Traffic being what it is here, it was really only a matter of time before we were in an accident. This morning, our time ran out and we were in a minor fender bender. Let me say up front that no one was hurt, and both vehicles suffered only minor damage.
I was reading, as I normally do on the morning commute, and sitting on the opposite side of the bus, so I didn't actually see what happened, though I did feel the jolt. Afterward, the people who were on the left side of the bus described it to me. We were at a major intersection, and by major I mean there were four lanes just for turning left, and another four for continuing straight (there was no right turn). We were in the farthest right lane of the turn lanes, as we did everyday, since after we turn left we end up merging right to get on another road. There was a car in the lane to the left on the inside of us, and when the signal changed, everyone began turning left, except this car, who evidently thought he was in the straight lane. Since the bus makes wide turns, he must have gotten the impression that we were also going straight, only we weren't, we were turning, and the other car was not, so he got clipped by the back end of the bus.
At first, we just kept driving. It hadn't been a very big jolt, and I wasn't sure if we had hit something or not, and I was in the middle of the bus, so it may have been even more slight in the front of the bus and the driver might not have noticed. Some of the girls spoke up and said, "Hey, we just hit someone and then after a few hundred more feet, "He is following us, I think we need to pull over." So after a few hundred more feet, we pulled into a side street and the car came up beside the bus and started shouting. Our driver happens to be from Pakistan, and so does not speak Arabic, so he just sat there while two men jumped out of the car and yelled, pointing at the damage to their car and gesticulating wildly. Our backseat driver was also uncharacteristically quite. After a while, he said, "Would someone please translate and explain to this man that if he want's to go straight he shouldn't be in the left turn lane?" Turns out, one of the guys in the car spoke English himself so he countered by saying, "Your driver did not use a turn signal!" Which I suppose is fair enough, given that even though everyone always uses the leftmost 4 lanes for turning left and I have never seen anyone go straight from them, as far as I can tell, they aren't marked for left turn only.
The two men suggested that they call the police, and it reminded me that every other morning I had seen police at that very intersection, but today of all days, they were not there. The back seat driver said there was no need to do that, and that we could just exchange information. The man was still trying to get the driver to admit it was his fault, and insisting that they should call the police. A man in a uniform presumably guarding the building we had stopped in front of approached us and asked us all to move and pull further down the road. We watched the driver who had just been in an accident, get back in his car, accelerate wildly, cut back into traffic without a backward glance and then pull over again a few cars up, inches from clipping the bumper of the care parked behind him. We followed and pulled over in front of him.
This time the driver (and the backseat driver) both got out to assess the damage of the other vehicle and continue the discussion. Like curious cats, about half the men got out to also have a look, and to offer their support as "witnesses". I wanted to see too, but none of the women got out and I was sure it would be frowned upon if I did, so I stayed put and tried to overhear what I could. It was clear that our driver and backseat driver did not want the police involved, and were pushing just for the exchange of information so that the company could take care of it. I thought perhaps it was because we had unmarried men and women in the same vehicle, which, if not actually illegal, was at least severely frowned upon. I was glad for the tinted windows and am happy they didn't know there were women on the bus. One of the men who had gone out to see came back on the bus and told us what was happening. Turns out, the real reason they were nervous about calling the police was because our driver, the person our company had hired specifically to be a driver, did not have a driver's license.
I know that by now, I should not be at all surprised by anything this company does, but I am. I am particularly surprised since to get my teaching position, I had to have my degree verified by three different agencies. If they are that careful with our credentials, I foolishly assumed that they would at least bother to ask applicants to the driver position if they had a license. When the driver and the backseat driver got back on the bus, he said simply, "the boss will take care of it, don't worry." And so I assume that the company will probably pay them off, and then use that as an excuse for why they can not buy a laundry machine for the apartment complex, which they have been promising to install now for over a year.
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