So my morning work commute today included a guy not paying attention while reading something behind the wheel and running his 2003 Ford F350 Van into the back of my car. As I got out of the car and approached him he still had his head down in his reading material completely oblivious to what had happened. When I told him that he just hit my car, his reply was: "No I didn't". So I drag him out of the car and show him his chrome metal bumper firmly implanted into mine. His reply in thick Iranian accent was: "I didn't hit you that hard." WTF!!!??? No "I am sorry", no nothing? Fine, I say, just let me see your driver's license and insurance. Are you a cop?,this guy asks. No, I say. But if you have a driver's license then it means you took the test which then means you read the little part in the driver's hand book about exchanging information after the accident. This got me a counter offer to follow him to the motor pool of the company he works for where they will fix my car. Just a driver's license and insurance information, I asked again. This got me a story of him being rear ended and now having pins in his neck and how he did not sue the person who hit him. Not seeing the relevance to my situation I once again ask for driver's license and insurance information. This prompts a long story about being late to pick up elder clients to take them to adult care and that he will loose his job for being late. Understanding the urgency of his situation and having to get to work myself, I explain that the sooner I can get his driver's license and insurance informationthe sooner both of us can get on with our day. No such luck. At this point I apparently became a bad person who will incur the the wrath of God. (Yes, he got religious on me). I advised that he should be careful invoking God's judgment on me being as he's standing right next to me and he is the one who hit me and is now breaking the law by refusing to provide the information. This got me some Iranian cursing and not so subtle accusations that I am trying to scam him, but not the information I was looking for. I was contemplating making use of some top secret Jedi Mind Tricks, but I was pretty sure this guy never seen any of the six movies. All this progressed into a call to LAPD finest for assistance. An hour and half later I finally got the information and was able to get on my way. Sadly, all this could have been avoided if: 1. The guy showed some remorse to start with and wasn't such and a**hole. 2. Just follow the law and show me your info. I admit that some of this was driven by my frustration at seeing all the people on the road during the day doing stuff behind the wheel. I always new that one day I would be hit by someone making a phone call, texting, reading, shaving, etc. behind the wheel, but it still makes it hard to be understanding about it. And as someone who tries hard to take care of my cars, having some one run into them and then just be nonchalant about it just gets my blood boiling. Thanks for letting me vent.
Did he actually have insurance and a valid lic? If so consider yourself very lucky, in my experience guys who don't want to give you this stuff usually don't have it anyway...... How's your neck? It might stiffen up over the next couple of days...... One of our local club members had a similar event with a taxi that hit him, only this guy just pulled around him and vamoosed..... A guy in the car behind the cab saw it all and got the cab's plate and number and gave it to my buddy, otherwise it would have been all on his dime......the local police are still looking for the guy, seems his cab lic wasn't valid either.
He had both, which makes understanding his behavior harder. The impact was minimal and had he been even half way apologetic about it I would have let it go at that. As is, I will need to wash my car and see if there are any scratches on the bumper and go from there. I guess my biggest objection was to this implication that I was somehow trying to take advantage of him. Not to say that seeing him reading behind the wheel while oblivious to hitting me didn't get my hackles up.
Stories like this makes me wonder how the human race has made it as far as we have Sorry to hear your troubles I'd have a hard time being reasonable after request #2 for lic and insurance
It can truely be scary out there these days. Actually driving seems to be the last thing on most people's minds. Jim
Sorry to hear that, goaljnky...some people. Ya know I was told long ago that automobiles would be able to fly themselves by the year 2000, and here we are 10 years in and the car companies keep adding more and more distractions for the drivers to consume and all the while they forgot about the damned autopilot. :incazzato:
I would have just shot him. One less ******* in the world, I'd i'd be out on good behavior in 3 years.
Not that I disagree with the concept, but if it came to fruition, at the end there would only be on person standing... my wife.
A scratch on the bumper is NOT worth someone's life, no matter how you feel about them.......so please, a little perspective...... Calling the gendarmes was the right thing to do, I'd have called them after the second request was avoided. Sometimes people are not reasonable......or even rational, you never know what you're gonna get. The Popo are (supposedly) trained to deal with such folks, let them earn their pay.....
I notice that most folks on their comute to work, or the store or where ever seem to be driving cars that are scratched and dinged. I believe that most have a "comuter car" and they could care less if they ding and dent your door in the parking lot. Most just don't care in the least. Jim
I am sooooo with you on that. As a lot of Mini owners do I try to park my cars in out of the way places in the back of the parking lots. Inexplicably when I come back there is always some hunk of junk parked to close to my door. It is enough to drive a man to drink.
I call it the "hearding complex". You can park in the middle of nowhere and when you come back there will be a car on each side of you with 20 empty spaces all around. I might take it a bit too far, but if I can not find a space I think might be safe, I'll go someplace else. I have no problem with that, but my wife..............well, you get the picture. Jim
Sorry to hear of your misadventure. I can't understand how so many people pay no attention to the road.
had a similar situation about a year and a half ago. luckily, was before I got my Mini. It was a Honda so I wasn't too upset about a scratched bumper. But the guy that hit me was driving a buddies car and didn't have his own insurance. took me 10 sec to realize I needed the popo to stand in on this one. He started asking me if it was alright for his buddy to fix my bumper. RED FLAG!
:shocked: Not even sure where to begin responding to your thread Goaljnky...... First, I am so sick of people not paying attention to their driving! I almost got broadsided by some C-class (you can figure out what I mean but that) after she blew a stop sign in her minivan because she was too busy yapping on her cell phone. Freakin' pay attention people!!!!!!! Second- getting religious on you????? WTF. I would have been livid. Your god will not protect you at that point. Third- shut the $*& up and just him your info!!!! People, once they screw up don't want to take responsibility for it. And just because he drives a POS pedophile van doesn't mean you don't care about your nice car. Fourth- you should have called homeland security on his ass Sorry, just ranting. I do hope your car is ok
HA. can you image the look on his face. Hey! Give me your info, or I call Homeland Security! Priceless!