Was driving my car with my boyfriend in the front and two of my friends in the back.

I looked both ways as we were going through a green light, and saw a van that was clearly not stopping for his red light. I slammed on the brakes and veered slightly but as I couldn't really swerve, I hit the side of his van with my front end.

Nobody was really hurt but it irritated my slipped disc. We pulled over with him and he begged me not to call the cops. He fully admitted he did not see the red light until I hit him. He seemed to be affected by a substance of some sort. Tried to give me his information and leave, I played it off that I'm terrified of breaking the law so I need to wait for cops to direct me legally. During this my friend in the back realized she knew him from meth houses back before she had her kid and cleaned up her act. We discovered he had his two daughters in the car, looked like twins between 8-12.

Cops arrived. The man said his light was green and I ran the red light. Didn't take much to prove him wrong. My car was cleared to go, so we left. When we drove by again a few hours later, his car was still there (moved to a nearby easement for safe parking) so we deduced that he was arrested.

Insurance issues: the insurance on the car like, only covered the owner of the car (dude's mom) or something so they tried telling me they wouldn't pay. I relayed this to my own insurance and they apparently bullied them around until I got paid for my totaled car.

Of course, the money I received was nowhere near enough to buy another car of the same quality. It was a crap car so I got like $1,000, but it was a crap car that never let me down and you can't replace that with $1,000.

Silver lining: I saw the guy in Walmart a few months later. He was cleaner, shaven, less greasy and stained. He had a brightness in his eyes rather than a wildness. No kids, but they might have been at home or school. I believe the DUI (that we assume he got) got him to shape up and I'm happy for that.