“Don’t you know what a detour is? De-tour! De-tour! Don’t you know what that is?”

I was standing in the middle of an intersection as a woman dressed in black and wearing sunglasses shouted this at me. It’s important to note, this woman had just backed her car into mine.

How did this happen? We were both on a straight street; she was in front of me, when a sign to turn right immediately for a detour appeared. There had been no prior indication of the detour, and I didn’t make the turn. Neither did she.

I planned to pull into a driveway and turn around. The woman in front of me, however, had other plans. She put her car in reverse; I rushed to back up, as well, but I didn’t move fast enough and she backed straight into me.

I got out of the car and prepared to exchange information. Instead of being greeted by an apology, as I expected, I was reintroduced to the word detour. I got out my phone to call the police and my mom, and the woman yelled at me. She gave my car a cursory glance and stated there was no damage. I asked for her name and number. She got in her car and drove away.

So I had my first hit-and-run Wednesday. And I was the one who got hit.

I hit a car a few months ago, and I don’t want to sound holier than thou, but I owned up to it. I took the full blame (there was really no question because I hit a parked car) and apologized for about an hour. I think I was more upset than the other person.

Accidents happen. I tell that to the kids I coach all the time, but there’s a way to handle them. And standing in an intersection yelling at a person who you just hit is not it.

Anyone have a good learning to drive or first accident story? I once met a man who knocked over a line of garbage cans on his road test. His adjudicator made him put all the trash back in the cans before finishing his test, which he failed. Can you top that?