Paradise City *

Last week, an accident happened to me.

It is thursday, a very cold and wet thursday. Sleet has been predicted for the evening and everyone is driving slowly. I am very cautious as ever. Since it's the route I take daily and the traffic is smooth, I lean back and enjoy the drive listening to the music. I am crossing a traffic light. Just one more traffic light and I'd be home. Suddenly there is a thud. My car is hit from behind. I stopping the car then and there, take my time to get down. And then I saw a big vehicle and a really young driver behind. She, in her teens, quivers and asks me whether everything is all right. I reply yes, eventhough I was in a daze. Seeing her state of tension, I just point her the damage to my car and exchange phone numbers and let her go.

I manage to drive the car home and call my friend immediately. First thing he asks, "Where are you?"
"Back at home"
"You shouldn't have let the girl go. You should've dialled 911 then and there. Let's see what we can do"
He comes to my place, and then in my "shaken but not stirred" car we go to the cops. They say that we need to bring the perpetrator too, to get the police report that I need for insurance.

We call the driver's father. We just inform that my car was hit on by her daughter not yet asking him to come down to the cops. We learn that he is a doctor.He asks to wait at a store front nearby, for him.We drive there and wait. And he comes there immediately after.

He takes one look at me. Figures me as one new to the city.
Pointing at the damage, he starts, "This looks like an old damage to me"
I shocked, say, "This happened just now"
He: "No way it could have been my vehicle that hit yours"
Me: Speechless, give an angry and shocked look.
We very reasonably ask him to call his daughter and verify the identity of the car, for I made her note down my car number too.He does that. The girl must have vouched for me. He asks her to talk later and cuts the call.

He continues, "I am here since before you were born. I can haul you up in jail for trying to cheat me".
An argument ensues. My friend intervenes here and takes all of us inside the store as it's freezing cold in the open. There that doctor tries some more brow-beating.

"I need to see that you are the owner of the car"
I show my documents.
" I need to see your passport. I can put you in jail for this"
I enraged, staring him down, say, " That I'd very much prefer. Let's go to the cops. There we will decide".
My friend sends me away on a pretext and starts drivelling the fact that I happen to be the victim. The fact that we are ready for the cops and not scared calls the father's bluff.

Then he gives his game away and admits that he doesn't want insurance to come into the picture. Eventhough he doesn't say, we know, and he knows that we know, that his girl is not legally qualified to drive.

And a lot happens after. The doctor haggles for the settlement, even offering a discount for his medical services as a payback, which we politely refuse. I am yet to receive the money, but have received a very good lesson. Never ever allow a person to leave the scene of an accident.

"If we were the ones to hit another car, would we have behaved in a similar manner?", I bemuse to my friend much later. He says the decent thing is to settle the damage. But people do stoop to such levels, I figure.

* - Guns'n'Roses were belting out this song for me, at the time I got rear-ended.