Hit and Run

A rainy Friday night two weeks ago, my sister and I were going to the Mall. We were on Imperial Highway on full stop waiting for the light to turn green. Chatting and fiddling with the car heater, my sister and I heard a screech.  It was as if an accident happened behind us. We both looked back.

Baaam! In a

split second we were jolted forward. It sounded like a few cars crashed on us. I stepped on the brake real hard as the impact was pushing me to the car in front of me. The light turned green, the 

car who bumped into us pulled to the lane on my right. I looked at her, expecting her to make eye contact.

As the other cars ahead of us were driving forward, she careens to take a right turn.  Panicked, I tried to take a photograph of her license plate in my head.  My sister wrote 

it down on her i-phone. Instinctively I followed after her.  I lost her a few blocks down.

We went to the nearest Police

Station and made a report.  The license plate we gave is good and matches the description that we gave.  The patrolman took photos of my car, he noticed some blue paint on my bumper. I was told that they will contact us again possibly to identify the driver and I was encouraged to prosecute.

The next day, I took

 photos of the damage. In daylight, I realize what the blue paint was.  It is the imprint of a California license plate in a mirror image on my bumper. These seven characters I will never forget.  However, her face it seems was not as remarkable.

Three weeks has passed and the police told us that she has hired a lawyer.  The dreaded "L" word.  We were asked to go to the Police Station for a photo line up to identify the driver.

The city of La Habra, all seven miles long of it, gets 25-30 hit and run accidents in a month.  WOW! I thought it is such a huge number, but here's why...

The photo line up turned out to be enlarged (2x2 inches) DMV driver's license photo. It is not even a current photograph. (As a side note, I have curly hair on my DMV photo, so good luck to anyone who would want to identify me.) We signed documents to acknowledge our understanding of the procedures.  I took my time to look at the photos and two girls immediately grabbed me. "I think it is #6."  They wrote it down on the paper and I signed.

My sister and I failed to identify the driver.  This is the end of the case.  I took with me the piece of my bumper where you can read off her license plate, apparently it is of no use to the police since I was not able to identify her.

They cannot even make her go to the police station. Especially with the lawyer, it is impossible.  All those tv drama that you watch when they take in people for questioning due to "probable cause," it is a cruel fiction.

It is all up to my insurance company now to collect whatever it cost to repair my car.  But even then, I stand a chance of not getting back my deductible, etc.  She gets away with it with "possibly" her insurance covering my loss.  Not even a traffic ticket.  I am told her lawyer would most likely insist that the DMV lien be lifted on the car so she would not be inconvenienced when she re-registers her deadly weapon. 

So while I started this experience with a huge question of "WHY" do people leave the scene of an accident, I come away thinking... well, for her, it paid off.

I am very disappointed and perplexed... not dissimilar to my feelings after the accident.  I feel like I have been hit-and-run again.

(So how does it work?  Your kid comes home Friday night with a dent in her car after doing a hit-and-run, and what you do is hire a lawyer?)