public service announcement

Repeat after me: If you are in an accident, call the police. Call the police. Call the police. Oh, and remember...call the police.

Any accident that does not occur on private property, no matter how small, should be reported immediately, before any party leaves the scene.

The kids and I, along with my sister, were rear-ended on the way to the Zoo today, by a teenager. Nobody was hurt, alhamdullilah. Not much damage either, though it was noticeable.

We exchanged information and I (so, so erronously) didn't think to call the cops. Went home, realized I should have, and called them. A cop came out to take a belated report.

Well, she got the message back from hq that nobody existed with that name or driver's license number, and no car was registered with those tags. She said that, many times, perps will give false info because of having warrants out, contraband in their cars, or whathaveyou. Of course, if she had been there with both of us, at the scene, this would not have happened.

Not calling the cops was turning into a very potentially-expensive mistake.

Thankfully, I got a call this afternoon that there had been a problem with the computers and they were not searching state records, only city ones. The guy's real! His insurance is, too!

So, things have worked out as well as they could, mashallah. I have an appointment set for an estimate next week, then his insurance will be fitting the bill.

Whew.

Don't forget the moral of the story :)