Quote:
Originally Posted by Old Mechanic
To make a point;
You're sitting at an intersection ( in spite of your best hypermiling and light timing), waiting for the red light to change. You look in your rearview mirror and a car is approaching very rapidly. You realize they can not stop in time to avoid hitting you hard!
What do you do?
A cop told me that the law required me to sit there and get hit. I told him there was no law that required me to allow someone to severely injure me. The cop might write me a ticket, but I have had 100% success when talking to the judge.
regards
Mech
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ksa8907
This is the answer for those who can't think for themselves, aka sheople who just go along with what they're told. The right answer is your life is yours to protect, smash the gas and get the f out of the way.
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The cop is correct. If you attempt to take heroic measures to avoid an accident and you lose control of your vehicle, possibly causing or making an accident worse, then you are also at fault.
I've had this exact situation happen to me. I was on a major street, two lanes of travel in each direction, with a speed limit 40. I'm in the left lane, stopped with my foot on the brakes and with my signal on, waiting to make a left onto the street where I live. Since I live on that corner, this happened almost literally in front of my house. I waited for about 20 seconds for oncoming traffic from the opposite direction to clear. During the long wait a car comes up behind me and rear-ends me - HARD.
The result? My big 1987 station wagon had very little damage. I had a severe case of whiplash which lasted about a week before returning to normal. (It's like being hit in the neck by a prizefighter. There is nothing to be done for that sort of transient injury except wait for it to pass.) The other car had the entire front end smashed in. The driver wasn't wearing a seat belt and his head went forward breaking the windshield. Lucky for him that he survived it. As it was entirely his fault I collected 100% from his insurance company on the liability claim.
It reminds me of an old bumper sticker from decades ago: "Hit me - I need the money"
