About a month ago I traded in my car for a used 2016 Volkswagen e-Golf. It had only about 14,000 km on it and just a couple of scratches. I’m quite happy with my new car! Go electric cars! But after having it for only two weeks, before heading to work I noticed a decent-sized dent with many scratches on the driver’s side of my car. I got quite upset and realized that it must have happened while I was at work the night before.
The driver who hit my car broke a fundamental and often unspoken rule. When you hit someone’s car and they are not around, you are responsible to leave a note. It’s not your place to decide whether the damage is enough to report it. You’re to simply take responsibility for the accident.
A month before my hit-and-run, my boss had someone hit his truck in the same parking lot. No note, no nothing. How can someone do that? The driver is now making someone else pay for the damages of their mistake.
For a poor student such as myself, my deductible for comprehension was at $1,000. If I were to make a claim with ICBC, I would have to pay $1,000 up front before ICBC would pay for the rest of the damage. Immediately after this incident, I went to lower my deductible.
But seriously, what kind of person hits a car and does nothing about it? What has happened to the decency of people? According to ICBC statistics, in 2017 there were 58,000 reported hit-and-runs with 2,000 injured victims and five fatal victims in B.C. Those are only the reported ones; there are probably many accidents that don’t even get reported.
A couple of years ago, I hit a car while trying to park. I felt like such an idiot and was completely embarrassed. Instead of running away from the accident I created, my gut instinct was to leave a note on the car that I had hit. The woman actually came out and we were able to exchange information and get everything settled.
What becomes of a person who doesn’t report the accident they caused? Shortly after fleeing the scene, it begins to dawn on them that they broke the law. Maybe the accident was caught on camera or someone witnessed it. Now there might be a chance they will be held accountable for their actions. All they can hope is that the person they hit doesn’t care enough to report it. Or the person who hit the car just doesn’t give it a second thought and they just keep driving. In B.C. it is an offence to leave the scene of an accident that you were involved in. Depending on the situation, fleeing the scene of an accident could result in a fine, a license suspension, or even jail time.
Witnesses are key to incidents like this. If someone had witnessed my hit-and-run, that would be beneficial to me because they might have vital information. If they were able to see the person’s license plate or even talk to them, I wouldn’t have to pay out of my pocket. Their insurance would cover my damage then. If you as a student witnessed a hit-and-run, would you report it? Would you take time out of your busy schedule to help out another person or would you just keep on walking? With experiencing this headache myself, I know I would do my part as a decent human being.
Illustration: Kayt Hine
