Beep, beep, vroom!

Every person who's ever been in driver's education (which is pretty much everyone over the age of 16) has been taught that when you're involved in an accident you should move your vehicle to the right-hand most space on the road (if your vehicle is drivable).

So it shocked me to no end when I got hit on the freeway about a week and a half ago and the driver of the other vehicle decided to continue driving (and in fact seemed to use evasive moves to try to get away). I'd been traveling Northbound on I-15 when a red eclipse changed lanes from the rightmost lane and cut me off after the 53rd South on ramp. (Seriously, the space was barely enough for a parallel park.)

So when that vehicle cut me off, I slowed down a bit to avoid any issues. It was at that moment (and the decision of the vehicle behind me) that they decided to change lanes from behind me to the lane directly left of it. Unfortunately, they chose to speed up and cut the silver car in that lane off at the same moment I slowed down just a bit to avoid the red eclipse.

Bump! Yeah, the first thought that hit me 'holy crap, I just got hit' by that car that just changed lanes. (I also wondered if they'd hit the other car too, but wasn't sure.) The second thought that hit me was that they'd start making their way over the right hand side of the road so we could go through all of the formalities. (This thought was also aided by the fact that they had turned on their right hand blinker after they hit me.) But no, that was not to be the case. Instead they sped up to get away from me, didn't change lanes, then changed lanes, then sped up again. I was so shocked.

I finally grabbed my cell phone and called 911 so I could give them the information of a vehicle. I got put on hold (So yes, don't call 911 unless it's to save a life, prevent a crime, or report a fire.) By the time to operator answered, which wasn't as long as it felt, I had a lot of adrenaline running through my system. I think the first thing I spit out at the operator is that I'd gotten hit going northbound on I-15 and that the other vehicle had driven off and that I probably needed highway patrol, and I just passed one. I then gave them my contact information, but got them the wrong phone number (they got my husband's) because I just spit out the information. The next thing that I was spitting out was all of the information about the vehicle, make, model, color, window details, then driver detail. (mazda, 626, maroon with a butterfly decal in the rear back window, and a license plate border with butterflies)

I think the driver had decided she'd either lost me or she'd pretend she hadn't done anything. (And yes, it bothered me that she was busy smoking a cigarette instead of doing what she should have done.) She took the 33rd exit and the 911 operator told me to pull over at a gas station and wait for an officer to show up to take my statement.

So the officer showed up a while later, took my statement, pictures of the damage, and headed off to locate the other car and driver.

So yeah, though part of this is to provide me with a detailed reminder in case I need it in two years. The other part of it is to remind people of two important facts. 1- If you hit someone they WILL feel it (even if you think it's nothing). 2-A hit and run is FAR worse on your record than a simple car accident so don't just leave the scene.

Oh, and I guess one more tip would be that if you witness an accident pull over and provide a statement or at least contact information.