Question about accidents

[wyatt]

11 years, 1 accident, 3 times off the road, 1 ticket
accident was me and 3 friends driving through a parking lot when a 16 year old who had already had 3 other accidents was cutting across the isles and came out from behind a van an hit me. Passangers side in front of the tire. I was able to drive, but her car was leaking antifreeze really bad. Since it was a parking lot it was "50/50", but anyone with a brain would tell you that the girl going 30 in a parking lot cutting across isles was at fault.

3 times off the road, all due to ice on corners. The little Chevy Sprint I drove at the time never got injured even once during those excursions... Not sure how, it took some good blows sliding off the road sideways a couple times, and straight off through a ditch and into a field the other.

Ticket was right after I got the car I have now. The tires are larger than stock, so the speedo was off, and compared to the Sprint, my Suzuki Swift has a lot of power. I had gotten used to driving 5 over in the Sprint, but doing so in the Swift meant 8 over, and a ticket. I was 18.

[cfg83]

kitaimdao -

Since 1984. Two accidents. One my fault and one maybe 1/2 my fault, but then he or she ran away. Here's a rough estimate of miles driven :

1972 VW Karmann Ghia      :  30K Miles (totaled at 15 MPH, my fault)
1977 Datsun B210 HoneyBee :  50K Miles (but probably more)
1987 Ford Escort GT       :  30K Miles (damaged in "hit and run" by other fellow)
1990 Honda CRX DX         :  87K Miles
1997 Saturn SC2           :  97K Miles
1999 Saturn SW2           : 140K Miles to present
Rough Total               : 434K Miles in about 25 years

It seems like I used to get moving violations spaced apart just enough so as to be able to go to traffic school, but none in recent years (knock on wood).

I drove a motorcycle too. I enjoy cruising, but LA traffic on two wheels can be a lesson in being terrified of other drivers.

I have a theory. The longer you drive, the more "6th sense" you develop. Even though your reaction skills erode, your experience allows you to "intuit" how to drive safely. It's like the "flight hours" a pilot amasses in order to become certified.

It doesn't mean I won't get into an accident tomorrow, but nobody's been hurt in all that time, so I count that as a win.

CarloSW2

[UfoTofU]

I'm fortunate nobody has been hurt too

[Matt Herring]

17 years...3 accidents...2 moving violations.

Accident #1: 17 years old and hit a patch of ice on a bridge...hit the side of the bridge with the passenger front side and it spun me around and I hit the passenger rear side. No other vehicles involved in crash. Had my license for 3 weeks when this happened in my Chevy Monte Carlo...not fun explaining this one to Mom.

Accident #2: 18 years old and was showing my girlfriend the top of my head after a haircut (dumb). Needless to say, when I looked up there was a rear bumper in front of me...crammed the brakes and lightly hit the car in front of me...no damage to either vehicle (also in my Chevy Monte Carlo).

Accident #3: 29 years old and my Ford Ranger was parked in my driveway/parking lot when a drunk driver lost control of his vehicle, ran over a fire hydrant and sent the hydrant and his car into the side of my truck. I had just parked the car 5 minutes earlier...anyone believe in "if it's not your time to go it's not your time to go?" (Side note: I got a nice new paint job on the entire truck out of this one...two weeks later I backed into a basketball hoop pole and dented the nice new paint job...sold the car a month later for less than I should have due to the big dent).

The two moving violations were a speeding ticket (52 in a 35 coming off a highway) and running a yellow/red light. Both were over 7 years ago and are no longer factored into my insurance rate.

[Wonderboy]

Nice thread kit,

I've been in a LOT of trouble, but just little enough to not get slammed by insurance. Lets see:

95 Subaru impreza sedan - ditched twice, no damage, towed away from both by friends
My friend's 80's model buick skylark - I was driving and rear ended an overweight wench who slammed on her brakes for no apparent reason - she was on the phone with the police before she even pulled over. Left some of my friend's new paint job on her car which was wiped off with a paper towel but destroyed my friend's fiberglass front end. The police officer had to CONVINCE her she might have been injured in the accident (she said "no, I'm fine" several times while the cop said "are you SURE?", to which she eventually replied "welllll, my back hurts a little". The cop reported it as a "personal injury accident) she tried and failed to get an insurance settlement, and my friend already had a new front end he planned on putting on anyway. This incident somehow ended up with no ramifications whatsoever .

93 Subaru legacy wagon - ditched once, no damage, drove out. My 1st speeding stop - It was a passing zone and a slow-moving loaded up contractor truck with a bunch of ladders on it, "offered" me a pass. I took it, and noticed some oncoming traffic coming in hot, so I sped up to finish my pass and get back in my lane. One of the cars in that incoming traffic was the po-po. Very unlucky. Got it reduced to moving violation.

Edit: oh yeah, I've never hit a deer, but a deer hit me on the drivers side of this car one time. Small dent and a few tufts of fur.

