I’ve gotten very angry at other drivers. Just the other week for instance while driving to work, I had signaled and moved over to a designated left hand turn lane when I notice that the car right beside me who only a second before had been behind me, was moving left and over toward me and into my lane. I blew my horn and even made eye contact with her but she just kept coming over. To avoid getting hit by her (an older white woman BTW, FWIW), I both sped up and for a time crossed the double yellow line to avoid her hitting the left side of my car, and fortunately there was only one car in the oncoming lane and he saw what was happening and swerved to avoid me.
When we got to the traffic light, I looked in my rear view mirror and there she was right behind me, right up on my bumper and shaking her head and shaking her finger and fist at me as if I was the one who was in the wrong. I was really tempted to get out of my car and walk up to her and give her a good piece of my mind but instead, I took a deep breath, said the Serenity Prayer, and looked in my rear view and just shook my head and mouthed “You just can’t fix stupid” and went about my day.
About a year ago I was babysitting my nephew’s kids at his house. We were just about to get hit by a severe thunderstorm and I was just about to get the little ones ready for bed when I heard a loud knock at the door. I couldn’t help thinking: “Isn’t this how a lot of horror movies begin?” – LOL The dog started barking and the baby started crying and I went to the window at the front door to see who was knocking.
A 30-ish looking guy was standing on the porch and I yelled through the window, “Can I help you?” He said “I think I hit your car”. And sure enough I looked and saw that the back end of his pickup truck had slammed into the back of my car. “OK. Give me a minute” I said and I calmed the baby and the dog down, grabbed my keys and my cell phone (set to dial 9-11 just in case) and went out on the porch. He told me that he was dropping his son off at his ex-wife’s house across the street and backed out of her drive way and hit that back of my car. I saw a woman standing on the porch of the house across the street and recognized her as someone I’d seen at my nephew’s house for BBQ’s and kid’s birthday parties and I yelled over to her: “Do you know him?” “Yes” she said, “He’s my ex husband” so I figured he probably wasn’t some psycho killer so I invited him to come inside as it was now really storming badly – many lightning bolts, heavy wind and rain.
He apologized profusely, telling me he had parked his pickup truck in his ex–wife’s driveway, had just dropped their son off and was backing out and hit my car which was parked across the street in front of my nephew’s house.
He kept saying “I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry, I can’t believe I did that. I’m so sorry. I’m so stupid, I’m so sorry. I didn’t see your car, I’m so sorry”. It was evident the guy was really shook up so I told him, “It’s OK. That’s why we call them “accidents” and not “on-purposes”.
He next asked me what he needed to do - it was obvious the guy had never had an accident before. So I told him that I would need to get his insurance and contact information, that I would give him mine, that he needed to contact his insurance company ASAP and inform them of the accident and what happened and that I would do the same with mine and provide my insurance company with his insurance and contact information and that since I was not at fault, that his insurance company would settle the claim and pay to repair any damages to both our vehicles, that the worst thing that might happen was his insurance rate might go up.
He looked rather shocked and said, “Don’t you need to call the police?” to which I said “No”. “No one was injured - you’re not injured are you?” “No.” he said. “Did you hit my car on purpose? Are you drunk?” (And FWIW I didn’t smell any odor of alcohol on him) to which he said “Oh goodness no! Oh God no! I was bringing my son home from our church’s Bible camp – my wife and I are divorced and she is remarried but we get along and we want to do right by our son”. And then he apologized yet again.
At this point and since I hadn’t been able to go look at the damage to my car what with the thunderstorm and not wanting to leave my little great nieces alone in the house, I figured it was just minor damage. He gave me his driver’s license and his insurance card and I copied down all the information and got his address and cell phone number and then told him, “It’s OK. I once rear ended a car stopped at a stop sign. I didn’t mean to do it but for an instant I wasn’t paying attention. These things happen; again this is why we call them “accidents”” I felt more bad for him than I did for myself.
The next morning I was finally able to see the damage and it was pretty extensive – a lot more than I thought it would be – rear bumper smashed, left side tail light was smashed and pushed all the way into the trunk, rear quarter panel smashed and the wheel well guard displaced and against the left side rear tire. The car was drivable but I kept hearing a rubbing noise when the wheel well guard hit my tire when going over bumps in the road. Before I moved my car, I took lots of photos with my cell phone and called my insurance company.
Long story short, his insurance company was great – gave me no problems, I even got to use a certified Toyota body shop for the repairs and genuine Toyota replacement parts and they paid for a decent rental car for the week and a half that my car was in the repair shop.
As it all turned out OK, I can say I was glad I remained calm and composed, that it wasn’t worth getting angry over or cursing at someone who already felt bad enough already.
Dude, in real life and most movies the ex or soon to be ex usually IS the psycho-killer!