Lifestyles of the poor and nameless

You may have been wondering where I've been for the past week. I wish I could blame my disappearance on something as mundane as writer's block, but no...life took a turn for the unwelcome last week.

I left work a little early last Monday....just because. As I was driving home from the train station, I got into a car accident. Both cars were in the intersection; the driver of the other car looked like he was going to pull over to the side of the road so that we could begin the information exchange, etc. Imagine my surprise when he just sped off! A few people who saw the wreckage took off after him, but he was speedy and elusive and he got away.

A police officer found his car a few hours later. A brief interview with the driver revealed that he did not have insurance, inspection or registration for the car. For fleeing the scene of the crime and not having the proper paperwork, the police hit him with approximately $1,000 in fines and a class 3 misdemeanor. However, the officer also decided (even though he was not at the accident when it happened and there were no eyewitnesses) that I deserved a citation for "failing to yield the right-of-way" WTF?!

Yes, I was making a left turn, and technically a driver in his position would have the right of way, but I was already in the intersection and there was traffic all around me. There was no place to yield to. I never knew that having the right of way precludes use of discretion. Had there been a pedestrian in the intersection, he surely would have plowed right through them. At that speed, he would have seriously injured someone.

I have also learned that insurance is b.s. My insurance company has decided (without even examining the scene or the damage to the cars) that I was wrong and they have to pay to fix the other guy's car. WHAT?! Since when does a person get to hit someone else, flee the scene and then have the victim's insurance pay for their damage? For all we know, the guy could have been drinking, and he fled because he didn't want a DUI on top of everything else. Or maybe he wasn't drinking, but either way...HE hit ME! I always thought that insurance companies hated to pay. I didn't realize that they were in the business of giving away money.

To add insult to injury, the insurance has also determined that the cost of fixing the car is more than the value of the car, so they have written it off. Since I can't afford to buy another car, and I'm really not too enthralled with driving at this point, I think I'm just going to buy a bicycle. On a bicycle, I will always have the right of way. So there!

Now I have to go to court to fight this stupid citation for an accident that wasn't even my fault. Oh Drama.