I got in my first fender-bender today (although I have been rear-ended before, but they took off and there wasn't any damage). It was an interesting experience. I was driving on a one-way street and was going to turn left, but I needed to stop to let a pedestrian cross. When I stopped, the woman behind couldn't stop quickly enough and slid on the slick street. Crunch! There goes my tail light! Well, at least, there goes the red casing thing around my tail light. We pulled over and I have to say, I felt much worse for the woman that hit me than I felt myself. My car is kind of a piece of crap, I mean, I appreciate the fact that my grandparents gave it to me and that it has lasted me for the last 5 years, but I really don't mind if there is a little bit of cosmetic damage. The other woman on the other hand, she had a newer and nicer car that also had much more damage than mine did. Also, she was on her way to pick up her grand daughter and head out of town for Memorial Day Weekend, so I felt bad for her. Plus, she looked more frazzled than I was.
I have to say, this was a pretty pleasant fender-bender experience. Luckily, the woman was very nice about it, no one was injured, the cars seemed to only have cosmetic issues, and the pedestrian that was crossing the street actually walked over to us to give us his information because he witnessed it and he said he felt partly responsible. Everyone involved was very nice and civil and thinking back on it, I feel like this is how these things should go. Yes, it is a little inconvenient, but in the scheme of life, it's nothing, so we might as well be kind and considerate.
