I saw a car accident on my way to work this morning. I’ll try my best to describe the situation so you can picture it in your head. Imagine a 4-way intersection. That’s not exactly what it was, but close enough. Two lanes going South, two lanes going North, and one West lane and one East lane. I was driving in the middle South lane. The two North lanes were stopped, because of a red light up ahead of them, with the cars leaving a space to clear the West lane. As I was driving, suddenly a green car quickly came through the West lane passing in front of me, to turn into the South lane on my right. But at that moment a brown car came speeding up the right South lane. The brown car honked but it was too late, the brown car hit the front passenger side of the green car just as the green car was in mid-turn, this pushed the brown car to the right, bumping it up against the street corner, while the green car spun almost completely around, like in a u-turn, and hit a blue car, which was stopped in the left North lane.

This whole thing just seemed to happen in the blink of eye, much faster than it likely took you to read the above description of the event. I sat there in my car for a minute just like WHOA, that was close. If I’d been driving just a little bit faster I may have hit the green car first. I then pulled into the next lane, because the green car was sitting there, still touching the blue car, blocking my lane now, and drove off. On the rest of the way, I began thinking that perhaps I should have stuck around, and offered some help. I had my camera on me, as I almost always do, so I could have pulled over to the corner and took some photos of the scene, and offered to send them to each of the drivers. I could have also offered to testify or sign any statements, if necessary, about what I saw. After all, I was a witness and, in my opinion, I believe that the driver of the green car was at fault. She (I could see it was a woman) came out of the West lane too fast, without looking. The brown car could have been a little slower, but it did have the right of way. And I could have sworn to that.

Now, in my defense (& I say this realizing that it’s a pretty crappy “defense”), I was running late for work. I’d gotten up a little later than usual, but still had time to make it if there weren’t too many delays. So that was my immediate impulse, to just get going. Again, if I’d thought about it a little more, I would have stuck around. Also, it did not immediately appear that anyone was injured, each car had just one driver, and as I left they were are still sitting in their cars (I noticed that the driver in the green car was dialing on her phone at the time, I assume calling the police or insurance company), but I suppose that someone could have had whiplash or some other problem that wasn’t visible. And that thought makes me feel even more guilty for not staying. And there were a dozen other cars around, the two North lanes were practically full, so I can only hope that someone else stepped in.

But the only noticeable thing is that each car had dents now. And I know that sucks. I’m especially thinking of the driver of the blue car, because he was 100% blameless. At least with the other two drivers they could argue who was at fault, who was going too fast, or who should have been on the look-out for the other. I know I said I think the green car was at fault, but maybe another witness would say otherwise, but with the blue car there is no debate. He was just sitting there, minding his own business, and now his car is messed up! Poor guy. I was just thinking how pissed I’d be if that were me. And I know what a pain the arse car maintenance can be. Over the past decade it seems my biggest financial drain has been my cars (I’m on my 3rd one, now). It seems like something’s always going wrong with them, that needs to be fixed. I really wish that I did not need one. But public transportation is not an option to get to my job.

I am a very good driver, though. I always have been. That’s because I’m really paranoid, and always thinking of the worst case scenario. I don’t want to kill anyone with my car. I’ve had a few close calls over the years, where I’ve almost hit somebody, but I haven’t. I’ve never been in a car accident. And, so far, no one has hit me while driving, which is another fear of mine, so I try to watch out for other people. Again, that’s why I sympathize the most with the driver of the blue car, because that’s the kind of thing I worry most about, of someone else not paying attention and just hitting me. Each time my cars have been hit, it’s happened while I had them parked right in front of my house. My first car got a dent on the front side when someone backed into it. I’m pretty sure it was neighbor, or a guest of the neighbor, who was backing out of the driveway across the street from me. My 2nd car got hit twice. First, someone hit the front, and it knocked off my front license plate. I knew exactly who did it, it was a former neighbor, because I saw the car parked in front of me early in the morning, when I went out to throw out some trash, but then a hour or so later when I was leaving for work, that car was gone, and my license plate was on the ground, so I know they backed into me while pulling out, but I couldn’t prove it, so I never said anything. Then I’ve written before about the MASSIVE CRASH that totally frakked up that car for good. And with my current car, somebody hit that, earlier this year, I was parked on the corner and it looks like someone must have come driving around it and hit me in the front, leaving a small dent. So that’s my rotten luck.

Still, the way something like this can happen so unxepectedly just reminds me of how random life is. So be careful out there, everyone.