WWTBAM Bored

So I was working from home this morning to accomodate a doctor's appointment at 11. I had to be there at 10:30. On my way, I get hit by a total creep. I'm in the left lane as I exit the highway, stay in the left lane for several traffic lights and am about to get in a left turn lane at the approaching light. All of a sudden I get hit from the right. The guy stops and looks at me like a deer in headlights. I motion to pull over as we are blocking a major road. I pulled over as well. Later I almost wish I didn't.

He gets out and I just lost it, I said, "So what makes you think you can just get in my lane when I'm already there???" He apologizes profusely for about a minute telling me don't worry we'll come to a "compromise". I laughed. Then I called the police. He went on and on for 10 minutes about how he was sorry and he never had anything like this happen and can't we compromise? Finally I was like listen buddy, the extent of my compromise is I'm willing to let you decide if you want to pay out of pocket or have your insurance cover it AFTER we file a police report. He says, no, I don't want the cops. I said, well, then you shouldn't have hit me! And I took a picture of him, his license plate number, the damage on both our cars and I got in my car and refused to talk to him.

Cop shows up, does his whole job, checks it all out...while he's writing his report, the guy (and now his wife who has joined him) comes up to me and says you know you hit me trying to make a right hand turn. I just laughed and pointed out that I had left my car running, with proof in the form of the GPS system, showing I was turning left. Also the damage wasn't really possible any other way - the corner of his left bumper/above his left front wheel...and the entire right sige of my car. If I turned into him, it would have been the other way around.

So officer is citing him for failure to remain in his lane. But now I have to jump through Geico's hoops to get it all fixed. I'm working from home for the rest of the day now!! And I think I'm going to have my body shop take a look at it to get an estimate before the Geico adjuster even sees it.

It's just not been a good year for me so far. But at least I'm okay (or am I...ooh my neck ) and the car is driveable, it's just a hassle. But add it to everything else and geez...when is this going to be over??

I'm sorry you're having a lousy Monday.

sunflower wrote:Cop shows up, does his whole job, checks it all out...while he's writing his report, the guy (and now his wife who has joined him) comes up to me and says you know you hit me trying to make a right hand turn.

I guess that's his way of fighting back after you refused to "compromise".

I'm glad you're ok!

Car accidents suck!!!

(just in the past 4 years: I've been rear-ended twice, I hit a deer, and about 2 months ago my car was hit in a parking lot, while I was shopping, no note or anything!)

mom2five wrote:I'm glad you're ok!

Car accidents suck!!!

(just in the past 4 years: I've been rear-ended twice, I hit a deer, and about 2 months ago my car was hit in a parking lot, while I was shopping, no note or anything!)

I HATE the parking lot ones. I thought of that while I was standing there waiting, this could have easily happened when parked and I'd have no recourse. I am lucky, as far as accidents go.

Not as easy as the one I was in on my 25th birthday where I just cried for about an hour and the woman who hit me told the cop it was her fault and all I did was sob on the curb, and never had to even tell my story because she confessed it all. Of course, I was hurt and then spent 5 hours in the ER on my birthday! so in that way, today is a lot better because I'm currently sitting on my couch.

The aftermath of the accident with its legalities and procedures are a pain in the rear end but the important thing is you're OK (and it wasn't your fault).

Things will be better.

About 10 years ago, Mrs. Rexer got hit from behind and get knocked into the car in front of her. The woman said, "Wait a minute, I'll call my husband, he's a cop in Suburb E", and my wife said "I've already called 911, and a cop from this city will be here soon." The car that hit my wife had at least $4000 damage to the front end, my wife's car had $2000.00 damage to the back, and $300 to the front, and the third car had a little rubber smear on the back bumper. The driver that caused the problem claimed my wife hit the car in front of her first, and then rebounded from that impact with enough force to do the major damage to her car.

She only claimed that once. We weren't out a penny for the repair, and got the other party to pay for some P.T. for my wife's shoulder.

I am sorry that you got into a car accident. Even if it isn't your fault, they are a pain in the ass to deal with.

Speaking of car accidents (or accidents waiting to happen) Maddie drove herself to school today. Zap and I were in the car and managed to survive.

PlacentiaSoccerMom wrote:Speaking of car accidents (or accidents waiting to happen) Maddie drove herself to school today. Zap and I were in the car and managed to survive.

Maddie has her learner's permit, now? Congratulations to her!

And I'm sure the situation wasn't nearly as bad as you describe.

MarleysGh0st wrote:

PlacentiaSoccerMom wrote:Speaking of car accidents (or accidents waiting to happen) Maddie drove herself to school today. Zap and I were in the car and managed to survive.

Maddie has her learner's permit, now? Congratulations to her!

