* * Bumping another car

I’ve been driving now for 41 years and until Saturday I had never damaged someone else’s car.  I haven’t had a moving violation in 23 years.

It was the silliest accident.  It was raining hard on I-81.  I was coming home from a bicycle ride on the New River Trail in Pulaski, with my mountain bike on the top rack.  I pulled of the highway at SR-100 in Dublin for the simple purpose of removing the seat pack from the bicycle to keep the contents from becoming wetter.  At the bottom of the ramp, there was a new car in front of my old beater Honda Accord.  We were both at a complete stop at a stop sign.  He began to pull forward, I looked left and saw that it was clear and began to move forward.  He had stopped and I bumped him from the rear. 

The damage to my car was greater than his.  I lost my right front turn signal and scrunched the bumper.  His rear bumper was slightly dented and discolored with my paint.  The bike rack shifted forward and the rear wheel of the bicycle rested on my windshield.

We got outside of our cars and assessed the situation.  He insisted on calling the State Police to get a report.  While we waited for the officer, I exchanged information with the other driver and I re-mounted the bicycle rack.  The trooper arrived and we all went to the parking lot of a nearby service station.  When he could see that nobody was hurt, the trooper asked the other driver what happened.  His story pretty much matched mine.  I was clearly at fault.

The trooper took all kinds of time filing paperwork and I got ticketed for following too closely ($30 + $61 in court costs). 

The other driver, who was on his way from Georgia to Roanoke, went on his way, but not before I apologized profusely. 

The trooper explained that I could either pay the fine or go before the judge who may decide to wipe it from my record if I went to 8 hours of driving school, which may cost as much or more than the ticket. 

This morning, I spoke with my insurance company.  I likely won’t file a claim for my car and will merely replace the broken turn signal assembly ($15).  The man I spoke with couldn’t tell me whether this ticket would impact my insurance rates, no matter how many times I asked him.  Anybody had any experience with this?

The following day, I went on a motorcycle ride where I resisted every opportunity to misbehave, hoping to string two consecutive days without a ticket.