<p>^I went into shock with my thing at the mall too. The police officer wasn’t really that nice to me and it was the first time I’d ever hit another car, and I was shaking I was so messed up. My sister had to come get me and bring me home and I had to go back later to get my car…it was no bueno. XD And now I’m totally paranoid in parking lots.</p>
<p>Long ago, when I was in college I drove university run city buses to make a bit of spending money. On one of the bus routes there was a circle that was marked “no parking” specifically so the buses could reach the apartments on that circle. One night, when I was driving the 40 foot coach (our longest bus) a full size pickup was parked on the circle. I did the drop-off pickup, waited a few minutes until I knew I’d be late if I didn’t head off, and crept past the pickup. Low and behold I still hit the truck with the last 10 feet of the bus. Totalled the truck, didn’t even scratch the bus. The police ticketed the truck, and I didn’t get a citation. They felt the entire accident was the trucks fault, our insurance wasn’t even contacted. So apparently there are some exceptions to the “hit a unmoving object” rule, but I don’t know exactly where the line is drawn. This was a public street, not a parking lot, and the truck had blocked a public vehicle. But I’m not sure what exactly the exception was.</p>
<p>fendergirl, what a nice story! I really enjoyed reading that. </p>
<p>HisGrace, you’ve mentioned a couple of times that the policeman who interacted with you when you had your vehicle accident wasn’t very nice. But you have to understand that the police, from what I’ve seen, tend to be fairly hard on young drivers. It’s not discrimination and it’s not personal. I believe it’s the police’s way of trying to make kids understand the gravity of car accidents. They are less concerned that it’s your first accident, and they are more interested in helping you learn to make it the last accident!</p>
<p>My daughter got a speeding ticket when she had been driving a year. The policeman was not nice to her, either. I should have sent him a thank you note.</p>
<p>fendergirl:</p>
<p>It’d be great if all accidents were as amicable as that and kudos to your sister for ‘doing the right thing’.</p>
<p>I think that some police officers could use some interpersonal training esp when dealing with individuals that are not a threat. But, I suppose that some of them have the personalities/attitudes because of the times we live in. I don’t think that attitudes are particularly directed at younger drivers either-while my interactions with police have been very minor, I do not feel that I can recall even one officer with superb manners! And, I am very thankful for these officers, don’t get me wrong (I support them 100%). Even the officer in the fender bender (see above post) was not particularly helpful or courteous. And his police report (for which I had to pay for) is almost unreadable! I try to tell myself and son to be as polite as possible when and if dealing with police.</p>
<p>My D was driving down our cul-de-sac one morning soon after she got her license. The sun was blinding her, so she reached up to pull the visor down. As she did so, she hit an SUV that was parked the wrong way on the street. Although D was driving very slowly, she hit the SUV right on the headlight, doing damage to the headlight & fender. The owner worked as a sheriff’s dispatcher, and she insisted on reporting the accident to the local police. D got a ticket for Improper Lane Use, which was, I believe, 2 points & $100. D asked for a court date & ended up getting the charge reduced to Impeding Traffic, which did not carry any points. She still had to pay a $100 fine, as well as the $250 deductible for the damage on her car. Our insurance paid the other party’s deductible. It was a bad experience all around. However, it DID make her much more aware of how a very small error can have profound effects. We were thankful she didn’t hit a kid walking to school! I would say that the end result is a better driver.</p>
<p>fendergirl,</p>
<p>It sounds as if your sister is doing the right thing in terms of sending the apology letter and the check. However, she may be going about getting the parts to repair her own car the wrong way.</p>
<p>When I was fixing up my own car in high school 30 years ago, one had to use your sister’s method (i.e. call around and/or go to local junk yards to find auto parts). However, nowadays one only has to use the internet. There are several free services that are available on the internet in which you only need to enter the year, make, and model of your vehicle as well as the part required, along with your e-mail address. Within hours, you will receive e-mails from junk yards around the country, all with the price and shipping charges to receive the required part. Some of the junkyards will even photograph the part for you to be sure it is the right one. </p>