And I'm sure the situation wasn't nearly as bad as you describe.

It's pretty bad. We left home fifteen minutes early so we would encounter fewer cars on the road. Tomorrow I might leave twenty minutes earlier.

PlacentiaSoccerMom wrote:

MarleysGh0st wrote:

PlacentiaSoccerMom wrote:Speaking of car accidents (or accidents waiting to happen) Maddie drove herself to school today. Zap and I were in the car and managed to survive.

Maddie has her learner's permit, now? Congratulations to her!

And I'm sure the situation wasn't nearly as bad as you describe.

It's pretty bad. We left home fifteen minutes early so we would encounter fewer cars on the road. Tomorrow I might leave twenty minutes earlier.

Well, when I was learning to drive, my dad started me on some quiet country roads. I don't think those exist in the OC.

We've been in parking lots for a few months and she was doing well. Traffic and having to go to a specific place and a specific time (you know make a right turn now...) flusters her.

Yeah, it's okay. Geico is now dragging their feet while they figure out how they can blame me for it. I got an estimate from my body shop for $2600. Not awful, but significant enough...it just impacted so much of my car.

But I got a new phone today, yay for that!

sunflower wrote:Yeah, it's okay. Geico is now dragging their feet while they figure out how they can blame me for it...

They've gotta pay for those gawdoffal ads somehow. Just when you think they couldn't come up with anything worse than the cavemen, here comes that money wad with the googly eyes. Yeesh!

Sorry to hear about the accident on top of everything else going on in your life, sunflower. Glad no one was injured. Good luck with the lizard insurance people.

You are very lucky not only that no-one is hurt, but that you live in a state where the police fill out accident reports about who is really at fault in left turn accidents.

In another state I know of, where people I know live, the following scenario happened:

Person1 doing ample signalling turns left, into a business. Bad person driving with, apparently, no front brakes crashes in person1's passenger side rear door. Luckily, they missed the front door, which had elderly passenger sitting next to it.

Police arrive at scene. Bad-person claims their brakes lines broke when they hit person1's car. Theoretically possible, I guess, but its a lot more likely that they were driving around with bad brakes, & knew it.

Police write up person1, who did nothing wrong, as being at fault because "statistically in left turns the driver turning is at fault". Statistically? When the officer was right there looking at no-brake-driver having their not-much-damaged but brakeless car towed away? Person1's car was driveable; they drove elderly passenger straight to a hospital, where they checked out shaken but otherwise unbruised (except for seat belt pressure, but organs under the seat belt appeared unhurt).

Person1 eventually contacted lawyers who got the charge removed. But it shouldn't take that when an officer is on the scene, yet writes up a ticket for the not-at-fault person because "in this state, we are allowed to do it on account of statistics".

Glad you weren't hurt.

gsabc wrote:

sunflower wrote:Yeah, it's okay. Geico is now dragging their feet while they figure out how they can blame me for it...

They've gotta pay for those gawdoffal ads somehow. Just when you think they couldn't come up with anything worse than the cavemen, here comes that money wad with the googly eyes. Yeesh!

Sorry to hear about the accident on top of everything else going on in your life, sunflower. Glad no one was injured. Good luck with the lizard insurance people.

Thanks!! See I'm glad I gave up saying "it can't get any worse than this" with respect to my life, because bad things can always happen. I have to say after my run of bad stuff, I have to believe that when things get good, they'll be really good!! I've paid my dues!!

I have Allstate, last time someone hit me, they also had allstate and that was smooth sailing. Geico...we'll see. Although assuming the police report says what the cop said it would say, I should be okay.

Jeez! Sorry this happened, and so glad to here you're ok. Sounds like you did all the right things - good job.

I'm taking tall son for his drivers license test this afternoon. Oh boy.

ghostjmf wrote:You are very lucky not only that no-one is hurt, but that you live in a state where the police fill out accident reports about who is really at fault in left turn accidents.

In another state I know of, where people I know live, the following scenario happened:

Person1 doing ample signalling turns left, into a business. Bad person driving with, apparently, no front brakes crashes in person1's passenger side rear door. Luckily, they missed the front door, which had elderly passenger sitting next to it.

Police arrive at scene. Bad-person claims their brakes lines broke when they hit person1's car. Theoretically possible, I guess, but its a lot more likely that they were driving around with bad brakes, & knew it.

Police write up person1, who did nothing wrong, as being at fault because "statistically in left turns the driver turning is at fault". Statistically? When the officer was right there looking at no-brake-driver having their not-much-damaged but brakeless car towed away? Person1's car was driveable; they drove elderly passenger straight to a hospital, where they checked out shaken but otherwise unbruised (except for seat belt pressure, but organs under the seat belt appeared unhurt).

