Objects In Your Mirror May Be Closer Than They Appear

I'm just mystified by the stupid.

Yesterday evening, about 7:10 p.m., headed to Davis, I was waiting at the 15th St. traffic light, in the third lane of westbound "W" street, prepared to enter the on-ramp for westbound Highway 50.

(There are four lanes on "W" street. The leftmost lane is for left turns only onto 15th Street. The second lane gives you the option of a left turn, or entry to the freeway on-ramp. The third lane gives you the option of entry to the freeway on-ramp, or going straight. The fourth, rightmost lane is for through traffic only).

All of a sudden, I see the backing lights on the car in front me. The driver calmly and deliberately accelerated backwards, and plowed into my car.

We pull to the side of the street. The driver, male, early 20's, and his passenger, female, early 20's exit their car. I exit mine.

"Why did you back up?", I ask. "I wanted to turn left," he answered. "Didn't you see me behind you?" I asked. "I thought you were further back," he answered.

Like maybe he couldn't check his rear view mirror first, before backing up.

"Are you all right?" his companion asked me. She looked a bit flustered - breathing deeper than usual.

What a passive-aggressive sort of question!

"Well, you were in the car too," I answered. The cars didn't hit hard enough to cause injury." Pointing out the obvious, I thought.

When our cars separated, my front license plate assembly got caught in their bumper, and was torn from the car. Otherwise, no real harm. Except that I expect the Universe's moron index leapt up.

We exchanged driver and insurance information, but didn't call the cops. Turned out it wasn't his car, but hers. Perhaps he was so unfamiliar with the car he couldn't interpret the images in the rear-view mirror? Then, if I may ask, why was he driving?