Liam and I were meeting Aaron at Home Depot when we got stuck at a redlight. We were sitting there minding our own business when we felt the crunch from behind. I put the car in park and got out to check on the other driver and try to quickly assess the damage that was caused. When I approached the lady's vehicle, she apologized and said she was distracted by feeding her daughter a snack. Okay, that's fair I thought. But I did notice that her 4–5-year-old daughter was in the front seat without a seatbelt on. With that kind of parenting and overall mindset, I knew this wasn't going to be good. She frantically searched for her insurance on her phone. I stood there and wondered why she didn't have her insurance card in her glovebox like typical drivers do. She continued to search for the insurance when I said we need to call the police. She suddenly stopped and looked up at me and said, "I'm going to be completely transparent with you. I have a bench warrant." There it is. The feeling I was feeling in the very beginning about something being off, hit like a brick in an instant. My heart sank.
I called Aaron and said I was running behind because I just had a wreck. He freaked out and asked if we were okay and then told me to call the police and I told him the news about her bench warrant. I couldn't help but think of that little girl in the front seat and how her mom's life choices were going to affect her life as she continues to eat her snacks in the front seat like nothing is wrong. I turned around quickly to check on Liam to see how was doing. He was shaken up. I turned back around and she was gone. I can't say I was shocked, but I was hoping she would do one right thing in her life. She panicked and fled. At this time, the police were called and Aaron arrived at the scene. Everything happened so fast, I wasn't able to catch the license plate number or the make of the vehicle. All I knew is that it was a smaller white SUV. And then I remembered she gave me her first name, and she called my phone to give me her number. "Bingo", I thought. This should be helpful for the police. And it was. They took down the report. They found her in the system and told me that she does in fact have a bench warrant, she isn't registered to any vehicle (obviously it wasn't even hers), but she does have an active license. Since she fled the scene and didn't show insurance, they suspended her license. Just another notch on the belt for this lady.
I contacted our insurance company and let them know what happened. From there, they arranged for me to get my car fixed and rent a car to get to and from work. It didn't take too long, but I will say that it was inconvenient. It was a lot of red tape to go through for something that wasn't my fault. In the end, I was just happy that everyone was okay. It could have been so much worse.
