One of the excitements this weekend was my minor
automobile accident. No one injured except the car.

I was picking up my son from
rehearsal
at a local
school.
There are several orchestras coming and going and
little league
happening,
so the little elementary school parking lot is packed
and the narrow, neighborhood streets are full of cars.

Well, I was stopped in the street turning left into the
school parking lot and a car was trying to come out
of the parking lot and turn into the street.
The had to swing wide because of cars parked on the
street and,
sscccrrrraaaaappppeeeee,
their front driver-side bumper scraped across my car
from the the drivers door to the rear panel.
From the reaction of the other driver, they knew
what had happened.
Then, I looked into the rear view mirror to watch
them drive away without stopping.
“They must be going around the block”, I thought noticing
all the traffic and difficulty in getting around with
all the congestion.
But they didn’t return.

A phone call to the
Portland police
non-emergency phone number meant leaving a message
and my cell phone number on their recording machine
(sigh, big city police).
The car was very drivable so I drove my son home
and phoned my insurance company.
They took the particulars and even scheduled me for
a drive-through estimation in 15 minutes here in
my neighborhood.
All is good — Safeco came through for me.

Later that afternoon, the
Portland police
phoned back to ask for the details of the accident.
While talking to
Officer Shaw,
she said “I just got the message that someone is phoning
in with what could be the other half of the accident.
Could I put you on hold?”.

Well, sure.

It turns out that a new teenage driver had arrived
home and confessed to her accident.
She “freaked out” and didn’t stop.
Now, the parents were phoning the police to report
the accident.
Officer Shaw helped us exchange phone numbers and
insuance companies and,
viola,
it’s not a hit-and-run any more.

Now there’s just the hassle of getting the side
panels repaired.
That and the deductable.
I’m hoping the insurance companies can work that out too.