A MESSAGE TO THOSE WHO HIT AND RUN
Have a conscience and do the right thing
Every time you scrape, scratch, dent or bash another car and take off, you are contributing to everything that is wrong with the current state of the world. Think I’m exaggerating? To knowingly damage something and then ignore and deny it is the basest of human failings. You inflict costly damage, shrug and drive off, leaving behind the mess for someone else to repair. It’s like a federal government abandoning protections of national parks and waterways and pretending nobody will notice. But I digress.
There are some who admittedly wouldn’t notice another ding on their car, another scratch in a paintjob already littered with insult. But for many of us, a car remains a rather large representation of not just significant outlay but a point of pride. You probably didn’t drive home in your new (or new to you) ride thinking, “I can’t wait for my first smash!”
Repairing is an expensive business these days. Remem- ber when you could bang or buff out many low speed transgressions? Body techs will tell you most times that paint meets paint, you’re looking at a grand — on both sides. Do some bumper damage and possibly factor in costly sensors now located just beneath. The Highway Traffic Act stipulates that if damage exceeds $1,000 police must be notified; I find this confusing because few of us are qualified to glance at wounded metal (or composites) and know how much it’s going to cost. You are obligated to report the incident to your insurance company within seven days if you intend to make a claim.
If you’ve been the victim of a ding and dash, you can call your insurance company and report it. Without the details of the guilty party, you’ll pay your deductible on the repair and it might impact your rates. If those involved have a huddle and agree not to contact their insurance companies, keep in mind that doesn’t mean they won’t go and do it anyway. That seven-day window can produce a lot of conflicted emotions, especially by the innocent party. It’s a gamble agreeing not to report: someone’s guarantee to get your car fixed is based on two strangers not knowing the extent of the damage. You might be imagining the dealer you always use fixing the damage; they might be imagining their cousin Bob.
You hear the sickening grind and in that instant, you find out what you’re made of. I think instead of personality tests that corporations and dating sites use, they should just ask what you do when you’ve caused damage to another. Maybe I’m a little too Pollyanna, but there are currencies other than coin and my integrity is worth more than what it costs to rectify a mistake I make.
Maybe you look around first to see if you’ve been seen. Go ahead, but trust me: in this day and age of cameras everywhere, you’ve been seen. Everybody has a camera in their hand; every building has a camera perched outside of it. Maybe you keep going pretending it didn’t happen. I met a guy once who took pics of cars parked around him before he walked away. Overkill? Sure. But you never know who you’re dealing with.
Maybe you blame the of- fender’s parking job. Perhaps, but you are supposedly in possession of all your faculties and are under legal obligation to control your vehicle, period. If it’s not safe to pull the move you just did, too bad. You chose the action, you deal with the outcome. If you seriously did not see the car there, you are not in possession of all your faculties. Please hang up your keys.
Maybe you’ll hop out and proceed to leave a clever note that reads, “Anyone watching thinks I’m leaving my information but I’m not, sucka,” but that just makes you an ass, and not a particularly witty one. And in the time it took you to do that, three people snapped a picture.
Or maybe you do what I did a few decades ago as a new driver. I snickered the fender of an adjacent car with our huge station wagon in a busy parking lot. Terrified, I crawled away and circled the block before coming back. Hands shaking, I saw the victim fuming and a police car show up. I hung back for a minute, listening to the irate driver. I couldn’t stand it. I ventured forward and told them I’d done it. There was a stunned silence before the cop said, “Would you like to press charges?” and all I could think was, “Press charges? What? I’m doing the right thing, how could you charge me?” But of course I’d only sort of done the right thing. There were no charges, though there were some tears. I called my Dad, whom I was far more scared of than any charges. The man got his car fixed and Dad made me pay half. Two lessons were learned that day: I never hit another car and my parents realized they had passed a very big parenting test, albeit in a roundabout way.
And that is what this is ultimately about. It’s about doing what’s right because it’s right; it’s about realizing you will remember that scrape three decades on, and it will be a litmus test of who you really are. I don’t have a spare $800 and getting involved with insurance companies is rarely a great experience. Flip the scenario and recognize how grateful you are when someone else does the right thing, and every sense of decency it reinforces. Being responsible starts somewhere.
I don’t embrace any religious context here, but if this is the moment in your life you choose to use your karmic Get Out of Jail Free Card, I sincerely hope you have smooth sailing from here on.