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ONE OF THE biggest health risks seniors face recently happened to me. I tripped in a parking lot and fell. It was a pretty serious fall. I hurt my left shoulder, left wrist, right elbow and right knee. There was a lot of scraping on the asphalt and lots of blood. To add insult to injury, the left side of my head hit the right taillight of a Subaru, smashing the lens and running a nice pair of sunglasses.
Ironically, I had my yearly Medicare wellness visit with my new primary doctor the next morning. Instead of a wellness check, my doctor did a thorough physical, including x-rays of my right knee. The radiologist was concerned about a couple of areas, so my primary contacted the orthopedic surgeon who did my knee replacement, and I had an appointment with him in 2 days. He said the implant was fine, but I had some nasty contusions. The good news, there was no permanent damage and I’m pretty much off the injured reserve list. There is still a little elbow and knee tenderness.
The final injury was financial. The fall took place in a very public parking lot in downtown Red Bank, NJ. Many people came to my aid, brought water and napkins to staunch the blood. My wife did a great job of cleaning me up and getting me on my feet. But no one claimed ownership of the damaged car.
Once Vicky was sure I was OK she asked if we should leave a note on the car. I immediately agreed and she went into the adjacent Irish pub and got a pen and a napkin. She left a note with my name and number on the windshield. A few days later I received a call from Niall, a Limerick native, and the bartender at the pub. It was his car. He was confused how a car accident could only hit a taillight. He was amazed, and very concerned, when I told him it was my head that caused the damage. I told him to get it fixed and I would reimburse him.
A few weeks later Vicky and I stopped in for a late lunch when Niall was working. After he served Vicky a drink, and pulled me a pint, I identified myself and handed him $380. He was amazed that we actually showed up and paid our debt. He called over the manager and introduced us, and remarked to a few regulars at the bar that we were the folks who left the note. People seemed genuinely surprised that we didn’t just walk away from the situation.
Niall refused to take any more for our drinks that day, and told us to be sure we visited often. Making friends with a friendly bartender at the local pub may prove to be a good investment. Here’s my self-serving question to the HumbleDollar community – would you have left a note? I’m betting the vast majority would.
Yes leaving a note was the right thing to do and I would have done the same. This post reminds me of a similar instance in my past work life as a health “cop”. I was working, driving my government car, and my job that day took my to a shopping mall, where I needed to into a nutritional food store to check on the effectiveness of a supplement recall. (Did they receive the recall notification, did they respond appropriately..) When I returned to the car, there was a note on the windshield which read; “I hope this is official government bussiness (SIC)”. I saved that note for years, probably still have it somewhere.
I related my wife’s parking lot incident below. Here’s another car accident story, rather unusual:
A new patient told me she sustained her injuries as a customer in a convenience store. The driver of a car pulling up to the store failed to stop, and crashed into the building, pushing some debris into my patient. She said he was “drunk and obnoxious”.
Maybe a week later, another new patient said he incurred his injuries while driving his car into a convenience store. He was not intoxicated in my presence, but his personality was a little grating. I connected the dots. After he left, I told the front office to never schedule those two at the same time.
Rick, I’m glad you survived that incident. Back in my beer truck driving days I put a bit of my paint on someone’s bumper while negotiating a tight parking lot. I left a note on the car, and I stopped in at the small town police department across the street to alert them. They took my info and thanked me. I never heard back from car’s owner.
Leaving the note was a good thing to do. However, I would like to offer another possibility about how this might have turned out differently. It seems quite possible to me that the owner of the parking lot might be responsible both for your injuries, and for the damage to the car. The vast majority of commercial property owners carry liability insurance. Slip and fall claims caused by tripping hazards are very, very common. And while most of us who fall (I have done so at least 5 times) don’t want to make a fuss about such incidents, acknowledging our own declining physical abilities, it isn’t always our fault when we fall. I would be willing to bet that others before you have fallen at the exact same spot. It is often cheaper for the property owner to pay for the costs of the falls rather than fix the hazard. So your note could have contained the same info about yourself, with a comment that you would be discussing your injury with the lot owner and if it turned out to be your fault you would reimburse the car owner for his broken light. I think it more likely that the lot owner would cover the damage…..