<p>This has revolutionized the vehicle salvage business and interestingly, it has had the exact opposite scale-effect of WalMart versus the small hardware store. Via the internet, small salvage yards that only have a few cars can now compete with the mega-junk yards by setting up their software to automatically respond only when the specific year, make, model and part is requested. Therefore, mega-junkyards, where in years past teenagers would have wandered the rows of vehicles looking for the right part, have dramatically decreased or disappeared, having effectively been replaced by the internet and a national used auto parts database. Just use Google to find one of these free services.</p>
<p>i’ll tell her - it was my dads idea to go to a junk yard. i never knew sites like that existed. I’ll be sure to have her look them up. It was pretty funny, they took the front fender off of her car and took it with so they could try to find one of the same color. They didn’t come across any Honda Civic’s of her year model though.</p>
<p>My mom backed into our mailbox twice a few years ago (right after we got it). Both times she broke her passenger side tail light and destroyed the mail box. (haha) Both times, they got her a replacement at the local junk yard. Another time some guy clipped her car and didn’t stop and clipped off her mirror and they got her one at the local junk yard too (maybe it was from the same car - haha)</p>
<p>I think that’s why they went there today, just in case they had anything. I just found a site: [Used</a> Auto Parts, Used Car Parts Online Locator Truck Auto Salvage Nationwide](<a href=“http://www.autoandparts.com/]Used”>http://www.autoandparts.com/) which I e-mailed to her.</p>
<p>Hayden-I can understand that, but I think this guy was way over the top. I know several police officers who agree that he was way harsh when I told them the story.</p>
<p>He even called my mom (now this doesn’t bother me because the car is registered to her and well, she’s my mom) and told her I’d been in an accident, but refused to let me talk to her. When I finally came out of shock enough to call her (I had 2 friends with me who consoled me and really helped out), she thought I’d been seriously injured because the cop refused to let me talk to her. She was almost as freaked out as I was. I think there’s a difference between being firm and being rude/overly disciplinary. I was already shaken up enough and in shock (one of the present friends actually carries Rescue Remedy for these types of instances and made me use a couple drops), all he did was make it way worse.</p>
<p>Don’t get me wrong, I’m not one of those “police are evil” people…like I said, I know and am in fact related to several officers. I just think this particular one could have handled the situation better.</p>
<p>ohhh, fendergirl, that makes me so mad! Last spring break, I drove my car (it’s registered to my parents but I’m pretty much the only one who drives it, so I call it my car) to church on Monday Night and didn’t drive it again. Wednesday, my dad calls me inside and asks me where the huge dent on the drivers’ side door of my car came from. I had no idea and thankfully he believed me. Now my car is a '99 Chrysler Concorde. If you’ve seen one, you know that they’re low enough to the ground that it’s pretty hard to make a dent in the door. My dad suspects that our neighbor backed into it with the trailer hitch of his truck, since it was a circular dent. But whoever did it never left a note. That’s what bothers me-I don’t care that he hit my car, but I would’ve liked to have known about it.</p>
<p>EDIT: As a funny sidenote, as I’m telling my friend Chris about this later that day, he goes “OMG I got in a wreck today too, I knocked out my window.”</p>
<p>I reply, “How did you knock out your whole window?”</p>
<p>“…I was trying not to hit a parked car.”</p>
<p>I got a little chuckle out of that.</p>
<p>
If he didn’t hit it too hard and hit it with his hitch and was clueless enough to not see the vehicle in the first place, it’s possible he didn’t hear or feel the hit and therefore never knew he hit your car hence no note.</p>
<p>He had to have felt it. The dent in my door isn’t one of those little dents that you don’t notice…it’s very noticable. I mean it’s possible, I just don’t think it’s very likely.</p>