The "Taxi Justice" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Just got back from some place where I had to sit in a chair next to the judge and tell my side of the story.  My story started a couple of months ago when my dad and I went to visit my Aunt Lillian.  Tut, as my dad calls his sister lives on Pitney Road in Lancaster, about three miles from our house on North Queen Street.  She lives with my Uncle Bud and my two cousins, Judy and George.  We were traveling east on King Street and stopped for the light at Pitney Road. We wanted to turn left on Pitney, crossing the traffic.  But, it's a busy road and there were no green arrows to turn left at this intersection so we waited and waited until the light turned yellow and dad started to make his turn to the left, crossing behind what he thought was the last oncoming car in line.  Then we hit it.  A taxi.  It was night, but the taxi was still hard to miss since the intersection was brightly lit and the taxi was an ugly yellow color.  Seems that the taxi had just pulled out of a parking lot and quickly tried to beat the yellow light by following the last car through the intersection.  He didn't make it either.  We collided and I ended up on the floor of the car.  There were no seat belts in cars back then and I guess I was lucky that I ended up on the floor and not with my head sticking out of the windshield.  Dad and the taxi driver were uninjured.  Luckily, neither one of the cars was going fast.  Well, who's to blame?  Both insurance companies said that their driver was not at fault, so someone else had to decide.  I was only 10 or 11 at the time and I thought it was a judge, but I'm really not sure.  All I remember was putting my hand on the Bible and telling the judge I would tell him the truth.  And, I did.  Described it to him as I just described it to you, except I drew it on a piece of notebook paper so the judge could see it.  Did a great job of drawing the cars I thought, but that didn't help dad win his case.  I was the last one to sit in the chair next to the judge before he decided that dad should have stopped before he ran into the taxi.  Dad was already turning left on a red light because of having to wait so long for all the oncoming traffic, but I forgot to tell that to the judge.  Probably wouldn't have mattered anyway, since dad thought he saw the judge get into a taxi after the hearing was over.  The taxi was driven by the guy who ran into dad.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.