No one was hurt. Both cars have minor damage.
So what happened?
I was in a very slow section. I had already let two 18-wheelers in front of me at various times, so I figured the right lane went away eventually.
Then, after thirty minutes to go seven or eight miles, there were two cars in front of me trying to get over. I wanted to let the red one, the one farther in front, in. But the blue Expedition decided he was going to come into the lane where I was.
I laid on the horn and I kept going forward.
His car hit mine and scraped.
I drive a tiny Saturn.
We both pulled over, though I wasn’t sure he was going to do that. He hit me about two car lengths in back of a police car parked with its lights on to mark the construction going on. The police officer was out of his car watching the construction.
But when we passed that, he did pull over and far enough up that I could pull in behind him.
The female passenger in his car went to get the policeman back at the construction.
He said, “Didn’t you see me?” I said, “Yes, I saw you.” He said, “I didn’t see you.” I told him I didn’t see how he didn’t because I laid on my horn.
I was shaking. My hands were probably waving six inches or so.
He walked down the length of my car and said, “There’s no damage to your car, but there’s a lot to mine.”
Now, that’s stupid. If one car (the bigger car) is damaged, the little one couldn’t have had no damage. But I was so freaked, I didn’t think of that. There certainly was no crushed metal on my car. And I was relieved by that.
Then I followed him to his car where he pointed out a thin (maybe an inch wide) indention that went about three feet on the back door and the back side of the car. It probably went three feet down his car, maybe more.
I went to get my insurance.
He stood over me when I got in the car on the passenger side to get my insurance. I didn’t like that, but didn’t really feel I could tell him to move. So I reached in to get my insurance out of the glovebox.
I’m a CHL holder, but I had been at school so my gun was in the glovebox. I was a little concerned that he would see the gun as a threat. So I was trying not to be obvious about it being there while I got my insurance. But he was standing right over me, so there wasn’t much I could do.
When I closed the glovebox he was at his car. I guess if he saw the gun that it made him back off instead of making him more belligerent, which is what I was afraid would happen.
We both had our insurance cards out. I took his and gave him mine and then moved to set my purse on the hood of the car so that I could get out a pen and a piece of paper. “Hey, you can’t keep my insurance,” he said, loudly. “And you can’t keep mine either,” I said, pointing to his hand where he held mine.
I wrote down some numbers. I wrote down his name. I know his name and I think I wrote the number down correctly, but (bad thing here) I was so shook up I didn’t write down the name of the company. And I could have written the wrong number down. I do know his name, his city, and half (or maybe all) of his license plate. I also may know his street. But I had just started writing things down.
He asked if I had a piece of paper. I said no and waved what I had written on at him. (It was the back of a sales slip.)
He went to his car and got a sales slip from it. I figured I would need to loan him my pen since he didn’t appear to have one.
The police officer came and asked what happened. The other driver said some sentence and I said, “He came into my lane.” The officer said, “One at a time.” So I stopped and let him go first, since he had begun speaking first. Wasn’t that courteous of me? I mean, I’m the lady, but I let the guy go first… (This is relevant in a minute.)
After the guy talked, the officer turned to me. “Which lane were you in?” he asked me. I told him some stuff, not much. I was shaking so much I couldn’t believe I was still standing. He said, “I’m going to have to give you a ticket.”
Then he walked over to look at the guy’s car. I stood where I was. I think I was looking at the insurance card again or something. But I was pretty shook up.
When he and the guy came back the guy said, “I guess I’ll just file it on my own insurance.” The officer said, “If you do that, I won’t have to make a report. Is that okay with you, mam?” Well, I hadn’t seen any damage and I didn’t want a ticket so I said yes.
The other driver said, “You should be more courteous.” And the police officer interrupted him and said it was over.
I got in the car and left.
I then called R, who had been on the phone with me right as/after the accident happened. I didn’t call him, did I? Maybe I had been calling him to say I was almost out of Conroe when it happened. I closed the phone. So he knew there was an accident but not anything else. That would not have been fun. Sorry, honey.
I drove on and realized that my mirror was damaged. The plastic casing was cracked, which is what made the mark on his car, and the mirror wouldn’t move. I couldn’t see out the passenger side mirror.
I also called my dad, who is an attorney, and asked him if I was at fault. I was sure I was, since the officer had said I would get a ticket, but Dad said the other guy was at fault.
So why did the police officer say I was going to get a ticket and why did the other guy leave?
I’m guessing that when they went to look at his car, the police officer told him he would have to give him a ticket. So he told both of us we were going to get tickets. And the other guy didn’t want a ticket any more than I did.
Does the other driver realize he was at fault? I don’t know.
But I wish my mirror worked.