Blame MYSELF or BAD LUCK?

I have more than 8 years driving experience. I never got involved in an accident that needs to come out of the vehicle to negotiate with the driver. I get a new experience today and I am going to remember what I learned from it.

It is a hot afternoon and I am driving back home from work. The traffic is bumper to bumper and I am just one street away from my home. I will reach my destination in another 1 minute. A few policemen were blocking the road to my home and I am looking at them to find out the reason. The car in front moved forward, so I changed my gear and move forward too. Little did I noticed that the car in front suddenly stopped and I can't stopped in time because I was looking to my right. It was too late and I heard a loud "BANG". My car had kissed the bumper of the front car.

My heart nearly stopped and I was terrified. The front car stopped at the road side and I followed. As I come down of the car, I keep scolding myself for not paying full attention while driving. I looked at my front bumper and there's no scratches. I felt relieved.

As I walked over to the car which I bumped earlier, the male driver looks familiar. He is a friend of my friend's friend. He also realized the same thing. I looked at the rear bumper and did not noticed any scratches, broken lights, ...etc. I felt relieved instantly. I was thinking maybe because the distant is too close that's why the impact is very minor. But the male driver said there's something on top of the bumper and it was not there earlier. He said need to send it for painting which cost from RM10-RM100++. He added that the car rear looks okay now but maybe something already broken inside which will only appear later after he passed bumper. He asked if I have any recommended foremen to check on it. He asked for my phone number and gave it without thinking twice because I thought he is a friend of my friend's friend.

I argued that there's no scratches, "kemek" or broken lights, ...etc. The area which he said needs to paint is not noticeable. Usually people will just treat the case as closed and drive away. But this driver insisted that it needs painting & checking to ensure no internal damage to the car. (Inside I think this guy is very calculative). Failing to persuade him, I called my father and he arrived at the scene 5 minutes later.

My father also argued that there's nothing wrong with the car rear. The area that he said needs painting will be unnoticeable after do some polishing. Since he didn't moved from his request, my father offer him a small amount of money but he resist claiming that he don't want the money but just want to make sure the car is okay. Failing to convince him, my father asked the driver to follow him to nearby foreman for checking.

After looking at the area, the foreman just put on something on it. Aha! It looks like nothing happened before and he only charged us RM10. When I reached home, I agreed it is my carelessness but I blamed it on bad luck. It never struck my head that I was the one who caused the accident not luck. I should not blamed/ justify it as bad luck.

What I learned from this incident:
1) Must pay 100% attention when driving.
2) Must not simply get out of the car when involved in accident. Must make sure the other person does not look like got other intention (ex. robbing money, steal car, ....etc)
3) Do not provide IC, phone number, .....etc to the other person even if he's a friend of my friend's friend. Informed them to report to police or go to the nearest foreman for assistance.
4) Do not blame bad luck when something bad happened. Must take responsibility of what I've done (not paying full attention).
5) How to handle if happens again.
a) If the car is badly damaged, apologized softly.
b) If the car is in good condition, just informed the car is okay and leave immediately. Do not negotiate anymore. If driver refuse to let you go, just talked louder than the other party (I witnessed an accident where the wrong party talked loudly and repeatedly refused to accept its her fault and she wins the argument. No compensation is paid).