Uh oh - someone hit me!

Yesterday I was in my first Doha car accident and this story must be told. There were tears, however, laughter was a large part of it.

On my way to dinner last night I was stopped and waiting on the light to turn green at Burger King Roundabout when BOOM it happened. My first Doha car accident. I was just sitting there singing along to some Vampire Weekend when I hear tires screeching and a then BAM the car jerked forward. I look back and there is a now another car attached to my car. After a quick tear, or two, I got out of the car shocked and said to the guy - "WHY DIDN'T YOU STOP???" He immediately started saying it was all his fault in his very badly broken English. I sigh and remind myself that I did nothing wrong and I am blessed that this guy is owning up to it all. Luckily a red police traffic car drove by us about 3 minutes after the crash and told us to move over to the side while we wait for another policeman. I could drive my car out of the way but the guy who hit me had to push his car to the side of the road. What a shame. I would like to point out that the guy hit me right in front of Doha's brand new fancy Traffic Department building so we were then instructed to go report the accident. 

The Traffic Department was not really a big deal but the big mistake I made was not calling someone to be my Arabic representative. Not that I ended up needing one but it would have been the smart idea incase things had gone wrong. I was the only female there and the guy who hit me is chatting away to the policeman in Arabic. Luckily, he then asked me my side of the story so I told him what happened with of course dramatic sound effects. Got him to smile and say - "habibti [honey] go get your car so I can see the damage" - so I guess the sound effects were a good addition. 

After he looked at my car and the picture of the guys smashed up car we were waiting in line for the report and the guy dropped his smart phone on the floor. It crashed open into pieces and his friend who had to pick him up started to laugh so of course so did I. I said to him - "you must really be having a bad day" - to which he just gave me a clueless expression because he has no idea what I am saying. The policeman then joined in the giggles. 

So I survived. I am not hurt. No one was hurt. And the car will be fixed while I am away next week. I am just glad that the whole ordeal ended with some laughs because I have heard many traffic horror stories.