New Radiator for Christmas?

So my Christmas Day car accident didn't seem too awful to me at first.

I was driving alone and going too fast for the conditions obviously.  I was driving pretty slowly I thought, but there was fresh snow and I went through an S curve and after the first turn, I had no control.  I tried steering but nothing was happening.  I tried tapping the brake, but nothing. 

Next thing I knew, I was headed straight for some trees.  I hit the trees on the left side of the road pretty much head-on and then the back end of the car spun around behind me and into the ditch. 

The car was still running but I turned it off and called for help.  My family came to attempt to get the car out, but I knew it wasn't looking good.

I had gotten out and walked around a little -- and I could see some green fluid on the snow.  NOT GOOD. 

My brother tried to rock the car out, going back and forth, but nothing happened, even in four-wheel drive.  So my bro stayed with me and the others went back home to get shovels. 

The nice thing is that even though the area is very rural, and it was Christmas Day, four cars came by and all asked if they could help.  My brother and I were joking that we should have asked the guy in the Prius to tow us out.  Haha.  But surprisingly, one car went by without stopping or saying anything. 

So the next step was to try to shovel it out.  We shoveled a path backward and forward, and put down carpet and mats by the back tires, which were spinning.  It turns out that the back passenger side tire was really in a hole and there was nothing it could catch on.

We tied it up to a family Dodge Ram and tried to tow it out backward ("we" is used loosely, my bro's wife and I just stood on the side of the road and watched). 

First attempt, the tow rope came untied from my truck. 

Second attempt, the tires on the Ram started spinning (it was snowy and icy), and then the tires caught and the tow rope snapped in the middle. 

At this point it wasn't looking good. 

Fortunately, there is a tub in the back of the truck with a hitch and a bunch of ropes, but they're all old.  So for the third attempt we tried a thick braided boat rope.

I had very little hope -- those ropes really don't age well.

But it worked!  The truck came out of the snow bank and we picked up all the pieces of my bumper that we could find in the snow.  But as I walked looking for pieces, there was still a decent amount of green snow.  Coolant or antifreeze leaking or spilling.  One is expensive, one is not a problem at all.  We just had to figure out which it was -- a leak or a spill. 

My brother drove the truck home, so it was drivable, and we decided to park it and leave it sit for a while to see how much green fluid ended up on the snow when it was parked.

More leaking.  If it was just overflow from being tipped so far onto its side when I wrecked, that overflow should have been gone.  So enough fluid to suggest it's a real problem. 

I won't know until later today probably, but I think I likely cracked the radiator.

If the hood hadn't buckled so much, maybe I could have driven it back to Milwaukee and just topped it off with antifreeze or coolant frequently along the drive.  But I was worried that if we pried the hood open, we wouldn't be able to securely close it.  And then it could have gone flying up somewhere along the 5 hour drive and no doubt resulted in a serious injury accident.  And there was also the risk that the leak would be too much and I wouldn't have enough fluid and I'd end up stranded somewhere along the 5 hour drive with no one around to help -- and needing an expensive Christmas night professional tow. 

While (or because) the truck is old (94), and for about the last 10 years, I put maybe 700 miles per YEAR on it (pretty much only drive it in Wisconsin, about 3 weeks per year at the absolute most), of course there was no comprehensive insurance on it -- just collision. 

So it looks like I'll be buying a new radiator!  UGH!  My folks will drive it somewhere up there to have it checked out, then hopefully I'll be able to talk some family member into driving it down to Milwaukee (where it's kept while I'm in Texas) and get the remainder of the body damage fixed there by my family.

A million "it could have been worse" scenarios, but of course it could have been better!  Ugh.  Really, really sucks.  My husband always says there's really no such thing as an accident, just bad driving.  And in this case, it was clearly my fault.  Should have been going slower.  I could just kick myself.  Argh!