94 Ford F-150 (father's truck) - ripped a softball size hole in some lady's old fiberglass buick while in high school - left a note on her windshield and forked over a 1 or 2 hundred to fix it. Also rear ended another horrible old witch who stopped at the bottom of an on ramp for NO REASON on a slick day. There was no visible damage to her car, but she found some little pucker in the fender and managed to win $900 from my insurance. Awful person - deserved to be rear-ended by me :-P

93 Toyota corolla sedan - ditched once - This was awful - I was driving home late one night about a year and a half ago. I was driving home to my parents house where there's a reasonably large curve in the road. It was apparently a little slick, and with a couple ditched cars under my belt, controlled the car into a light landing gently into a ditch. I couldn't manage to get it out, and a passer-by stopped and offered her help. This failed, and I ran to my parents house about 3/4 mile away to get my father's truck to drag it out. Turns out the lady who helped me called the cops, and one was there waiting for me. He had a marine corps style haircut and a marine corps style attitude - he was a real prick. He convinced his self I had alcohol on my breath (I had some drinks MUCH earlier that night, but I was definitely not intoxicated). He also took the liberty of searching my vehicle without my consent, constantly spitting through the process. He then decided to keep me in the back of the police car for a while even though I was not under arrest. I was forced to pay a towtruck to pull my car out of the ditch even though I had my father's truck ready. My parents learned of the event by now, and arrived on the scene, as baffled as I was that I was required to hire a towtruck. They were not pissed - thank ****. I got an awesome lawyer for this and ended up with no points on my license, the $100 for the towtruck, and a $275 fine - Still no bill from the lawyer to this day. My real disdain for most cops began here.

Also in the 93 corolla - Second speeding ticket - totally legitimate, guilty, 79 in a 65 (huge downhill ) Got some points that were removed with defensive driving class I regularly go to for insurance discount.

My current 98 Civic - 3rd speeding ticket - sneaky school zone in Chittenango NY (fun fact: this is where L. Frank Baum, the creator of The Wizard of Oz, was from). this cop was really nice and saw that I was on my way to do a job at their local advance auto parts with my ladder, cabling, and tools. - let me off with a local traffic infraction that consisted only of a fine, no points, nothing involved with the state.
Since then I've been stopped numerous times (for driving too slow, for headlights, just for the hell of it) and never ticketed. some of the police were alright, some were obviously looking for trouble.

With all but my current car, I (may or may not) have parking tickets up the wazoo at a local university, where I am/was a volunteer DJ at their radio station, but not a student and therefore am effectively immune to their parking tickets - by now with overdue payment penalties, I've probably accrued over a thousand dollars in fines . Not paying those .

I've had several parking tickets in NYC and have been towed in NYC - an awful place to park - I try to avoid driving there at all now, but next time I park there and forever more, I'm taking photos of my car after parking.

Fun parking ticket facts: in some little towns that are essentially little pieces of San Francisco that someone dropped out of an airplane (like Asheville, NC and Ithaca, NY) the first parking ticket you get is a free warning. I've kept these as souvenirs.

Part of me is just plain unlucky, part of me has a will to stick it to authority, sometimes I just make honest mistakes. Luckily I've never been hurt, nor hurt anyone else.

[dcb]

Originally Posted by Wonderboy

...let me off with a local traffic infraction...

Lol, that reminds me, used to be that in chicago you could hand the cop a $50 and be on your way

[UfoTofU]

My first accident with my car was backing out of my steep driveway - might've still had my permit. I was going to get groceries with my parents. I hit the side because my father's big van was parked on the other side of the driveway. It put a gash in one of my tires so we had to get another one

[metroschultz]

I've been driving since 1972,
I've had a license (off and on, mostly on) since 1976.
I've had more accidents than all the previous posters combined.

All my fault.

I used to drive like tomorrow was the end of the world, and I have the scars to show for it. Scars on my skin, under my derma, on my bones, in my organs. I've totaled 5 cars, 2 were endo's. Speed limits were for losers, and I was always trying to win.
I do not recommend any one drive like that.
I've had my license revoked, suspended, or taken away for traffic infractions and insurance neglections and whatever else I was wrong doing at the time.
I took longer than most to "Grow Up".
I haven't had a ticket in 10 years, or an accident in 15.
I will try to keep it that way for the rest of my life.
If someone asks for specifics, I will start a thread about my own youthful stupidity, where, I will try to recollect all the dumbness I can and regale you of the wisdom gained through pain (sometimes excruciating) and experience.
(I may do that anyway, my therapist says journaling is a good way to get out the bad experiences and deal with them in a nonthreatening way.)

[Bicycle Bob]

There are lots of accident stats and stories available that are not eco-mod specific. Rarer are the avoided-accident stories. Twice, my sporty driving practice has paid off when I have slid through corners on unexpected ice, when loss of control would have been very bad. One night, I was droning along a minor highway when I flashed by a car upside down in the next lane. I was lucky - the reflectors had mostly fallen off. Other times, I've been dancing around the potholes and generally having fun, and found myself with plenty of time to react to surprises on the road, one of which was a friend and her bicycle in a heap. Over 60% of the drivers on their way to an accident just freeze up and don't even brake, let alone steer creatively. I saw two dogs run into heavy traffic from a highly visible side road, and nobody even honked.
As with eco-driving, the biggest factor is behind the wheel, looking for options. Know how your car handles at the limit, by pushing it when you can see that it is safe. One friend looked up from changing her radio, and swerved to stay in her lane. Then she overcorrected twice and totalled the car.

If a man has been born to be hanged, he needn't be afeared of the water.
- Texas Aphorism

If you see one deer, don't stare - spot the others.

[UfoTofU]

I'm not sure if I've driven in heavy snow