Get off your laptop and deal with life

The BBQ Pit
1

Last weekend we were driving home just after dark. I’m sitting at a stop light with a car in front and a car behind.

My wife starting saying “oh god” and “oh… SEVEN…”

I was pretty sure we weren’t having sex, so with my vast powers of deduction I figured something was wrong.

I say what any husband with a wife freaking out says:

“What?”

“Ohmygodohmygod”

I look to the left. Nothing. I look in the rear mirror. Nothing. I look to the right and see the tail end of a truck with a camper on the back heading right for us. It’s backing out of a Starbucks parking lot.

Of course I did what anyone with a camper about to smack into them does - I lean on the horn just to add a musical note to the sound of my passenger door and rear quarter panel being played by a rather solid rear bumper.

HONK-CRUUUUNCH!

Needless to say people running into me kind of pisses me off.

The light changes and I pull away from the camper. I swing around it’s driver side and park in the lot. The camper is still in the street. I hop out of the car and head for the truck to give the driver a piece of my mind. The only problem, no driver.

For about 5 seconds I’m in the parking lot going “WTF??” That’s really not the thing you expect to see when a car just rams into you. Later I was laughing about it because I must have looked pretty silly standing there with my jaw wide open and a huge flashing question mark above my head. I’m pretty sure at one point I was Fred Willard in A Mighty Wind - “WhaaaHaapin?”

I head into Starbucks. There are two people behind the counter and one big fat man at a table on his laptop. Rather loudly I say to the barista guy “do you know who owns that truck?”

“Nope?”

I shrug. “The fucking thing just smashed up my car. No driver”.

“Really? Weird dude”

I head back outside.

My wife is next to my car on her mobile calling the PD. She, of course, is on hold. We exchange a few words about what we’re supposed to do when a parked car hits you when you’re driving.

About a minute after I walked out of Starbucks here comes Fatty Laptop Man. He gets in the truck and drives it into the lot (taking up two spaces - one being the handicap space). He gets out and says “I’ve got my insurance and papers. I’ll give it to you inside”. The ass goes back in and starts typing away on his laptop (he had outlook open). We finish the call with the PD and collect the two names and numbers from the people who watched the whole thing.

We go inside and he’s got his cards laid out on the table. He hardly even looks at us as we copy his information. My wife and daughter are shaking from the adrenaline. My wife can hardly speak as just moments ago she expected the handle of the car door to be passing through her spleen. What does Fathead Laptop Man do? He surfs the web.

Not one “I’m sorry”. Not a single “are you all ok?” At one point he said “what can I say?”

It was all I could do to contain myself. “Your car rolled out into the street with no one at the wheel. It slammed into my car. The entire side is thrashed…” I pause to give him a chance to say something.

“I’ve got insurance. The card is right there.”

I wanted to pick up his laptop and slam it over his fat fucking head.

He didn’t take his eyes off the screen as he put his cards back in his wallet and slid the bundle across his ass fat into his back pocket as we walked out the door.

Its not like an apology will fix my car or my shaken up family but I did want to hear him own up for not setting his parking brake and the damage it caused. But no. Nothing.

Stupid fucking fat fuck. GET OFF YOUR COMPUTER AND DEAL WITH REAL LIFE!

If he was on a cell phone instead of his computer I’m 98% positive I would have beat him silly with it.

The good news is no one was hurt and the car was repaired in 4 days (looking almost as good as new) and his insurance paid for the lot. Insurance also got us a rental for 4 days.

That said the rental, a 2005 Jeep Grand Cherokee Laredo, is a piece of shit.

2

Seven: Its not like an apology will fix my car or my shaken up family but I did want to hear him own up for not setting his parking brake and the damage it caused. But no. Nothing.

AFAIK a lot of people believe that it’s a bad idea to say “I’m sorry” or anything that might be construed as an admission of responsibility in an accident. Theoretically, nobody admits to doing anything wrong until the insurance companies investigate and decide what happened and who’s going to pay for what.

Mind you, I think this is a lousy approach to take, but it seems to be fairly widespread. Just pointing out that it probably wasn’t the use of the laptop that caused the reaction you’re complaining about: the guy would probably have been just as evasive and noncommittal if he were working with pencil and paper.

3

Well … given your apparent (and quite possibly obvious to him) desire to put the boots to him, he might have simply been scared and trying to avoid confrontation by hiding behind busywork and not engage with you. That’s not to say that his behavior wasn’t exceptionally odd, but it might not have been completely irrational from his perspective.

4

Perhaps, but I’m going to go with clueless dickhead in this case.

5

So how is his fatness relevent to your story? Sounds like you’re just looking for an opportunity to bash a fatty.

Just kidding. Just thought I’d get that in before the oversensitive tub-o-guts crowd shows up.

6

Did he get a ticket for taking up a handicapped spot?

