I drove my car into a pole. Not on purpose of course, and not head-on, and while there's damage, not too much of that.

I stopped for some gas and nabbed a snack on my way to fetch the kiddo from school. Leaving the spot next to the gas pump, I noticed the car in the parking spot ahead of me was sticking out some, so I'd have to make a tight turn. I saw that the top of the metal pole (really more of an inverted horseshoe shape) protecting the end of the pump row was beyond my passenger seat. I turned to avoid the car, and I thought also the pole. There was an incredible crunching sound, so I stopped, of course. I wasn't close enough to the car ahead to have hit it. No one else was driving near me. I checked, and saw that I'd hit the stupid pole.

The pole had apparently been hit in the past, and was tilted back toward the pump a few degrees. The bottom of the pole wasn't as directly underneath the top, the crossing part of the inverted horseshoe that I could see, as I had expected. The top was completely inward of the bottom, and I managed to snag the bit I couldn't see.

I backed up, turned wider, and cleared the pole. The running board is tore up at the end, but otherwise didn't get damaged or cause damage to the frame. While ugly, it seemed to be a "clean" break. The fender took the bulk of it, and was probably the noise I'd heard. Thankfully the fender is pinned on with plastic "nails," and they had either cleanly pulled from the frame, the fender, or snapped their little heads off. The fender has some paint transfer, and it looks like where the inner liner meets the outer fender might have torqued to tear a little, but the assembly seems otherwise intact. Again, luckily no apparent damage to the body of the car, or even to any of the fastening holes.

I was able to pull the remaining pin out of the body and free the fender. It rests now in the back of the car. I'm a little disappointed that the fender mounts in such an asymmetrical hole. The arc over the wheel matches better than the curves where the fender sits. It looks like there's a whole lot of off-balance positioning. Plus some stuff underneath is exposed, that probably warrants some protection provided by the liner. Plus the other side looks neater with the fender on.

I'll have to run through the dealer or a body shop, I'm sure. A new running board or set, and a new fender (I'm not sure the scrapes can be buffed out).

Everyone's healthy.