Accidents Happen

Today I went to the post office to mail my huge stack of Christmas cards. I WISH our local post office had a drive-through area where you can put your letters in the box without leaving your car. But that's another story. In this particular incident, that would not have mattered anyway, because I needed to go inside to buy a few international stamps. (I just wanted to vent that little frustration first.)

I had not yet sealed my envelopes, so I parked my cute 2005 Camry in the tiny parking lot and started licking the envelopes....when all of the sudden I felt a rather hard jostling of the car. And then I kept feeling the car getting hit, and I turned around to see an elderly Asian gentleman pulling into the spot to my left. He had hit my back left bumper, but instead of stopping and backing up and repositioning, he just kept going forward, scraping and scratching my car all the way up the side, all the way past my back left wheel. I was laying on my horn, trying to get his attention....but to no avail.

I rolled down my window and yelled to him. He looked really surprised to see me in the car. I told him he had hit my car, but he denied it. WHAA? He said he didn't feel anything. I showed him the huge white paint scrapes all over my grey car. He told me it wouldn't take anything to fix that, and not to worry about it, and that he's an old man. (He's 82, by the way). When I asked him for his insurance information he hedged and started acting all weird. I thought, "great, this guy doesn't even have insurance!" So I called PJ who called the police to ask them to come and help us exchange info.

Well, the policeman came, which was really helpful. He gave us Traffic Collision Information Cards to fill out and exchange. Turns out he actually DID have insurance. Phew! But by this point, the man who hit me was ranting about how the edge of my back tire was an inch over the white paint line of my parking spot, and how it was all my fault he hit me, and how he was going to sue me. HUH? The policeman was totally cool and told the guy to take pictures and tell his insurance company his side of the story, and who knows, maybe we'll even end up on Judge Judy?! I am grateful he diffused the situation, to be honest.

So it turns out we actually won't be settling our dispute on television, much to my dismay. His insurance company is paying for the whole thing: damages estimated at $1200!!! as well as a rental car for ~4 days while they repair it, as well as NEW CAR SEATS. Apparently if a car seat has been in an accident, it is no longer considered safe. Seems crazy to me, because the kids felt probably less than a speed bump...but the law's the law, I guess. The rental car is a bit of an issue, though, because the company only had a MONSTER TRUCK available today. It's a Dodge Ram extended cab truck and it is SO TALL! We don't want to try to maneuver it through the alley to our parking garage, so it's on the street tonight. It's going to be so weird putting kids up in that thing tomorrow. I hope to exchange it for a regular old 4-door sedan soon.

All's well that ends well. Nobody got hurt, and it's a good thing I was sitting in the car when it happened too. Otherwise I might not have noticed the damage until later, or the other driver could have left before I got back to the car or whatever.