It Finally Happened...
My truck got hit in a parking lot today. Thankfully, Burr and I were both in the vehicle when this happened. An elderly man who was hard of hearing (and apparently driving), swung way too wide in order to park and hit my left rear. His car rubbed up against my truck, as I looked over and saw what was happening, before he backed up and tried parking again.
At first the driver denied it, but it was unmistakable. He hit us so hard that Burr and I initially thought it was an earthquake! When we were apparently ready to call police, he changed his tune and admitted to it, but then got pushy about hurrying things up. He demanded to see our insurance (even as we found out afterwards that his was expired...) and he actually took the attitude that we were holding HIM up. I couldn't believe it. I wanted remind him, "YOU hit ME, buddy!" but I didn't say anything just yet. He then said to us "How long is this going to take? I have a meeting to go to." Yeah, and we gotta pay rent before the office closes. Deal. That much I did say...
We took photos and are working with our insurance provider right now. I'm thankful we were there because this man had the attitude of someone who was willing to commit a hit and run. I have no doubt in my mind the senile old man would have simply drove off without as much as leaving contact information.
Admittingly, the damage appears to be very minor, but this is still huge deal for me.
The truck is 10 years old this year. I have been very proud of my truck and I've taken great pride in keeping it in a 'like-new' condition for the entire time that I've owned it. It's never been in a wreck, never been dented, and not even scratched. I've been very cautious and even right up to this parking lot incident, I THOUGHT I parked the truck in the most out of the way spot possible. I took more photos and I can even show you that I parked my truck against the curb to give the person next to me the MAXIMUM parking room available.
It wasn't enough, apparently. The only way he would have missed me was if I parked up on the landscaping. Seriously, even the parking lines were doubled in the bank parking lot to give cars more room!
I am grateful that the damage is minor and it'll more than likely buff out, but it might need to be repainted.
I'm just... pissed beyond words and upset that no matter how hard I tried to keep my truck from being in an accident, even sitting still, in a far corner of a parking lot, some [censored] that shouldn't be driving at all, still managed to hit me...
I'm going to keep my thoughts to myself about elderly drivers. I've had a very strong opinion about this that may not be very popular, but this just makes me want to scream it from the roof tops even louder. For now, I won't say a thing, but you could probably guess what my opinion is.
Who knows? Maybe my truck kept him from driving into the damn building...