Well, it was more like he crashed into me, it was a bit confusing at the time but I'll try and explain it as best as I can, because I would like to read about it too...
So once again, another week at church, another week trying to work out what to do after music practice, and we decided on going to the shops known as Liverpool Westfield for some shopping, so I got into my automobile, as I do when I want to travel from place to place and I drove out onto Cumberland St to turn onto Cabramatta Rd eventually, however I was on the right lane at the time, and wanted to get onto the left lane so that I could turn left, to eventually get to Liverpool. So I did what one would normally do, checked my rear view mirror for any cars behind me, and after confirming no cars in sight I reversed, and after reversing what seemed like less than half a metre, *CRUMPLE*!! (I heard crumple, not crash). I froze, and thought "What in the world did I hit? There was no car behind me!", I checked my side mirror and saw a car, well the back half of a car. It was perpendicular to mine. I drove forward after the *crumple* as one would, and after seeing the car, thought of driving off but decided against it, for it would be a stupid thing to do but mainly because there was a red light preventing me from doing so.
I also thought that since I essentially backed into a car, and all I could see was the back half in my mirror, the front half must've been hit, so I was like "Dang, did I crush the guy?", but he got out of the car to assess the damage and said something to me, confirming I didn't kill someone, I said to him, "Are you okay?" to which he replied "Yu hit me", in his chinese accent, to which I replied with a "Yeahhhhhh...sorry about that.", partially hoping that he wouldn't mind for some reason, but he did, and after showing me his little dent in his car door asked for my license details. Being the noob that I was I wasn't sure what to do in a car crash situation, but fortunately the guys from church were still around and helped me through the process.
"Make sure you get his details too.", sound advice I'd say, so I did. After exchanging details, I wasn't sure what was next, he was adamant that it was my fault, I didn't know what was going on. I didn't know what insurance thing I was with either, but later found out it was GIO and not AAMI like I thought it was. It also didn't help that people from church just kept coming out to see what was going on, though after a while it got amusing, our minister coming out was the icing on the cake.
We ended up calling the police, just to make the situation more official feeling or something, and soon enough he came in his unmarked car, dressed in unmarked clothing, looking all undercover like. He called the drivers, listened to the old man's explanation while I watched on calmly and then asked if any of us were hurt (nope) and if the vehicles were drivable (they were), then said he didn't care whose fault it was, and told us to work it out with our insurance companies. While he relatively did nothing, he helped move things along. Like the fact that the guy's car was still making a T shape with mine, in the middle of the road, disrupting traffic. So we moved our cars, and he drove off, and I hung around to check things out.
Turned out the reason I didn't see the guys car when reversing is because his car wasn't there to begin with, he was on the other side of the road and decided to do an impromptu U-Turn, right into the back of my 4WD, and it didn't help his case that his U-turn was a 3-point turn because he wouldn't have made it all the way the first time, so that was quite annoying that he insisted it was my fault, but I suppose in cases like this it happens.
We told our insurance company what happened and they said it was his fault, we had 3rd party insurance anyway so our insurance wouldn't have covered us either way. So in the end I was pretty meh about the whole situation, we didn't need to pay anything for his damage, and our damage was too minimal to even bother getting it fixed at the moment. I'm sure those of you who have seen my car haven't noticed any major damage. Him on the other hand, just a small dent, though what looked small to me may have been huge to him. Oh, and did I mention he was short? I didn't register it in my mind at the time but only after when someone mentioned it did I notice.
So thats how my first crash came about, not as flashy as you might've thought, but I prefer my crashes this way, that or a clear fault in the other driver and not me, my previous incidents have been with stationary things like trees, walls or parked cars, so finally hitting a live car turned things up a notch, but not by that much as yet. But to end, here are some pictures I took with my phone of the aftermath, to help you understand how awesome a driver I am!
Fail at u-turning. Notice all the churchies looking on.
Short chinese man and his son/nephew(?) blocking the road with his car.
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