And, just the other day I was thinking, to myself, how I hadn't had any traffic violations since moving to the USA. Well, except for that one other time I accidentally ran a red light and scuffed the bumper of another driver. But, can that really count against me, since the gentleman driving the other car didn't realize I had "rubbed his bumper" and he kept driving? I tried to chase him down . I Followed him to a parking lot - I wanted to confess my sin - but, he just pulled out of his parking spot as I was running after him, and I mean literally running after him. I left my then 6-month-old and 2-year-old in the car to run after him .. waving my hands and yelling "Please Mr. Please .. STOP, I think I scuffed your front bumper." He didn't notice me. I just stood there watching his taillights disappear, as he drove off. I immediately ran back to my car, jumped in and drove to the police station to turn myself in. The officer, on duty, was so nice .. and he was totally confused as to why I was there turning myself in if the other person didn't even know he had been hit. His exact words to me were, "Well, Mrs. Sitton, I'm not sure how to fill out the paperwork in this instance. Usually it's the other person coming in to report it, not the actual perp." Well, OK, maybe he didn't use the actual term "perp", but heck I like using "perp" whenever I can! Anyway, I filed my report, but no one ever ever came in to report it, so the case was closed after two weeks.
Now, in the case pictured above, I really thought the light was yellow, and THOUGHT it had turned red as I was going through the intersection, but according to the violation they sent me, which is shown above, it was in fact RED. OOOOOOPS .. My BAD!
Even though Bill's name appears on the violation, it was without a doubt me behind the wheel. When I first opened it and realized what it was, I immediately checked the date on the calendar. January 31st at 2:17 pm. That would be a Tuesday, and the boys get out of school at 2:30, so I was obviously on my way to pick them up.
There is something a bit startling about opening up a piece of mail and seeing your vehicle pictured there .. even more startling when you realize it's you running a red light .. I felt violated by the paper violation!
Luckily, in this case, no one was hurt. I really didn't intentionally run the red light, and do my best to follow the traffic laws. This is a good lesson for me. I need to pay closer attention when behind the wheel. There is always room for improvement!
Anyone else have one of these things arrive by mail?
No comments:
Post a Comment