Last week, I was meeting up with my biz partner H to catch up over lunch and to tour a local property under renovation. After a fruitful afternoon, I started heading home from downtown Los Altos. At a stop sign, I turned right onto a straightaway, going east. A Honda CR-V was traveling in the opposite direction on the straightaway, going west. As I approached the next intersection (with no lights/stop signs), the other driver suddenly pulled into my lane to make an abrupt left turn. I had no notice, slammed on the brakes, and crashed into her passenger front end.

Her air bag deployed, and she covered her face with her hands. As we were now blocking the small intersection, I back up and pulled to the side/curb to clear the blockage. She continued to sit in her car. I got out of my car, and as I walked towards her intending to exchange information, she looked up, drove forward slowly (I was thinking she was going to park on the curb in front of my car), and then she drove off!?!?

I was utterly stunned, as I didn’t expect a 50+ y/o white lady in Los Altos (chi chi town) to do a hit and run. Somehow, I had the wherewithal to capture a pic of her plates as she drove past, with me standing there in the middle of the intersection. I was in shock, and with my hands trembling lightly, I called 911. The cop arrived within five minutes. I explained the situation, and he told me he would reach out to her. Though my car was mangled, I was able to drive the few miles home. My damage consisted of a dented hood, mangled right light assembly, wrecked bumper, and as I discovered a day later, a cracked windshield.

Later that day, the cop called and said the lady called into the station. She corroborated my story and admitted fault, but she explained that she drove off bc she “didn’t see me.” I was so annoyed by her blatant lie. Needless the say, the cop acknowledged the explanation didn’t make sense, he would update his report (still mentioning that she left the scene), and go from there.

Now, five days later, I’ve opened the claim under my account, bc the insurance company is still waiting on the police report to obtain the other driver’s name and policy info. After numerous circuitous calls to my insurance office, the claims department, and auto shops, yesterday I drove the car to my local dealer to my trusted service advisor and his collision estimator. As I pulled into the bay, both men expressed shock that I drove the vehicle, which is funny bc the day of the accident, as soon as Bubs got home, he started going off about all the damage, and so many pieces involved, etc. I was like, OMG you are overreacting. The car still drives. Well, the service dudes had the same reaction as Bubs. It’s a lot of damage. You shouldn’t be driving the car. Off hand, the estimator says it’ll be at least $10k, they won’t know really until they start peeling away the damage to expose what’s underneath. So how long will it be in the shop? I’m guessing a week… A looong time, he says. 3-4 weeks. Whaaaa???

So the good news is that I’m uninjured. My airbag didn’t deploy. The day after, I had some neck/back soreness, but I feel fine now. The bad news is we are waiting on that police report, and I’ll have to figure out a rental car and ride ass on the insurance company to get all the paperwork done right. I am not at fault, so there shouldn’t be any impact to my insurance premium or my driving record.

But dayum, that freaking other driver! Who behaves like this??? I was asking myself: is it possible that someone can go through adult life and NOT know s/he is supposed to stay on scene after an accident? It made me think of that time when I drove a colleague home from a work party. He had a beer at the party, and I told him I could drive, and he could just take the drink with him. He and I are both from the Mid-Atlantic. Later, another friend told me California has open container laws, where you can’t have any open alcohol in the car, regardless of who was driving. Huh??? I was honestly shocked, bc I had never heard of this. So am I like this other woman? Somehow, I had glided through life not possessing what my friend considered to be common sense?!?!

Actually, I just looked this up. IN MY DEFENSE, Virginia, where J and I last lived prior to China and California, actually does NOT have open container laws, so passengers are permitted to have alcohol!