An Unfortunate Misfortune

I'd like to think of myself as a rather careful/cautious driver (my friends are nodding in agreement).

But no matter how careful you are as a driver on the road, there will always, always be other drivers who will do something and casually and very conveniently put the blame on you.

This is exactly what happened about 3 hours ago.

I was turning out of a junction and I had my signal indicating that I wanted to get onto the right lane. There was a long queue of cars so I had to slowly ease my way into the line.

As soon as I saw an opening, I put on my right signal and moved in. There was a Mitsubishi Grandis behind my car as I moved into the right lane.

All of a sudden, after I get into that lane this Mitsubishi guy suddenly over-takes me from the right. And mind you this was a single lane, which means he actually cut into the opposite side of the road as he was over-taking my car.

While doing this little stunt of his, the left back door of his car came into contact with my right side-view mirror, and scraped his door. My bumper also scraped against the front door of the car.

All this because he couldn't accept the fact that I had cut into the right lane in the first place.

But why?

Because I was driving a smaller car?

Because didn't indicate that I wanted to cut in? (Of course I did, btw)

Why?

There was enough space for me to cut in. So why did he have to over-take from the right and scrape my car in the process?

Now see here.

If I had scraped his car as I was turning in because, say for some reason I was really, really oblivious to how close his car was to mine or if I was impatient, then I would have immediately pulled up at the side of the road and apologized and offered to pay for any damage caused.

However in this case, it was very clearly his mistake.

And my friends were with me so they saw exactly what happened. (He was with his family).

I got exceptionally angry when his car scraped mine. Really, really, really very angry. I honked continuously for about 2 minutes until he indicated that he was going to pull up at the side of the road. And when I got out of my car, on impulse, I slammed the door shut and shouted at him. I actually shouted at him asking him what his problem was and if it was necessary for him to over-take my car like that just because I had a small car. I was seething in anger. Shaking.

So before I said anything that I'd eventually regret, I said I was going to drive to the police station and I was off. Whether or not he wanted to follow was up to him but at that point in time, I was determined to make a police report.

During the 5 minute drive to the police station. I called my dad and my brain whirred with never-ending thoughts. It's his word against mine. Would the police really believe my story? Or would they believe his? What proof is there to show that he really did over-take me and scrape my car? What proof was there to say that I didn't scrape his car? There was no solid proof. And that was my disadvantage.

Just outside the police station, the argument continued (he put the blame entirely on me saying that I scraped his car as I was cutting into the right lane) although after a few minutes I just stopped talking because it was a complete waste of energy so I just made a few calls.

In the end, I apologized for raising my voice (you don't exactly give yourself time to think about how you're gonna react sometimes. You just react.) but I did not apologize for whatever else that happened because I was in no way at fault.

He kept saying that I was dissatisfied. What about, he didn't clearly state but yes, I was. I still am (!) dissatisfied.

I'm dissatisfied about the fact that he commented so negatively on my driving when in actual fact he was the one who was so aggressive with his driving.

I'm dissatisfied with the fact that he blamed me for what happened because I'm very young and because of the assumption he made about my license (or lack thereof).

I'm dissatisfied about the fact that he twisted the whole story and put the blame on me.

Do such people have no conscience?

This is the first time something like this has happened to me. If I really was at fault, if I really had carelessly scraped his car as I was cutting in, I would have been absolutely terrified. I would have apologized immediately and asked him what I could do or if I could pay for any repairs.

But I wasn't in the wrong! I simply wasn't!

The same way he was annoyed about my shouting, I was annoyed about his lying.

He lied.

He lied.

Some people may be able to just apologize no matter what the outcome or no matter what the situation just to settle the problem and move on but I can't do that.

My principles are very different.

I can't apologize for something I didn't do wrong.

I can't just apologize for the sake of settling things.

I can't.

And I won't.

If you're reading this I really hope all of you understand how other drivers feel on the road.

Having a big car does not, in any way, give you the right to intimidate or bully other drivers with relatively smaller cars.

It makes you a road-bully.

Have a conscience and apologize if you've made a mistake. Don't conveniently put the blame on others because we're all only human.

And we have feelings too.

Think about what you would do if your child were in the same situation.

Take a little time to think about that.

And then think about blaming someone else for something they didn't do.