In Igby goes down, Igby tells a girl that he is supposed to go to New Jersey but has been putting it off. She says, "that's procrastination." He says, "Not to go to New Jersey is not procrastination.". Now I know ...

Last thursday night, driving back through New Jerse turn pike, I had pulled into into a Grover Cleveland rest area. As I backed out of my parting spot, I realized that the guy in the next spot was going to back out into me before I could drive away. I honked. In the split second that realization dawned that he was not gonna stop and I tried to reverse my truck further, he banged against my front bumper.

We both got out of our cars. I was trying hard to remain civil.
"You just backed out into my truck!"
"Oh, I am sorry! I didn't realize ..."
"I was honking all the time!"
"I didn't hear you. ...But ...there is no damage."

I pointed disbelievingly behind him where he was shielding the front bumper which had completely gone inside.

"Oh yeah, I am sorry. Didn't realize.."

It was deserted. I said, "Let us get your insurance information first." He said, "Yeah, sure." Then, as I watched incrdulously, he walked to his car, quickly got inside and drove away fast.

One lone guy I hadn't noticed before, pulled his head out of the phone booth to tell me, "It'll take him some time to get off the turn pike. Call 911".

this sounded like a good idea. I called 911, feeling vaguely guilty about calling since no doubt they were all busy chasing serial killers and domestic abusers. The dispatcher was brisk and efficient. She took down my location and asked me to wait for the police to arrive.

The guy who talked to me on the phone was a trucker. He was very helpful in describing what happened to the cops. In fact, he was much better at it than I was. I gave the policeman that van's registration no and description. It didn't look like that the cops were going to chase that idiot. He gave me a slip of paper which advised me that I can get the incident report on payment of $1.50 on money order to New Jersey state police. he looked on as I I tried unsuccessfully to pull the front bumper back and directed me to the local 24 hour garage in case I need help in getting the bumper pulled away from the tire.

I drove up to the garage. They refused to do anything short of body work. They also looked underemployed. It was almost 9 at night. I didn't want to towed. So, I tried very hard to look in dire need of help as I kept mightily pulling at the bumper. Eventually, they got tired of the charade and straightened it out for me.

No one seems surprised to hear the story. New Jersey has the highest car insurance rate in USA (I think).

Update: Here is the NJ turnpike < a href="http://www.state.nj.us/turnpike/crash.htm">annual accident rate statistics. It doesn't look too bad.