Remember that catchy phrase from when we were children? I think most of us at one time or another have been the subject of that chant. Well, today, as an adult, I direct it toward a 43-year-old woman named Melissa Gough of Sudbury, Massachusetts. Seems immature and childish that as an adult, I have to resort to that eons old catchphrase but in my objectivity, it is rightly fitting.
If the "liar liar pants on fire" phrase were a piece of clothing, Mrs. Gough would wear it very well.
I detest liars. Let's start with a some words synonomous with liar: Deceiver, falsifier, deluder, fibber, maligner, misleader, perjurer, storyteller and trickster.
You get the picture. The glaring fact about liars is that they tend to actually believe the lies they tell and attempt to twist the lies so intricately that they then convince themselves their lies ARE the truth.
Pathetic losers with no backbone, no spine, no self-confidence, no conscience, no soul.
But here's the trapdoor for liars: Someone else always knows the truth. And that someone else is just lying in wait (no pun intended) to pull the rope on the trapdoor and let the liar fall straight down into the sea of truth - and drown.
Liars lie for one reason and one reason only: to cover their collective butts. Usually it's to get out of trouble or worse, to subject a person about whom they are lying to horrible stress, emotional anguish and destroy their lives. It happens.
Unless of course the person lying has been diagnosed as a pathological liar then that changes the scope of the reasoning behind the lie. It just makes them candidates for the loony bin.
But as for Mrs. Gough, in my opinion, she lied to CHA (cover her ass). See here's what happened: On June 9th, around 11:00 a.m. I was driving to work, taking the same route I have taken for nearly 10 years. I have a large truck, wide and tall. Someone in a small vehicle would be hard-pressed to see around me, left or right side. Matter of fact, drivers on either side would have to edge their vehicles far out into the main thoroughfare to see around or above my truck. It's a simple fact. But hey, everyone gets their turn.
Some people, like Melissa Gough, can't wait their turn and pull stupid, reckless and careless illegal manuevers because they consider themselves privileged or their "right" to subject other drives to their dumb-ass-ness.
Melissa Gough couldn't wait her turn. At a single-car, narrow left-turn lane intersection that bisects two major streets in Framingham, Mrs. Gough came up behind me, and passed me illegally on the left.
Nope, she could not wait her turn at all.
Matter of fact, not only did she not wait her turn and illegally pass me on my my left, her stupidity, recklessness, carelessness and negligence cut me off, blocked me and impeded me from making my left turn, causing me to hit her, causing the accident that has now subjected myself AND my son to extreme duress, not to mention the financial hardship that is pending as a result of her recklessness, carelessness - and her lies.
How do I know this? Remember I wrote a few paragraphs back that no matter how many times people lie there is always at least one peson who knows the truth? I know the truth. And Melissa Gough - even though she lied that day, and continues to perpetuate her lies - she knows the truth, too.
But I'm out ahead of her because the best part of the truth is that I only have to remember it one time. It never changes. And the events of the morning of June 9th are clear as granite quarry water because these events will never change. And the details of the accident will remain crystal clear in my mind.
And I intend to prove that Melissa Gough lied to the police and lied to her insurance company in order to cover her ass. And lie that is going to come back and haunt her in the form of a civil lawsuit when I am finished with presenting my defense to the insurance commission. I don't know how to put a price on stress and loss of sleep and worry not to mention the fact my son is very upset and stressed out over Melissa Gough's lies. I'm a grownup. I can deal with this. But she is hurting my son. And while money can't take away his pain over this, it's the principal of the matter. Liars get caught eventually.
But let me take you through the events of June 9th: I had stopped on the main road, my left blinker on (one of my pet peeves is people who don't use blinkers - they are not installed for decorative purposes in cars, you know) and when I had a clear way, I turned left off the main road into the single-car, narrow left turn lane. I was the first vehicle in that lane.
This particular turn lane allows vehicles to turn left onto the next main street. A vehicle stops, and being that traffic is ONLY approaching from the right, a prudent, reasonable, experienced, seasoned veteran driver knows that he or she must yield to oncoming traffic from the right and when he or she has a clear path, may turn left without having to look left because there is no traffic approaching from the left.
With me so far?
So here I am, sitting at a complete stop in that single-car, narrow turn lane, and considering that when people turn into the lane, they are turning left so the natural "curve" of the turn is to hug the left side and there is maybe a two-foot gap between a vehicle sitting there and the "island" or "grassy berm" on the left of the vehicle.
