2 weeks prior.
The crash crimped the Camaro's rear trunk about 2 inches and pushed the chrome bumper down at an angle. It cost $500 to repair.
Why did it do so little damage? Well, the hood of the K car buckled in half, the front bumper and radiator pushed back into the engine and all sorts of hoses, plastic bits and headlight glass busted out. $1,500 to fix it (friend of the family who owned a body shop).
Every dollar I earned for over a year went into paying for the $2,000 worth of damage. I probably only paid about $600 toward it, but it was $600 hard earned. My dad forgave the rest of the debt after all the hard work I put into earning both the money and their trust again.
