The Witness

The other day, I witnessed an accident. I've witnessed accidents before, but often times it's far removed from where I'm at. For example, Danielle and I were driving home from San Clemente one night and it was raining really hard. As we're going along the freeway, you can glance to the other side and see the sea of white headlights reflecting against the rain. Almost mesmerizing really...which is why you glance and not stare. Anyway, all of a sudden, I saw a couple of red lights among the headlights and wondered why that might be. Then I thought how if that was a car, that would not be a good thing being the only way I'd see red is if it was facing the wrong way. Then I realized the red lights were moving and...WHAM! I saw the car sliding and turning until it slammed into the concrete wall. Oh...bad day for them! I guess the bright side was that it appeared to only be a solo crash and not one that involved several cars.

But that's not the accident I was originally going to share about. The other day, I took the kids to the car dealership to get work done on the minivan and on the way, I was stopped at a signal ready to make a left turn. On the cross street, there are two left turn lanes with a car in each of them about to make the left turn onto the street I was on...you know, if I could just map it out here, it'd be so much easier. Anyway, as they were turning, each of the cars was turning into their respective lanes, which by the way, are right next to where I was sitting. The problem was, the guy in the far lane was pulling a car trailer and didn't swing wide enough to compensate. So, as he was turning left, his trailer didn't turn as wide as it should have and started essentially creeping onto the other car turning left in the near lane. This car honked her horn, but the guy in the truck just kept going and it swiped her car good...or...bad. It also punctured her tire and ripped off her front bumper which seemed to hit my car as well. So, I got out and made sure the lady in the car was okay. The guy in the truck parked and walked over and said something about turning left into the correct lane as though he didn't believe it was his fault. The lady almost didn't know what to say and so I jumped in and said no and explained to him what I saw and that the issue was simply that he didn't swing wide enough to compensate for his trailer. He went back to get his paperwork and I chatted with the lady - actually it was a mom and her grown daughter. I found that there were no marks or damage on the minivan so I gave her my name and phone numbers and told her I'd be happy to be a witness for her. Then I went on my way.

A couple days later, I got a call on my cell phone from an insurance adjuster. He said he was given my info by the women in the accident who said I was a witness. So, I gave him my story as best as I could explain it and as detailed as I could to show I really was there and am not making anything up. He ended by essentially saying that it's apparent who was at fault and he thanked me for my time. Later that afternoon, I got another call on my cell phone from the lady who was in the accident. I couldn't answer it at the time and so she left a voicemail. It was really a nice voicemail thanking me for being willing to be a witness for a complete stranger and how my involvement had really helped. I called her back later and found that the guy in the truck was giving his insurance company a completely different story putting the lady at fault. So, the lady gave the insurance company my information which resulted in the call I had with them earlier in the day. Apparently, the insurance company called her back later and said that after speaking with me, they were going to take full responsibility for the accident. So, she called me because she was so thankful for my involvement. I told her that I was very happy to help because I really hate it when people don't take responsibility for their actions and I'm very grateful to know that I was able to prevent this guy from trying to scam her for something that was clearly his fault.

Who knows? Maybe this guy will convince himself so fully that he wasn't at fault that he'll take her to court and I'll be a court witness. I doubt it. But I'll be ready if he does.