Soledad, I have to agree with you on this one. But in a way, I'm also glad the guy did what he did!!!

About four weeks ago, I was hit by a teenage driver, who had four passengers. My car sustained about $4000 worth of damage and had not a scratch on it before that (I bought it with 2 miles on it....it is 2002 model). The things that burned me up the most were 1) The kid wasn't supposed to be driving after dark...he had a restricted license as he was 16 years old. 2) His restricted license limited him to one passenger during his legal driving hours, and here he was driving at 10 pm and had four passengers (all teenagers). 3) When "Mom" arrived at the scene, before the highway patrol, the boy's apologies stopped and all the sudden, I had moved over into his lane (what kind of message is she sending??) Because there were no witnesses to the accident, the patrolman didn't charge either of us as he said that if he couldn't produce "physical" evidence, it would fall apart in court, but he told my husband (who came after the accident), and me, that he would support me if I went after the boy in civil court, 4) Boy was driving a Land Rover at 16 years old.

Mom worsened the situation by refusing to allow my insurance company to talk with her son or to take pictures of his car. We got pictures after all because my husband found their house and took pictures of their drivable vehicle, as mine sat in our driveway, and we couldn't even open the door. Turned out that Mom decided not to report the accident to her insurance company too. Guess who did?? ME!!! And guess who is paying for the repairs to my vehicle?? His insurance company. My persistance and patience paid off. But I've been without my car for over 4 weeks now and it will be at least another week before I get it back. We chose to let it sit, rather than have my insurance pay for the damages. And it was worth it.

Now to my point......someone has to hold these drivers, kids or otherwise, responsible for what they do. That's why I praise the guy for doing what he did. I don't even know if citizen's arrests are legal in this state and I wouldn't have the nerve to do one, but I'm sort of glad they got busted. I hope it will hold up in court. If parents don't become accountable for their kid's behavior, I fear the repurcussions later in life. I felt so strongly that the mother of the driver that hit me was sending all the wrong messages to her son. It was funny that his story changed when he spoke with the insurance adjuster....he admitted to being in the left lane and changing his mind and decided to turn right. He never saw me.....go figure!!!