Person1 eventually contacted lawyers who got the charge removed. But it shouldn't take that when an officer is on the scene, yet writes up a ticket for the not-at-fault person because "in this state, we are allowed to do it on account of statistics".

Statistics or not, in my state, the left-turner is at fault for not yielding the right-of-way to oncoming traffic. If you are turning in front of someone and forcing them to brake, the gap isn't big enough, and you are at fault for not waiting for a bigger one.

Estonut says:

Statistics or not, in my state, the left-turner is at fault for not yielding the right-of-way to oncoming traffic. If you are turning in front of someone and forcing them to brake, the gap isn't big enough, and you are at fault for not waiting for a bigger one.

There is no gap big enough to avoid someone who has no brakes. It would be nice if people with bad brakes would not drive. And, for that matter, you can leave a 15-block gap, & someone with good brakes but who is speeding can zoom down & hit you too. About the only way to avoid left-turn accidents with you as the vehicle hit is to never make left turns.

And the only way to avoid bad drivers, which would include people driving around with bad brakes by definition, is not to drive yourself.

I have had the good fortune of having never been in an accident of any kind as a driver, but experienced my first one as a passenger just 10 days ago. Thankfully, since we were stopped at a stop sign and the truck that plowed into us was clearly in our lane, there was absolutely no disputing the fault in it. But thankfully, like me and my family, you came out of this physically unscathed, and that's what's important....

lb13

Estonut wrote:

ghostjmf wrote:You are very lucky not only that no-one is hurt, but that you live in a state where the police fill out accident reports about who is really at fault in left turn accidents.

In another state I know of, where people I know live, the following scenario happened:

Person1 doing ample signalling turns left, into a business. Bad person driving with, apparently, no front brakes crashes in person1's passenger side rear door. Luckily, they missed the front door, which had elderly passenger sitting next to it.

Police arrive at scene. Bad-person claims their brakes lines broke when they hit person1's car. Theoretically possible, I guess, but its a lot more likely that they were driving around with bad brakes, & knew it.

Police write up person1, who did nothing wrong, as being at fault because "statistically in left turns the driver turning is at fault". Statistically? When the officer was right there looking at no-brake-driver having their not-much-damaged but brakeless car towed away? Person1's car was driveable; they drove elderly passenger straight to a hospital, where they checked out shaken but otherwise unbruised (except for seat belt pressure, but organs under the seat belt appeared unhurt).

Person1 eventually contacted lawyers who got the charge removed. But it shouldn't take that when an officer is on the scene, yet writes up a ticket for the not-at-fault person because "in this state, we are allowed to do it on account of statistics".

Statistics or not, in my state, the left-turner is at fault for not yielding the right-of-way to oncoming traffic. If you are turning in front of someone and forcing them to brake, the gap isn't big enough, and you are at fault for not waiting for a bigger one.

Bingo!

littlebeast13 wrote:I have had the good fortune of having never been in an accident of any kind as a driver, but experienced my first one as a passenger just 10 days ago. Thankfully, since we were stopped at a stop sign and the truck that plowed into us was clearly in our lane, there was absolutely no disputing the fault in it. But thankfully, like me and my family, you came out of this physically unscathed, and that's what's important....

lb13

<off-topic>Your avatar should read "Scritch me, I'm Irish!"</off-topic>

earendel wrote:

littlebeast13 wrote:I have had the good fortune of having never been in an accident of any kind as a driver, but experienced my first one as a passenger just 10 days ago. Thankfully, since we were stopped at a stop sign and the truck that plowed into us was clearly in our lane, there was absolutely no disputing the fault in it. But thankfully, like me and my family, you came out of this physically unscathed, and that's what's important....

lb13

<off-topic>Your avatar should read "Scritch me, I'm Irish!"</off-topic>

Not everyone wants to scritch the Irish, but everyone needs a little good luck....

Especially Sprots......

lb13

littlebeast13 wrote:

earendel wrote:

littlebeast13 wrote:I have had the good fortune of having never been in an accident of any kind as a driver, but experienced my first one as a passenger just 10 days ago. Thankfully, since we were stopped at a stop sign and the truck that plowed into us was clearly in our lane, there was absolutely no disputing the fault in it. But thankfully, like me and my family, you came out of this physically unscathed, and that's what's important....

lb13

<off-topic>Your avatar should read "Scritch me, I'm Irish!"</off-topic>

Not everyone wants to scritch the Irish, but everyone needs a little good luck....

Especially Sprots......

lb13

I can already hear sprots' reply...

ghostjmf wrote:There is no gap big enough to avoid someone who has no brakes.

Did you miss the part where he pointed out you should be waiting for a gap large enough so that the oncoming traffic doesn't HAVE to brake?