Accident and Attitude

I was involved in an accident tonight. I was rear-ended by a car driven by a couple and their son.
You’d think I’d have been pissed at the damage caused to the rear of my car. Somehow my attitude was completely different - I guess you could call it the 9/11 syndrome, where you want to be helpful when something bad happens.

First things out of my mouth were a calm ‘are you guys ok?’. I took them to look at the rear end of my car to see for themselves it was nowhere near severe damage. The lady started breaking down, partly due to the fact her mother had just had a heart attack. I told them ‘look, I’m not a car freak and quite honestly I dont mind a few scratches on my car. Dont worry about it and just relax.’

No cops were called, and I let em drive away with no further ado.

I guess I must be, much to my surprise, a good guy.

Were you gellin’? (Sorry, I couldn’t resist that.) Given the situation, you surely did the right thing.

That’s a big contrast to what happened to me this past Monday.

I accidentally took off a little paint off the plastic bumper cover from some girl’s Mustang. Hell, from the looks of it I even cracked it a little bit.

At first she was apprehensive about doing anything with it but I left my name and number in case she changed her mind. And she did. We decided to handle this without involving the police or insurance - I would pay out of my pocket. But it quickly escalated when she either got her dad involved or he just barged in on her life.

In short, he’s not as nonchalant as you are. In fact, he’s being a real prick to try and get me to give him all my information as if I was going to move to a different country or something.

It’s just frustrating that there are so many jerks out there. No one trusts anyone here! Sorry if I hijacked, I just needed to vent.

Basically, if everyone has the attitude that you demonstrated, the world would be much more pleasant.

Same thing happened to me a couple years ago when some teenagers rearended my car. Like your case it was no major damage.
But when they came out they almost went into conniptions of fear about payments and insurance.
Everyone was OK so I was OK (my car wasn’t exactly pretty before the accident so…)
I’m always surprised about how people just walk out of their cars after a wreck and get into fights about whose fault it was and who has to pay whom.
If you can walk out of the damn car afterward there is an extent to which you should be thankful.
(Furthermore, how many legal matters are solved on a busy intersection).
Just my thoughts.

Don`t know if you have the same insurance policy clauses as mine, but if I get rear ended, I have no responsibity or need to pay. However, I am 100% responsible for front-of-vehicle damage. An exception is pileup, where it goes to 50%.

Make sure you get yourself checked if you get pain Diesel. Sometimes it does hit for awhile. I’ve learned to always use insurance if need be. People that promise to pay for things often renege when they feel they got away with it.

Good for you Diesel. You represented the T-nation well. [clap clap clap]

I’ve done that numerous times, although that was with my old grand marquis and that thing could take a bumper beating.

I also ABHOR filing claims or getting police reports, since insurance companies always find a way to blame you somehow for anything. Only time I find you aren’t at blame at all is if your car is legally parked and you aren’t anywhere near it. Otherwise even if you are told not at blame still they add like 3 non fault accidents into something to raise prices the filthy insurance companies.

I’ve had people roll into my front (dumbarses who cant use manual tranny on hills), and several bump me from behind (happens a lot in stop and go wintertime rush hours). Just glad I had a car with a solid chrome bumper and not those plastic covered deals that cant handle it.

Slid into someone once at an intersection, he was a nice older guy and I paid him $50 for some paint and a new plate bracket and we parted ways.

Am very glad I dont do rush hour daily anymore though, man I dont know how many times I looked in rear mirror when I was stopped and noticed the car behind me going a bit too fast for conditions. Feel completely helpless at that point, just try to relax so impact doesnt jar you too much. Then smile when the person swerves into ditch instead of hitting you.