Hit and Run

I’m not sure when the rules changed, but apparently now if you hit another car with yours, you’re supposed to sneak away without doing anything. That’s right, hit and run. After all, why should the wrongdoer pay? The innocent victim is the one who should pay.  

       In the last six months, I’ve been a victim or bystander to three incidents. The first one happened at the gym while I was at Zumba. I came out and my rear bumper had a softball sized dent/crease in the left corner.

There wasn’t a note left under my windshield wiper. Nobody had left a message for me at the front desk of the gym. Whoever did it, had to work at it because I purposely park where there’s not a row of cars behind me.

       The second incident happened while I was at work. At this particular job, I eat lunch in my car. One day while I ate my sandwich, I heard someone honking. It sounded like it was coming from the next row of parked cars, but I couldn’t see anything.

       After lunch, I went back inside and got to work. My supervisor didn’t come in for another 20 minutes. That was unusual, so we all wondered what happened.

When she came in, she told us that she’d been eating in her Jeep SUV. She looked up and saw someone backing up into her. She honked her horn, but the car kept coming.

It hit her, and then pulled forward and parked. Nobody got out of the car. She finally got out of her Jeep and went up to the car.

It was, of course, a co-worker since that’s our designated area of the parking lot. My supervisor, who is pregnant, asked the hitter, who was already on crutches, what happened. The answer was that somehow she didn’t see the Jeep SUV, and didn’t hear the horn honking either.

It took a long time for her to admit that she’d even hit her. She also said that she thought there was already damage to my supervisor’s bumper, and added that she didn’t have any insurance. 

The latest parking lot hit and run happened yesterday. Johnny and I wanted to blow the pine needles off Sarah’s car and then park it in the garage. We needed to get some groceries, so we drove Sarah’s Audi to Fred Meyer’s which also got rid of the pine needles.

 We parked and went into the store. Twenty minutes later we came out, and found the corner of the rear bumper cracked and scraped. No note, nothing, but damage. We weren’t sticking out of the space. It was angled parking. It probably happened because someone across from our space backed out to go the wrong way down the row.

We haven’t even had the car for a month. I waited a day to call Sarah and break the bad news to her.

Accidents happen. I know that. These aren’t expensive new cars. Nobody was physically hurt. I’m sure that’s how the hitter justified forgiving himself and then leaving. But, it’s not up to him to forgive himself. It’s up to him to apologize and try to make it better.  

How can someone damage someone else’s property and drive away without a word. Why is it so hard for some people to take responsibility for their actions? If you can’t be responsible for the little things, how will you handle the big things?

When I was learning to drive, my father stressed that one of the most dangerous places to drive was the parking lot. Apparently, it’s also one of the worst places to park.

Laura Keolanui Stark is getting more exercise hiking into stores from the farthest spaces in parking lots. She can be reached at stark.laura.k@gmail.com.