I would have pointed that out to the officers as well.

7

Yeah, don’t know why the tub-o-guts crowd is so tetchy.

  • featherlou, not oversensitive, not undersensitive, but just right.

I think I have to go with the others, Seven. His behaviour was odd and antisocial, but I have also been advised to say nothing in a situation like that.

8

Man, I sure would have wanted to be sure the police did something if I could. What a numbnuts!

Did you file an accident report?

9

Sorry, that sounded naggy. I just thought it might help laptop man get his just deserts.

10

Maybe I missed something. Has was the question of how a parked car managed to back into you answered?

11

Yeah, this could be the reason he wasn’t super-excited to have a chat with you.

This isn’t as much about ‘what a lot of people believe’ as it is about ‘what the insurance companies themselves tell you.’ It’s never a good idea to take the blame unless you have to, legally speaking. Let the insurance companies sort it out: That’s what you’re paying them to do.

Sancho Panzer, that is one of the dumbest things I’ve read in at least a month and we’re all dumber for having read it.

12

bolding mine
OK, it’s bad enough that your lives were just imperiled. But to receive this treatment immediately afterwards? (yeah, not to mention the owner of the camper :rolleyes: )

This is why I’m no longer a slave to the fucking siren corporate coffee whores known as “Starfucks.” I CANNOT BELIEVE that Barista didn’t offer to call the police for you, or help you locate the owner of the camper, or do anything except stand there like a fucking idiot without even a “Wow, that sucks.” When I was a shift supervisor for the evil empire, I made DAMN sure that my staff went above and beyond, not to mention answering the call of simple human compassion. I hope that fuck that couldn’t even muster a little sympathy, to even ask if anyone was injured and provide assistance, takes a fully open steamwand up the fucking ass, and then has his sphincter stuffed so full of used grinds that he can taste them in the bck of his mouth. And I’d make him lick the floor drains clean with his tongue. FUCK the camper owner too – may he one day feel the terror of his own camper coming at him because he forgot to set the brake (then again, he’d be too damned busy with his laptop to notice, and…SQUISH).

I’m so sorry you had to go through this. :frowning: Glad that no one was injured.

13

I don’t buy the ‘not admitting guilt’ aspect. Pointing out he has insuance after his car bashed into mine pretty much puts the blame in his court.

I really wasn’t confrontational. I might have been a bit amped up by the whole affair (who wouldn’t be) but I was polite the entire time. In fact, thinking back, I don’t think I said anything to him before he said he’d give me his papers inside and turned around and walked in.

It was the detachment that really bugged me. That someone really cared more about his computer and some website then what just happened.

As for how his car rolled out in the street, I have no clue.

The police wouldn’t respond to the scene. Because the owner was there and no one got hurt, they didn’t want any part of it.

14

I agree with Seven – perhaps the guy was trying not to admit guilt, but it sounds like the bigger peeve here is how he barely even acknowledged Seven’s existence, and blew the whole thing off as if to say, “Hey, this sort of thing happens every day”.

Of course, maybe it does happen to him every day.

First time I was involved in an accident was when I was still a teenager. And it was the other guy’s fault – I was in the midde section of a divided highway (crossing it), sitting still, waiting for the oncoming lanes to clear. Other guy was going past me and turning left – he turned to sharply and clipped the back end of my car. What was kind of disturbing was his nonchalant attitude, especially to me, a pretty new driver at the time. “Oh, this is no big deal. I’ve had accidents like this all the time”.

Me, thinking gosh that’s real encouraging. Why do I want to be on the roads again?

15

Sheesh - you’d think they’d at least write up an accident report. Isn’t that the standard procedure?

16

The police always write up reports on accidents that happen on public roads. When there’s a collision in a private parking lot, it’s a bit more discretionary.

17

But he was on the road, waiting at a stoplight. The vehicle that hit him had backed OUT of the parking lot (driverless, yes), but it sounds like the collision was actually on the normal road.

18

This might very by state. In NY, they will attempt to talk you out of it if there are no injuries. You have be rather insistent.

19

First of all, I’m very glad you and your family are ok.

Second - Am I really the only one who thought Seven would find the driver of the truck using his laptop while driving? Apparently you guys haven’t seen some of the shit that Massholes do while driving.

20

As for the PD and accident reports:

After talking with the two insurance companies, the PD and the ODMV here’s what I understand.

You should file an accident report for all accidents but you must file a report if;
–Damage to car or any property is over $1500
–Any case of injury or death
–A vehicle is towed from the scene

The PD might respond to any accident if they have a free squad car in the area but will respond if the above has happened or someone needs a ticket (ran a light, drunk, no insurance, no license, ect)

We were sitting on our accident report because our insurance company said we might not need one. Today we got the quote/statement from the Laptop Man’s insurance company and it is over $1500 so now we have to take it in.