Sorry to hear this happened, but… doesn’t this pretty much match your own description of events? The only arguable part is the “deliberately,” but you said you noticed the cars were touching each other before you attempted to pull out.
You heard the scrape, saw the damage, and took off anyway, and people saw you do it. It doesn’t look good, and I agree with others that the “low blood sugar” defense (even if true) is unlikely to get you very far.
Let me assure you that you are indeed impaired if your blood glucose is low enough to cause symptoms. You don’t think you are impaired, but you are. You yourself described an impaired driving scenario in your OP - you made a bad judgement, and all you were thinking about was getting home and getting food. You were at the supermarket, fer heaven’s sake - it doesn’t occur to you that you weren’t thinking straight, when all you could think to do was GO HOME?
You are tottaly screwed is a good summary. Anybody that thinks it a good idea to make an issue of the diabetes affecting panache45’s judgement, should disinvow the notion quickly. You should hope the issue doesn’t get mentioned. I’d say don’t talk to the other lady directly, or to her insurance representative, but you already did, and it’s to late. This is definitely a series of unfortunate events, with bad decisions at every pivotal point. You have my best wishes for the outcome.
Someone should have told you rule number one:
Never talk to the other parties’ insurance agent. You aren’t required to and it can’t possibly go well for you.
I’m also wondering why you didn’t eat something there. You were at a supermarket, I assume you just bought food. Even if you didn’t buy something you could eat right there, wouldn’t it have been faster to run back inside and grab a candy bar?
I grew up with a diabetic father, and we tried to keep a roll of Lifesavers in the glove box, for just such an occasion.
First of all, I only mentioned the low blood sugar as the reason I needed to get home. Other than that, it has no bearing on the “accident.” And I have no excuse for not grabbing a quick candy bar. That was dumb. And I did not mention this to the other driver or her insurance agent.
As far as the actual issue is concerned, it was the other driver who caused the contact between the two cars. I did not back into her car, I backed away from it. I take full responsibility for my own actions (or inactions), but I did not cause the two cars to be touching in the first place.
You’re lying to yourself. Quit it.
I myself am diabetic. I have experienced, multiple times, the low blood sugar scenario. I can state that regardless of what you THINK, you are incorrect. You are not competent to drive a vehicle, or even accurately describe the scene, while incapacitated. That you may have done so many times over the years prior to this (driving, I mean) has no bearing. You got lucky before now, just like many alcoholics drive drunk and don’t get caught.
For proof of this, look back on your own statements. Is it the act of a sane person to back out while touching another vehicle? That alone should have clued you in prior to now that, just maybe, your thought processes were a wee more impaired than you believed. Anybody else would have had the store page the owner.
Maybe, maybe not. You can’t be trusted to accurately describe the situation. You were, essentially, DRUNK. I find it hard to believe that someone would have parked actually TOUCHING another car. If they had touched your car, more likely than not they would have backed out immediately and found another spot, rather than risk witnesses saying they hit your car, or worse, risk someone coming out while they were inside and having them towed for obstruction.
What it comes down to is, you screwed yourself. For the sake of everyone else out there, take it as a lesson and figure out ways to avoid the situation in the future.
I backed into a car about a year ago when we were parked in just about the same positions. The other driver may have set the scene for the accident, but you finished it. Then once you hit the car, since you admit you heard the cars scraping together, you should have left your contact information on her windshield.
I paid to fix the girl’s car, and the insurance companies never had to be called. The police either.
-Lil
You admitted that you heard a scratching or scraping sound while you were backing up!!! That means YOU scraped the car. Parking close to you was fucked up, but did not casue the contact. YOU caused the contact. It’s your fault. If you could not back up because the car was too close to you, then you should have called a cop or tow truck or store manager or something. But you should never have attempted to move your vehicle if it was unsafe to do so.
In a more obvious example, had the vehicle parked directly behind you and blocked you in, what would you have done? If you were unable to move, then you could not smash into the car and claim it was the other car’s fault for being in your way.
You messed up. It’s your fault. Admit it and reap the consequences like an adult.
Even if she was able to nestle her car in to kiss yours without damaging either car, that doesn’t give you the right to damage her car to get away from it. If you could not extricate yourself from the space without doing damage, then you should have waited until she came out to move her car. You can have the store page her, you can scream at her when she emerges, whatever – but you can’t damage her car. Think about it as if someone had parallel-parked you in, by parking too close to you, even to the point of touching your bumper. That doesn’t give you the right to smash into their car to extricate yourself from the space.
Yes, you were impaired or you wouldn’t have thought for one minute that it was okay for you to scrape up someone else’s care and then take off. I understand that in your impaired state you felt you had to leave right away. Even though that wasn’t actually true, it’s what you believed at the time. But that cannot excuse your behavior in hitting the woman’s car.
Your impairment may provide a reason for your behavior, but it doesn’t excuse it. It’s still your fault.
And Dinsdale, your first post made me LOL. 
Oh, and if you had successfully backed away from her car, you would not have left a scrape on it. If you dislike the term “backed into her,” try “backed across her.”
No I don’t think she’s lying to herself there. I think you’re assuming that she was impaired because of the low blood sugar, even though she says she wasn’t.
And she has since had a couple meals and time to gain her sanity, but she still views the incident as someone else’s fault. So I’m guessing that even when she has normal blood sugar and full cognitive function, she does stupid things like crash into other cars and claim it’s not her fault.
If she said, “I messed up, I wasn’t thinking straight and I did a really stupid thing” then I’d think it was the lack of sugar what caused this incident.
Based on the statements, and the fact that she has been driving this vehicle without insurance and that she still–with ample amounts of glucose in her veins–will not admit it’s her fault, I think it’s a permanent flaw on her part and not a chemically induced one.
Bear Nenno, are you reading my mind??
First we hear this:
Then this:
You damaged another person’s property. However the other person parked, as you describe it you had the last chance to avoid causing damage. And - at least in your first description - you were at least somewhat preoccupied by a (manageable/avoidable) health concern. Then you drive away without even leaving a note. And, of course, now your victim has to deal with collecting from an uninsured driver.
Sounds like a pretty accurate description of events. Exactly what part of it do you disagree with?
You are not screwed. Instead, you screwed up. Use the active voice and assume responsibility for your personal choices and actions. Everything, including your phrasing of your thread title, raising your health as supposedly a relevant factor - then denying that it impacted your state of mind, your criticism of your mom’s lawyer, blaming the other car’s parking, shows a consistent attempt to shift the blame somewhere other than where it properly lies.
Spreading a little joy is my primary reason for existence.
Well, I’ll give that a “Hallelujah!”, with some hope that it will sink into panache’s head once he’s finished blaming every one but himself.
Speaking as a doctor who has treated literally well over a thousand diabetics, and a diabetic myself, I can state quite firmly that anyone who is diabetic and senses a falling blood sugar is at serious risk for bad consequences if they try to drive. We are impaired when we can sense our own low blood sugar.
And I’ve had almost as many diabetics tell me that low blood sugar “never affects my judgement” as I’ve had alcoholics tell me that alcohol “never affects my judgement”.
In each case it’s an impaired brain telling the person that the brain is fine.
I’m sorry you are going through this. But I have to agree with the impaired judgement–why else would you think you had to get home, instead of solving your problem with a trip back into the grocery store? Or eat something you just bought…
It has to be impaired judgement to not see the simpler, more straightforward solution to this.
I worked with a diabetic that totaled three cars during her pregnancy. She never relized how bad she was until sfter the crashes.