Stumbling upon the man in a yellow raincoat

"Today I bent the truth to be kind, and I have no regret, for I am far surer of what is kind, than I am of what is true." ~Robert Brault

I should have posted this sooner, but busyness is my middle name… anyway, here it is.

It was raining hard last June 3, 2009. I went to National Book Store, Market Market to buy sticker paper. I was about 5 meters away from the gate of the place where I work when I had to halt and let a van pass before I make a left turn. Vehicles and a motor bike rider are all at a safe distance. tuned to NU 107.9, I set my left signal light on and made that anticipated turn.

Then just like a fast forwarded movie on a pirated DVD, I saw the motorist that’s about 20 meters away zoomed and accelerated towards my direction. Obviously he was trying to beat me in making that turn. My senses told me that he’s not going to make it so I immediately stepped on the brakes. CRASH! He hit my front, right side fender, leaving my bumper paint cracked, dent on my car and my right park light hanging out.

I got out of the car with mixed emotions: Anger, frustration, worry, disappointment, etc. But I tried to breathe deep while I walk towards the careless motorist. As expected he was trying to over rule me with his angry disposition. The only thing I can think of saying was… “Why didn’t you hit the breaks?”

I called our security guard, asked him to alert the Police of what happened (so I can file a police report and have the guy blottered) and asked for an umbrella. It was raining hard and I don’t want to look wretched in an already miserable happening. There was a lot of discussion while waiting for the police to arrive (which like in the movie are always late at the scene of the crime). The man was pointing out that I made a sudden turn, which I debunked by recapping how everything happened. I told him: “How in the world will I make a sudden right turn, when I just came from a full stop?” I told him I saw him sped up trying to beat my turning. I retold every single detail of what happened even pointing out the weight of his impact which made him almost landed on top of my car’s hood (thanks to his feeble legs clipped onto the motor bike preventing him from flying over). I took my camera out and took pictures to document the accident.

The man’s angry disposition turned into an annoying I-am-the-victim-here character. He started talking about how hurt he feels and how much damage caused his bike that he is still paying in installment, down to a I-have-a-family-to-feed drama and I that he is just an ordinary employee, yada, yada, yada. All I could say were, “I don’t care”, “it’s not my fault” and that he should have thought about all of those things before he turned his bike’s accelerator. I said those words in the most heartless manner… but deep inside, I feel pity for this man.

I wanted to confiscate his license, take the original copy of his vehicle registration. But what good would that do. It would not be able to pay for the cost of repair of the damages on my car. More so, by the looks of him, he barely have the money to afford having his motor bike fixed (I might be being too judgmental at this point).

Tired waiting for the ever unreliable police officers, half drenched in the rain, worried of things to finish at work and harassed by the situation, I decided to just let it go. I told the man to just leave, go home or wherever he is going. I reminded him to take this as a learning experience and make sure to be more careful next time – if there is even a next time. I parked the car, went inside and busied my self with work, trying not to rekindle what happened and moved on.

Many would disagree with my decision of calling it off. I bet most would even go all the way with this sort of accident. This is “all the way” for me. Sometime, we just have to learn to accept that things happen to us beyond our control, sometimes beyond our comprehension. This one, I made sure I was in control. I knew what I wanted: I didn’t want to stress my self with something as temporal as a scratched fender or with a man who could not even explain his side nor admit his mistake. I just want to be kind, I don’t want too many worries in my life. I decided to let karma take its universal responsibility on all of what’s happening.

"When you carry out acts of kindness you get a wonderful feeling inside. It is as though something inside your body responds and says, yes, this is how I ought to feel." ~Harold Kushner

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