I'm stopped, left blinker on, looking right, and given my 30 year plus years as a reporter, my attention to detail is acute. Three cars passed me coming from the right, the second being a police car. I then had a clear view on my right. And again, no reason in the world to look left because (a) no approaching traffic on the left; (b) I've driven that route for at least 10 years and (c) it was 11:00 a.m. and traffic was light and (d) no reason in the world to look left because there is NO TRAFFIC APPROACHING FROM THE LEFT.
So I'm looking right just in case a UFO decides to land all of a sudden and I step on the gas, with left blinker on, still looking right and CRUNCH! I slammed my foot on the brake, looked up and was horrified to see a car to my left driver's side, halfway into the street. My first thought that went through my head is WHERE THE EFF DID THAT CAR COME FROM? And the second thought was I knew the driver has passed me illegally on my left, cut me off, blocked me from making my turn and therefore caused the accident. Not only that, the driver's recklessness, carelessness and negligence could have caused a major accident because again, I have a large truck and she was driving a BMW. Her vehicle was halfway into the street, sideways and the only way she could have gotten to where her car was positioned at that moment is that she had to have driven up and over the berm, passing me illegally on my left, ending up halfway out in the street and subjecting her passenger to a possible "t-bone" situation. What an idiot.
I got out of my truck, saw the damage and went into shock! My entire front left driver's side fender was crushed inward, my light cover has large scrapes and scratches on it and worst of it all? I had just gotten this truck only five months ago.
I took a deep breath, walked over to her car, which was still halfway into the second main street, and I said to her, "What in the world were you thinking? You can't pass me on the left. That's illegal. Look what you've done to my truck! Oh my god, are you kidding me?"
She just stared at me, mumbled "I'm sorry I didn't know" and then shut up.
Then I called the police, I called my employer and continued to look at the damage - in shock - to my truck. The one thought rolling around my head was that I had been pushed up against the steering wheel by the impact and given I have three blood clots and have been told to be extremely careful about getting injured in any way, shape or form - even the slightest bruising can cause more blood clots - I became fearful. And I was thankful that my son was not in the car because he knows of my medical condition and he would have panicked.
I waited for the police officer to arrive, he saw the position of the cars, he could clearly see that Melissa Gough had passed me illegally on the left and caused the accident.
BUT ... since he didn't "see" it happen, he claimed he couldn't write up an accident report. (Note: I have since discovered that the officer should have written up a report because the damage to my truck is documented at well over a thousand dollars and given the fact he KNEW because of the registration that my vehicle was brand new, he should have but did not file an accident report. )
The cop then asked us if anyone was hurt, we both said no, and then he asked us to move our vehicles across the street to a bridge area where traffic could still easily pass without anyone subjecting themselves to being run over. And this is where Melissa Gough's lies began.
The cop asked us what happened. I told him the truth, I had stopped, I was first, Melissa Gough passed me on my left, cut me off, blocked me and caused the accident. She stood there, and I could see the uncertainty flitting over her features and the wheels turning in her head.
She then said to the cop "She hit me. My car was there first."
I could not believe that she had just lied to the cop. My mouth dropped open and I stared at her. She looked everywhere but at me. Then she said "I have a witness." A woman I presumed to be her mother got out of the car and said "I'm a witness." I'm sure my shock was splashed all over my features.
I said, "what are you a witness to? Your daughter came up behind me, passed me illegally on my left and caused me to hit her because she should never have done what she did. What are you a witness to??"
The cop didn't seem to care very much, perhaps because no arms or legs were strewn about the street, there was no gushing blood from cartoid arteries having been pierce by flying metal, no large pieces of windshield glass sticking out from our eyeballs.
He said something snarky like "your insurance companies can duke it out."
But the lie was out of the bag.
The cop actually made some convoluted statement about how "young" he looked. Yes, he looked about 12 years old which is probably why he didn't feel the need to further question Mrs. Gough and her passenger about what REALLY happened. My gut feeling is that if the cop had pressed Mrs. Gough for specific details, she would have caved in under the pressure of interrogation and changed her story.
As it stands, not only did Mrs. Gough lie to the cop, she then filed a claim with her insurance company and lied to it.
But let me back up just a bit: In that turn lane, there is only room enough for second car to line up exactly behind the first car. Two vehicles - two trucks or two sedans or two dump trucks cannot fit side by side and the turn lane was not designed for side-by-side vehicle positions because anyone edging out onto the second main street would subject themselves to being "t-boned" by traffic approaching from the right. So the engineers of this turn lane designed it for cars to turn into it, line up back fender to front fender, and essentially, wait your damned turn.
