This morning I was involved in a fender bender. I hit a Nissan Altima from behind. We were both turning right on a busy street, and when we passed the pedestrian crosswalk, the Nissan proceeded and I looked to my left for oncoming cars, found none, gassed up to proceed myself, when the Nissan suddenly stopped and I rear-ended it.

From the way I'm recounting it you can tell that I'm putting some blame on the other car, even though on paper, I'm entirely at fault. This accident has become so frustrating for me, even more so than the hit and run last December, which was definitely more serious. The other party, which consisted of an older couple, made such a big deal out of it. I immediately apologized, offered my insurance information and contact numbers but they will have none of it. They insisted on waiting for the police, which was fine by me, until I realized how big a spectacle they wanted to pull. About 20 minutes later, a fire truck, an ambulance and five (count 'em - five) police cars were on the scene. People were rubber-necking, probably expecting some huge accident scene with blood and gore. I tried to keep my cool but it was really hard because I know they were faking it. When I bumped them, the lady in the passenger seat got out and animatedly waved her hands. When the cops came, she suddenly couldn't move and was complaining of whiplash, thus the paramedics. Meanwhile, all I had there was my husband, whom I called to just be with me. Good thing he had the presence of mind to bring a camera and take pictures - of the very minor damage (I was almost tempted to rub off the black mark on their bumper). At least the cops were all nice. When I asked one if the lady will be alright, he said, yes, he doesn't see any blood, so he's sure she will be, and then he winked at me. Another cop I talked to apologized for not hearing what I said because of the laughter of the other cops. They were joking at how many of them were there, and not a single one was useful (the couple didn't speak English well and were asking for a translator).

I am worried that they would try to milk this for everything they could. One of the cops mentioned to my husband that he thinks there's some role-playing going on, but he tries to allay our fears saying it's good that the cops were called, because they have documented everything, including the fact that I was going less than 5 mph because I came from a complete stop. In any case, that ruined my whole day. I couldn't eat or concentrate on work.

The one thing that bothers me the most is why I'm feeling like I'm the victim, when I should be feeling sorry for them and apologizing for ruining their day. I detest that in one second of stupidity, I have caused something beyond my control where I can only imagine what will come out of this... best case - I'll just pay my deductible and my premiums will go up, worst case - I'm slapped with a lawsuit, which is not surprising after seeing how they acted today. If it's the latter, I know I will fight it fiercely (hey, maybe it's my chance to be in front of my favorite Judge Judy). And now the painful waiting begins.

On a side note, the lady who hit me last December and ran was tried last Tuesday. I found out from the District Attorney that she hit and run five vehicles, driving DUI. Yikes. I wonder if she feels as crappy as I do now.

Vangie Fuhrman got cold on 4.19.2005 12:26 AM. |