Inconvenient Encounter

She said that all her damage was new. I was
skeptical, but it was irrelevant to our case.

Yesterday I got into a very minor fender bender. A 72-year-old lady backed into my car as I was driving by her Toyota sedan in a parking lot. No one was hurt.

She seemed more rattled than I, so I hid my disgust (not at her, but at the situation), and described what we should do. We took pictures of each other’s driver’s licenses, insurance cards, and damage and exchanged phone numbers. Her car (top) fared worse than mine (bottom).

Two hours later she texted me that her insurance company judged that she was 100% at fault and that she would pay for everything. I reported the accident to my own company, which agreed with the assessment.

My car: paint came off.

Not long ago the two parties would have looked at the damage and likely settled off the books. She would have claimed responsibility, and if she gave me $200 cash that would have been the end of it. Neither of us would tell our insurance companies. I probably wouldn't even have bothered to take the car in, just buy some paint and touch up the black spots to prevent rust down the line. It would be up to her to take care of her own car.

In our hyper legalistic society we have a fear of deviating from procedures, and we were both stuck doing it the long way. It will be a hassle to take the car to a body shop, get an estimate, report back to her insurance company, then get the scratches repaired.

This is precisely the sort of incident that will upset my lizard brain for weeks. Rationally, this is just an inconvenience that should be dismissed as immaterial. Let's hope rationality wins.