How Can I Say "I Hit You"?

This SOS came to mind about 20 minutes ago when I revealed to my husband that I had once hit a Rav4 (car). This story isn't so soapy, so much as an exercise in how to avoid stating the obvious.

Years ago I was driving up to Providence, Rhode Island to visit friends. It was part of a longer journey I'd been taking up the east coast sometime after my grandfather had died. That last sentence is mostly irrelevant - but perhaps I'm looking for some more excuses. Anyway, I'd been driving for a long time that day - something over 6 or 8 hours - with my dog in the backseat and we had just pulled into downtown Providence. Just pulled off the highway. I was meeting my friends somewhere downtown and while stopped at a light I looked down at the directions in my lap, looked up again at the light, looked at the car in front of me, and took my foot off the brake. And I hit the car in front of me. I think at the time my car was having some trouble (as evidenced by me hitting the other car) so that when I took my foot off the brake the car didn't just inch forward, it lurched.

I hit the Rav4 - a sort of mini-SUV - not too hard - but its back window just shattered! Weeks later there was a story on the news about a design defect on the back window of this car - so I hadn't even hit it that hard - but the window shattered and it made a big splashy noise. And I crunched the hood of my car (a lower to the ground old Volvo). Right downtown. In front of lots of people.

I phoned my friends and said I would be delayed - they offered to walk over (seriously, I was blocks from meeting them) and take my dog. I phoned the police and got out of the car to talk to the other drivers. They were very nice - they were on a date. A first date. Perhaps I had given them a bonding experience!

I remember very distinctly hearing from my insurance company that I should never admit guilt. It was kind of tough in this situation. I hit their car. I was behind them at a red light. Not much else to say.

All I could utter was things like "I'm sorry this happened. So you're on a date? Where were you going for dinner?". Ugh.

The cops came and took down all the info. They asked me what happened - "Uh, I was at the light. The car went forward. It hit the other car." I had to write a statement saying what happened. "I was at a light. I looked up. My car hit their car." As if the car and I were somehow not at all related. I could just see my English teacher rolling her eyes.

I'm sitting at an accident, which I caused, and all I can think about is how angry my high school English teacher, whom I hadn't spoken to in over 10 years, would be if she read my statement.

I'm such a geek.