Imagine if you will, you are a mild mannered piano player, who has just completed a successful performance, when suddenly
You pass through a portal into, The TWILIGHT ZONE
You and the car in front of you are in a right turn lane, that is a yield lane, you both have stopped, you both are looking both ways, you both are barely rolling forward.
You look once more to the left, very quickly, and in that SPLIT SECOND, the car in front of you stops.
It is rush hour, you both get out and determine that no one has been hurt.
She looks down, and says "so, do you want to lets just pull over there out of traffic?"
I said "Of course"
When we got out, I looked at her bumper, and I saw that the strip across the lower 1/3 of the bumper, had just popped out. I squatted down and with very little effort, got it popped back into place. Nothing but scratches left.
Mine, however was a little more damaged.
I said "so, I will cover the damages, if you don't want to involve the insurance companies", she said "If it were my car, I would say yes, but my wife will be pissed, she loves her Audi" so, she called the police.
When he arrived (quite quickly, I was very surprised by this [cue the twilight zone music]) he asks HER, "What do you want to do? We don't HAVE to file a report".
"Well", she says "if we DO end up calling the insurance companies, they will want a police report so..." He takes both our licenses and insurance documents.
I asked "so tell me, how much does it cost to file a report?"
"I don't understand the question" he said.
"Is there a fee for filing a report? Some sort of processing fee perhaps?" (I was fishing to see what it was going to cost) he still didn't seem to get me.
He went to his car, and when he came back, I had a CITATION, and a COURT DATE for "following too closely".
So now, tell me when did the issuance of a citation depend on a civilian to decide yea or nay for said issuance?
The lady in the first car, the one that I hit, seemed very nice, she seemed to hate that it had come to this, and seemed willing to get estimates and let me pay, but at the very least, the fine, if I DON'T go to court, will be $150 + state fees.
The repair bill shouldn't be much, but it is an AUDI.
News at 11