[Nine17]

...and I managed to roll through it before I realized what it was. Over five gallons of latex house paint from a big paint bucket in the middle of the street at 2:30 on a Sunday afternoon. The good news is that my dear wife was waiting at the next light and went all ape ***** on me about the paint on my tires and the sides of my car. I spent the next hour getting it off my Porsche -- but I still need to put the car on a lift to really get at the undercarraige. That won't be free.

I called the local police dispatcher to find out who had dropped the paint. They had no report. There are layers of wrong here: Why don't people secure their loads any more? Is it unmanly? It seems like ladders and nails in the roadway are common these days. Next, why on earth couldn't the person who dropped the five-plus gallons of paint in the road stick around and wave people away from driving through it? It was a busy intersection and most drivers were looking at the other cars. Leaving the scene of an accident is morally and legally criminal. Then, could someone have used the cell phone they have screwed into their ear to report the incident and the license plate of the offender? Of course if they did, in our area 911 calls still seem to get routed to the Highway Patrol communications center 175 miles away and not to the local police who are the designated responders. Finally, there's the complete lack of personal responsibility or accountability (sort of like the Clintons or the Republicans claiming "Change"). Is the idea that I can "use my insurance" to get the car on the lift to detail the undercarrage? I'm on my own with the deductible and the rate increases. Just because I have the foresight to buy insurance doesn't let YOU off the hook if you make a mistake -- or even worse -- intentionally get house paint all over my car.

I suppose I'll get the response that housepainters with unsecured loads are invariably illegals. Illegals are likewise invariably hired by U.S. citizens who conveniently underpay them and then ignore their own legal and moral responsibility to hire Americans, while at the same time we deny illegals access to insurance because we pretend that they don't exist. A couple of years ago an unlicensed, uninsured, and undocumented person living and working in my town totalled my 8 week-old BMW with me in it and my uninsured motorist coverage had to take the whole hit. I'm subsidizing the crummy restaurant he works at.

People, please report incidents like this to your local police! You can ask them to keep your report confidential. I carry insurance so that I can take financial responsibility when I make a mistake, not to pay for other people's mistakes. This winds up costing us all.