The other day I may or may not have been in an accident. I honestly can’t say. Maybe you can tell me?
No have I have not been drinking, doing drugs, or lost my mind in any other way.
You know how there are 3 sides to every story? His side, her side, and the truth? This is one of those cases.
I was coming up to a RED light at busy 4 way intersection like the one pictured above.
In Illinois, unless it is posted otherwise, you can make a right turn on red after you have stopped and made sure it was clear.
In this story, I am the orange car and Dude was the green car. Dude stops, then lets off his brakes to proceed. I move forward to get a better view of the traffic coming from the left, see that it’s clear, and step on the gas. Then I SLAM ON MY BRAKES. Dude is still there, stopped in front of me. :O
My first thought was HOLY FUCK, that was close!!!
Then, Why isn’t he moving?!?!?
Dude gets out of the car and just glares at me.
I think, Aw Cmon…this can’t be happening. I didn’t actually Hit him did I? I even asked him, “Did I actually hit you? Dude approaches my car yelling, Hell yeah you hit me. Are you gonna make the next 4 years of payments on my car?!?!? Then he goes to look at what may or may not be a scratch on his bumper. He knelt on the ground to get a closer look.
From where I am sitting I don’t see a scratch, but there is No way in hell am I getting out of my car with him yelling at me like that. When he stood back up and started to approach me again, I said, “Ok, let’s call the cops, and file an accident report.” He stopped dead in his tracks. Then he went to look at my bumper, and back to his.
I said, “Why don’t we pull over and call the police. If I hit you, then it was my fault.” (I may be wrong but I believe the law states that in a rear-end collision the party in the 2nd car is at fault.)
When he stood up again, Dudes whole demeanor changed. He was actually smiling when he said, “Ah naw, we don’t have to do that. It’s really no big deal. Don’t worry about it.” “Are you sure?” “Yeah it’s all good. You have yourself a nice day.”
He got back into his car and drove away. As I pulled away from the intersection,I thought what the hell just happened?!?!? Did I really hit him? How does someone go from “I’m gonna kill you” to all smiles in under a minute?
When I got to my destination, I went to look at my front bumper. There is absolutely no damage to my car. Not even a scratch. I don’t remember FEELING any impact, but I could still hear the sound of my brakes as I hit them.
While I will never know what really happened, I am curious… Do you have any thoughts or opinions?
He’s crazy. It’s NOT your fault.
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LOL that’s the kind of ending I want to hear…TY
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Agree with Bo – he’s crazy, what happened wasn’t your fault, and no, I don’t really understand what happened either! Yikes! xx
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I’ll bet he doesn’t have insurance or a license or it isn’t his car.
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maybe that? I was thinking maybe he was high or had drugs with him
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My opinion is that he had good reasons not to want any law enforcement around and you were smart to mention it
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ah…but did I actually hit him? 😛
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I think not
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What a jerk! I completely doubt that you hit him. He probably thought you did, then realized that you hadn’t, and you offering to call the police scared him.
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Your view, his view, the truth. In this case, be thankful. The way he stopped in front of you, absolutely requiring that you step on your brakes hard is a traffic scam that is all too frequent. If your brakes weren’t so good, and there was evidence of damage (any kind of evidence), he would have had a larcenous attorney in his pocket ready to file suit for vehicle damage, physical damage (neck sprain), etc. How do I know this? I once worked for an attorney who was the larcenous back-up for traffic scams just like this one. Lawyers like this creep’s back-up give personal injury attorneys a bad name.
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That’s so scary! I was rearended once ( 4x in the same incident) I hugged the lady because she was freaking out so bad at what she had done… imo there is no call to ever get out yelling and screaming like that
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My son just got a dash cam. They’re aren’t too expensive and the videos don’t lie. People, on the other hand, absolutely do. The lady who totaled my son’s car insisted her light was green (it was red). Best to protect yourself these days.
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Apart from what everyone else has already said, my first instinct was it being a ‘crash for cash’ scam. Hoping you’ll just hand over some cash to have it all forgotten about, possibly HIM threatening to call cops to prompt you to pay up and to not get them involved. The fact that you said you’d call the police clearly spooked him for one reason or another. I don’t know how American car insurance claims work, but here we’re advised to NEVER admit it was our fault up front (not necessarily the fault of the rear car) and let insurance folks deal with that, if you don’t come to your own settlement. I’m sure you would have felt even a nudge if you had made contact with him. Love the illustrations, reminds me of one you once did about parking!
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What is wrong with people always trying to scam?!?!?The more I think about it, I am pretty convinced that I did not hit him AND he prolly had drugs in the car or something. I’m pretty sure we are not supposed to admit fault either, maybe one time I should try to follow the rules…lol
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Whew! I was scared for you when I first started reading, and grew relieved—but then concerned—as I read on. Wow! My partner was in law enforcement for 20 years and he saw this kind of thing every so often. You were not actually in a wreck, and you definitely didn’t do anything wrong. Yep, as others have pointed out, this reeks of an attempted scam 😱. Thankfully he underestimated your reflexes and/or he’s not very good at it (yet?).
He might also/otherwise have something he doesn’t want the cops to know about—outstanding arrest warrants come to mind, given his apparently unstable mental state. Others mentioned the possibility of drug possession, and I don’t doubt that either, for the same reasons.
Something still doesn’t sit well with me about this though, because if he’s trying to pull an insurance scam, the first thing the insurance company is going to want to see is a police report, I would think. Although I’m in Texas, so I don’t know how laws work in Illinois 😊
I’m just glad you’re ok! You handled the situation absolutely right. Staying in your car, remaining levelheaded, and suggesting law enforcement show up. Go you 👏🏼💗
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