I have always been a library-goer. One night years ago -- maybe 30 years ago -- I was kay-ing my vehicle out of my place in the lot at the library when there was an unexpected "CRUNCH" in back. I jumped-out and walked back and saw that I had backed-into the already ripped-up fender on the already essentially demolished car body of the vehicle behind me. No exaggeration at all, I promise, the vehicle really did look like a survivor of a dozen demolition derbies. No part of the body was undented. It was the kind of car where a cop called to the scene by me, if I were scrupulously honest, would think that I was crazy for reporting it, risking entanglement with a nut-case vehicle owner trying to finance total body reconstruction with a fraudulent massive claim.
Soooooooooo, I looked around carefully. I saw no security cameras, and I was in the darkest part of the lot. I climbed into my driver's seat and drove home.
Technically, I violated the New Jersey Hit & Run Laws by leaving the scene of a very minor accident in which I re-damaged a severely damaged fender of an empty, already-badly-damaged car, already not much better than this close facsimile ...
I never got caught. Did I sin? As a Catholic, should I have confessed it? As a lawyer at the time, should I have been disbarred?
We all know what the internet is like ... every anonymous nut-case comes crawling out from under his or her rock in response to something like this and screams, "DISGUSTING !!!" Are you one of the nutcases ? Am I disgusting ? How will God respond to this ?
We all know what the internet is like ... every anonymous nut-case comes crawling out from under his or her rock in response to something like this and screams, "DISGUSTING !!!" Are you one of the nutcases ? Am I disgusting ? How will God respond to this ?
I agree with your family--you did the right thing. This is a letter of the law vs. spirit of the law sort of question. While you would technically be required to inform the vehicle owner, in reality it's unlikely that he/she or the car suffered any noticeable harm from the accident, and I wouldn't be surprised if the driver never even realized the additional dent.
ReplyDelete--Phil