YANBU at all. A few years ago, laid-back & happy having just returned from a sunny holiday in India, I was thumped up the back of my Tigra by a woman in a BMW monster truck, while I was giving way at a major roundabout serving the A1 in both directions. I got out, was pleasant & polite, commented that I wasn't having a great day having just got a parking ticket, and was prepared to be perfectly reasonable about it all. I then pulled (dangerously) onto the side of the busy roundabout to exchange addresses. She was extremely stuck-up and lectured me that: 'You don't know how awful it is for me, my dog (cue black Labrador leaping around in back of her truck) has to be put down, and I'm really upset.' Realising that she was clearly local, I offered to follow her to her home, or a road near it, to safely exchange details, considering that we were all about to be squashed by oncoming lorries. Eyeing my hippyish look, despite my posh RP accent, she summed her best 'Froglicker's Wife' attitude and informed me that she had no obligation to give me any information ! I politely pointed out to her that she would be committing a criminal offence if she failed to give me her details, with which she spat at me: 'I'm Mrs (XXX) from (XXX) House (XXX village), I'm in the phone book', got into her car and roared off, nearly causing another accident.
I was pretty shocked, but decided there and then to take her damn insurance for whiplash as it was the third time I'd been driven into from behind in 4 years, and was already suffering from tinnitus complicated by balance problems and labyrinthitis from the first, worst one.
I drove to the local police station, where it was made clear to me that they were NOT INTERESTED as, despite my injury, I was still living and breathing (she was prob. married to the Chief Constable knowing our area !), and then proceeded to the hospital where I had a neck X-ray. While being treated with infinite kindness at the hospital, I burst into genuine and inconsolable tears, of hurt, anger and rage at the way she'd treated me, when I was perfectly reasonable in the first place.
I looked her up in the phone directory, my husband obtained her insurance details from her snotty ba**ard old man, and a year later I was in receipt of £2500 :o
But do you know what? I was really in a forgiving mood that day, and if she'd played it differently I would have probably let it go ... when you've just got back from India you are pretty clear that there are much worse things in the world than a poxy car ... and why do people have to be so damn precious about them.
I'm ultra-confident and deal with stroppy teens in my job as a senior teacher, do major presentations all over the world and am full of self-confidence. But she managed to make me feel like a worthless idiot even though she was in the wrong !
So bless you, have a glass of wine and put it down to experience if you can.
:) 