Scooter Accident

Coming home from work today, I had my first scooter accident, and, in general, my first motor vehicle accident in over 7 years. I was cruising down Pereire Nord behind some guy, he turned right without signalling, and I was able to slam my brakes and turn fully sideways before hitting his door. I laid down my bike, which slid a few feet and has a nice big scrape on the muffler now.

The guy got out, took a look at me, a look at his car, and we spoke for a few minutes. Since my French isn't so great, I didn't want to get into an argument with him, so I didn't bother telling him he cut me off. Instead, I just told him I and my bike were fine. He said he was too, we shook hands, and he drove off. I picked my bike up, looked around and found my bag, which had fallen out of the topcase when I crashed, and then put it back on the bike. I drove off too.

I can't believe I don't have a scratch on me, not even a tear in my pants or a scuff on my shoes. I was probably going 50 km/h, maybe slowed down to 30 before I hit him. I somehow managed to stay standing after I let go of the bike, which slid a few feet and never stopped running. I guess it's not so bad when you hit the car--I'm just glad the car didn't hit me.

And the best thing about it: I never had to fill out an accident report.