I SAW two sides of human nature played out in the course of one incident recently.

I’d been for a hospital appointment at Halton Hospital in Runcorn and had driven off from the hospital’s car park.

My wife, who was in the passenger seat, spotted a piece of paper fluttering under one of the windscreen wipers. I pulled over and she retrieved the note.

She read it to me and with sinking hearts we both jumped out of the car to inspect the bodywork. Sure enough, it had a nasty crack in it and had been buckled out of shape.

The message had been left, not by the person who had caused the damage as I would have expected, but by a witness.

Apparently while we were in the hospital, a woman in a blue Ford Fiesta had been looking for somewhere to park. Unable to find a bay, she’d attempted to turn her car around to leave the car park. But in the process of reversing, she’d bumped into my vehicle.

According to the witness, the woman got out, took a quick look at her car and mine and concluded no damage had been done. The witness stopped her as he could see the mess she’d made of my bodywork.

And this is the part where we got to see two opposing displays of the human character.

The woman told the witness that she would pop into the hospital to find me to tell me of the accident. She didn’t make a note of my registration number, though, and chose instead to drive off. Perhaps she was flustered and wasn’t thinking straight and had every intention of trying to contact me.

But they don’t strike me as the actions of somebody eager to do the right thing.

Unfortunately for her the witness, who had been watching from his own car parked opposite mine, took photographs of her in her car as she drove off.

While I am disgusted at the behaviour of the woman, I can’t speak highly enough of the young man who was public-spirited. He left his phone number on the note and subsequently has sent me the photographs which clearly show the woman’s car registration. Amusingly, the driver appears to be looking over her shoulder, perhaps aware she’s been snapped.

I hope it’s a metaphor for the guilt she suffers for her selfish conduct.

The photos are now with my insurance company’s solicitors, so I’m happy to say it’s just a matter of time before the driver of the blue Ford Fiesta receives a call from her own insurers.

If nothing else, I hope she learns from the experience (and the hike in her car insurance premium) that honesty is the best policy.