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Do not be a fool like me
By Hamada Agha
They say that fools learn from their own mistakes and the wise learn from fools' mistakes. But everybody is entitled to be a fool once under single circumstance. To make the story short, I was driving my minivan to work on an early cold morning. As I waited for the light signal to turn green, I guess my instinct made me look at the rear view mirror and my eyes got fixed on the view like a radar. I could not believe at how fast the guy behind me was driving and my brain was calculating whether or not that driver was going to hit me or not. Yes I was in a minivan, well protected, but the driver in my rear-view mirror was driving a large SUV too. I moved slowly forward to give the driver more space, but he was still moving fast. I could not turn right either because there was a "No Turn on Red" signal. All I could do was wait and see if he would wizen up and slow down. Finally I heard the big "Bang" noise and the minivan jumped few feet from its point. I was furious, because I could not believe how stupid can somebody be driving that fast on icy roads and worse would not slow down before coming onto a red light signal ahead of them. But that was not going to change anything now. What happened, happened. I had to go down and inspect the damage, hoping that it was not serious enough that my minivan would be in repairs in this cold weather. Sure I had rental service with my insurance, but who wants all that hassle anyways. So I step out of the minivan and go towards the back. Inspect the minivan and no damage is visible. I thank God, then I look at the SUV and there was no damage either. The driver looks at me and apologizes and I tell him it was pure luck that there was no damage to any one of us or our vehicles. I even tell him please drive slowly and safely. You could have hit a pregnant driver and the 10 minutes difference would not make a difference if you had hurt the baby or pregnant woman. He stares at me and apologizes again and each one goes back to his vehicle. Driving away, I just could not believe how lucky we were. Well, were we really lucky? Few days later I go to the supermarket and as I approach the minivan, I press the trunk opener in my key-chain but the tailgate would not open. I thought it must be frozen from the cold weather. I try to open it manually, but it will not open either. For a second I remember the accident and now I am boiling inside. My fears became a reality after taking the minivan to one of my mechanics I usually use. After inspecting the bumper from underneath the vehicle, it was apparent that there was damage to the bumper. The bumper from the impact was pushed inside and dented the body slightly obstructing the tailgate to open. Now the bumper itself was not damaged because it is designed to absorb impacts and retain its original shape. So upon visual inspection from the outside, everything looked normal, but that was further from the truth. The main point that one needs to do in any accident is exchange details with the other party. Whether there is visible damage or not. In the cold weather, I could not wait to get back to the vehicle's warm environment especially after seeing no damage at all. But if I had followed instructions to always exchange information then I could have saved my self the hassle of deciding to go to the insurance or repair the minivan at my own expense to avoid insurance premium going up. Since it only cost my $70, I opted to repair it at my expense. And that was an expensive 3 minutes that I will never forget. So learn from my experience, always exchange info after an accident. Never ever assume things, or you could regret it later. |
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