The exception to this turn lane is that if a landscaping vehicle with a trailer or a dump truck turned into the lane, the vehicle behind each would have to wait on the main road to turn into the lane until either of those large-sized vehicles made the left turn onto the next main road.
The statistical probability of two vehicles lining up the way Mrs. Gough claims her vehicle and my vehicle lined up that morning in that turn lane is about zero in forty million.
But alas, her lies continued. She filled out her insurance claim and stated that her vehicle was in that turn lane first, that I hit her from behind and it was a "classic fender bender." That's it. I took a photo of her car, the right rear area of her BMW which is registered to her husband and not her. A scratch on her bumper and a scratch on her light cover. My truck took the brunt of the damage because of her stupidity, her negligence, her recklessness and of course, her lies.
Lies, lies, lies yah yah they're gonna get you .... Remember that song from the Thompson Twins?
Anyways, here's the end result: My own insurance company ruled against me and the claims rep (who I think can't be more than 12 years old) stated to me that she based her ruling SOLELY on the fact that Mrs. Gough's statement was consistent with the damage. The COMMERCE (yes, COMMERCE) claims rep never spoke to Mrs. Gough, never either viewed or fully viewed the numerous videos I took of the interesection, never viewed the simulation of the accident video I took using my son's Hot Wheels cars, and never fully or at all viewed the video of me standing at that intersection/turn lane to show that cars line up single file and not the way Mrs. Gough claims our vehicles were lined up.
The COMMERCE claims rep - her name is Maritzka Rivera - epic failed in her duty to protect me as her insured. Actually, she was pissed at me already because I complained to her supervisor about her lack of cooperation, her lack of responding to my numerous requests for confirmation of receipt of documents, etc. etc. So the claims rep already had a hard on for me and ruled against me, went on vacation and then just never bothered to tell me until I began to badger her supervisor about Ms. Rivera's lack of customer service.
Hate when that happens, don't you?
I am a sixteen year customer of Commerce. I have not cost it a DIME in claims except for two windshield replacements that were the result of normal wear and tear over the years. That's it. No speeding tickets, no drunk driving, no drugs, no texting, no sexting (ha ha) no distractions, no dogs trying to drive my car.
Nothing, Nada. Zero. Zilch. Not a dime.
But clearly that doesn't mean jack shit to Commerce.
I invited the Commerce claims rep to view the intersection. She refused. Ms. Rivera stated to me that she solely based her ruling against me on hearsay. On a single piece of paper with some words -- no, make that lies - written by Mrs. Gough and Ms. Rivera's EXACT words to me were "the other driver's statement is consistent with the damage to the vehicles."
Oh and Ms. Rivera told me in her "driving experience" drivers who rear-end other drivers are always at fault.
I think Ms. Rivera is about 12. She refused to disclose her "driving experience" or the length of time in which she's been a driver. I've been driving for 33 years. I don't think Ms. Rivera has been on Earth for that period of time.
Funny how the damage in THIS situation is confined EXACTLY to the left side of my driver's side fender and Mrs. Gough's alleged damage is EXACTLY to the right rear. Two scratches.
Nope. The statistical probability of two vehicles lining up the way Mrs. Gough claims we were lined up - nah, doesn't work for me.
So here I am up against Commerce the Insurance Giant who doesn't give a rat's ass about it's insured nevermind that I have a clean, (squeaky clean) driving record, haven't cost it a dime in sixteen years and there's Mrs. Melissa Gough of Sudbury, Massachusetts driving her husband's BMW and perpetuating the biggest lie in the world.
People lie to cover their asses. And Melissa Gough lied to cover her ass for one of several reasons: Her driving record is not so squeaky clean.
Or she lied simply bcause she could. Because, in my opinion, Melissa Gough is a coward, pathetic, disgusting and pretty much believes she's above the law.
Can't pass people on the left in that turn lane, Melissa Gough. The cop told me in a conversation recently if he had seen you do what you did, he would have issued you a citation. And then I would not be sitting here telling the entire world about your pretty little lies.
Funny thing is I wrote her a nice letter right after the accident and asked her to step up the plate and tell the truth. I gave her a chance. I asked her to do the right thing.
Epic fail, Mrs. Gough. Epic complete total fail.
I told her that I say to my son "If you tell me the truth, I won't be mad."
Clearly, Melissa Gough's parents never said that to HER.
I don't know whether Melissa Gough has any children, but I hope she doesn't because she is horribly poor excuse for a parent if this is the example she is setting for her child or children. Melissa Gough may as well say "hey kids, it's OK to lie and ruin other people's lives because it will save Mommy and Daddy a lot of money."
Melissa Gough to you, I say again: Liar liar pants on fire.
