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.