On Monday night 12/09/90, I was driving up to pick up Rid. We were going to run around for a bit and it involved going to the Mayan Theatre. But something happened on the way up that had a significant impact on the next several years of my life.
I was waiting at a light to make a left turn from the highway onto the road that led to Rid's house. While the direction I was going had a green light, it did not feature a protected light for those making a left turn. I pulled out in the middle of the intersection and was waiting for the light to turn red and the traffic to clear so I could make my turn.
The light turned red and a couple of cars from the other direction ran through. I thought the next driver was going to stop, but he didn't. The left side of my bumper struck his wheel. I could see the vehicle run into a metal post on the side of the road. I was able to complete my left turn and pulled over. Even though I didn't have insurance, I knew I had the right of way. I got ready to get out of my car to see if the driver was okay.
Suddenly, a thought occurred to me: My car had been stolen twice in the last six months. Both times, it was recovered before I had reported it stolen. I didn't have my ID on me. If the cops came and saw the damage to my steering wheel and I wasn't able to prove who I was, they were going to arrest me on charges of possessing a stolen vehicle. There was no way I was going to let that happen. I just drove off.
While I was driving off, I saw a vehicle in my rear view mirror follow me for a little bit, stop and then turn around. I was pretty certain that person wrote down my license plate number, so I knew I wasn't going to get away with this. It was still better than being thrown in jail.
But that still was not the end of my troubles as I was driving up the winding road up to Rid's house. There was this vehicle on my tail the entire way up. Every time I made a turn onto another street, this car was following me. Road rage wasn't a thing back then, but I was afraid that this person was going to start beating me up for leaving the scene of an accident without me getting a chance to explain myself.
I took the final turn to Rid's driveway. The car behind me just kept driving. OHHHHH, man! They just happened to be going my direction. I went inside the house. I was a bundle of nerves the whole time, but Rid didn't seem to notice. In fact, he even made some joke about us getting arrested.
As we went on our way back down the road, I told Rid that I was probably about to get arrested. He was shocked. I told him what happened and that we were about to drive past the scene of the accident when we got down to the highway. When we got to the intersection, the vehicle that I struck was still there and a police car was behind it. I could see a police office speaking to the driver. Under normal circumstances, we would have turned right and driven within feet of the two vehicles. We decided to take another route to Denver and kept driving straight. I was afraid the driver was going to see my car and say, "Hey! That's the car that hit me!" and the police would have been on my tail. That didn't happen.
The next day was torment for me as I was expecting the cops to show up at my doorstep at any time. That didn't happen. On Wednesday, I had gone to a special preview screening of the film, "The Godfather Part III." In the middle of the movie, I realized that I had stopped thinking about the accident. I thought that since nothing had happened the day before, maybe it was all behind me.
I was wrong. I got a call from my Dad that weekend. He said he got a message from an insurance company regarding the accident. (My father's name was still on the registration.) I didn't know what to do. It wasn't the cops who contacted him, it was the other driver's insurance company. If it had been the police, I would have been upfront with him, so I told him it wasn't me. He told me I needed to call the woman from the insurance company and tell her that.
I figured I could just lie to her and I wouldn't have to worry about this again. To be on the safe side, I called her from the Mayan (so she couldn't trace the call to my apartment.) She informed me that the other driver was injured in the accident. I wasn't expecting that. I mean, when I drove by the accident scene, there was no ambulance. Just the other vehicle and the police car. I told her that someone I knew "borrowed" the car, but didn't tell me he was in an accident. She told me I needed to file charges against him if that was the case, otherwise I was going to have to take the blame for the accident. She also said she was going to talk to the authorities.
I didn't know how long I could continue lying about this. All day Monday and Tuesday, I was in absolute agony. I wasn't able to sleep and I was certain I was developing an ulcer. I couldn't eat anything. I figured I needed legal help. I got on the phone Tuesday night and called Bez' parents. Her mother answered the phone. I told her I needed to talk to Mr. T. She said he was in Lincoln, NE dealing with a family matter. I told her it was really important and she gave me the phone number. I called him up and explained what happened. He told me that I didn't need to be talking to the insurance company. The only people I needed to talk to were the police. He said I didn't need to do anything until they tried to contact me or my father. He said that if I needed him to represent me, he would do it, but I was going to have to pay him for it this time. I said that was fair.
Immediately after I got off the phone, my stomach felt a lot better. I could not believe how he was able to relieve me of so much pain. The next day, I called my father and told him the truth. He didn't say it, but I could tell he was very upset with me. I told him to call me if the police ever tried to get in contact with him. I told him Mr. T would represent me and I would be taking responsibility from here on out.
And the police did indeed get in contact with my father. I'll pick up with that tomorrow.
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