Hypermiler + impatient road rager = accident

[Mifunego]

Yep. No kidding. Happened to me. It has taken me a while to convert from a lead-footer to a more mellow, "focus on the mpg" driver, especially with a turbo hot hatch, but I've been pretty successful, as I think my mpg will attest. I have managed to learn to ignore my fellow impatient Chicago drivers, with their horns, middle fingers, and glaring looks for doing something as offensive as driving at the speed limit, in the right lane. Another of the learned techniques I use to help increase the mpg is easy acceleration, upshifting quickly.

Ok, on to the incident. I was merging onto the freeway at morning rush hour (90 westbound, from Foster, for you Chicago area folks). This on-ramp has a light which turns green only long enough to let one car on at a time. As I'm patiently waiting my turn, I happen to glance in the rearview mirror and see a late model silver RAV4 in back of me. As the light turns green for me, I slowly but surely accelerate down the on-ramp lane and check my side view to make sure I had a spot to merge; there was no problem, as I had a good 10 car lengths of space to the first car I saw in back of me on the freeway. As I approach the limit and start my merge, I look to my left just in time to see that silver RAV4's hood inches from my face, as I hear the sickening sound of its wheel grinding down the driver's side of my otherwise pristine Mica Black Mazdaspeed3.

We both pulled onto the shoulder, and as I got out to inspect the damage, (and not particularly calm) I was greeted by the other driver with, "What the hell? Don't you know how to drive, a**hole?" Needless to say, it didn't take much to get me lit up at that point. We had a bit of a yelling match there, for hundreds of commuters' entertainment, until I pointed out to him that he not only had to blow the red light at the on-ramp, but also had to jump the divider to be able to merge and (almost) pass me before I could merge. His reply? (again, not making this up) "I had to pass you because you were merging too slow." Those words. Really. So arguably, my hypermiling technique, along with a bit too much trust in my fellow driver, got me into an accident.

And yes, I know the real reason is that an overly aggressive driver passing an underly defensive driver is what results in many accidents - including this one. Still, if I was driving in my old "foot to the floor" mode...

To add insult to injury, when the state trooper stopped by to check out the scene, she took both of our statements and issued both of us a ticket, since we had conflicting stories. Yep, seems he forgot all about the "you were merging too slow" idea when he realized he was wrong. He actually told her that I came speeding up behind him to merge into traffic.

Moral of the story? Still keep up the hypermiling techniques, but have your cell phone video function ready to record incriminating statements. I didn't think of that until after he made the above comment. I didn't get anything really useful recorded.

[Floordford]

I wouldn't have let that fly. I would have asked the officer to make the guy retell his side of it in front of you also. That's crap.

I was EOCing on my way home at 11:20pm and there was little traffic. A guy got behind me, then was impatient because I was doing 30mph where the limit is 35 and its down hill so its easy to go 45. Perfect spot for EOCing. But he took the left lane and sped up. Then an officer saw him from the oncoming lane and lit him up. I passed the pulled over man as my engine was still off.

I don't drive slow enough yet to get the whole angry commuters attitude. Here in Nashville there is a fair mix of fast and slow drivers. I did have a loaded semi pass me in the right lane once. Then he cut it close to make his exit. Later down the road, about 1 mile, traffic flowed in my favor and I was about 20 bus lengths ahead of him. I do hate all he big rigs here in the middle TN area.

[SentraSE-R]

Ouch. It's too bad no witnesses stopped. You might want to post an ad in the newspaper asking for witnesses to the accident to come forward.

[Arragonis]

Not sure what you can do in the US but if you feel there is no case against you I would decline the ticket. The officer would then have a choice of going to court and trying to convict you or letting it go. I wouldn't accept the ticket at all.

[d0sitmatr]

we dont really have that option here. Ive tried declining tickets before and was told flat out I could accept it or take a trip...
however, you can decline to sign the ticket and choose to go to court over it.

personally, I think that it truly sucks that you had this happen, but also, from what you've described, to me it sounds like you "could" have avoided hitting the other driver. but as I wasnt actually there and cant know the timeline of events, I cant say for certain. I do know Ive had similar things happen to me and have avoided incident. (barely)

as for the statey, they can find the truth about who was where since 90% of lights across the nation have traffic cams, so he should be able to access that to see that you were the front car at the light, and the rav4 had to run the light. but, the reasoning behind giving you both citations is a lot simpler.
the states are hurting for money, they charge both of you and they get a cut from the court battle (since both would have to pay court costs).

Ive also been issued a citation when it was clear I was NOT at fault, and I had witnesses to the accident. the other driver even left the scene and didnt get a citation for that.
the officers reasoning ?
I knew the girl from school. (this was back when I was just out of HS and she was a senior)

I would do as stated above, ask for any witnesses to come forward to give a statement, I dont know how it works in chi-town, but in FL if you get even 1 witness to corroborate your story, that would be enough to throw your citation out and allow you to in turn sue for damage on your car. but you need to act quickly, I dont know how long they keep photo's from traffic lights stored.

[Mifunego]

Yeah, that's the thing about most accidents - they're avoidable. And I admit such. Could I have kept my eye on the mirrors, and on this guy in back of me? And could I have swerved onto the shoulder? Probably. By that statement, then yes I may have been able to avoid the accident. However did I violate any traffic law (running a red light, passing on a one-lane ramp)? No, I drove within the guidelines of the law.

And since there wasn't an explosion or a roll over, I don't think anyone really took notice. A minor fender bender at 6:30am on a very busy expressway doesn't even get a second look around here. Also, this stoplight wasn't at an intersection - there is no camera. It's basically red all the time, until a car rolls up to it, then there is maybe a 10 second pause until it turns green for a moment. Just an on-ramp control.

Regarding the ticket (i.e., revenue generator), I can:
1. Admit guilt and pay $120, and have the ticket go on my record
2. Admit guilt, pay $147, go to a 4 hour driving school, and not have the ticket on my record
3. Go to court and plead my case in front of the judge.

On principle, I want to go to court and tell my story. Unfortunately, if the other guy shows up, then it will become my word against his, and in the cash-strapped People's Republic of Illinois, I see me somehow losing for (as my ticket says) "Failure to yield."

Sigh. Probably just end up going to traffic school. Just like they want me to do.

[Diesel_Dave]

This really stinks. I feel for you. As far as contesting the ticket, however, I don't think you have any ground to stand on, legally speaking. At it's root, it IS the other guys fault (because he ran a red and passed you on the ramp). So it WAS illegal for him to get to the postition he was in. However, technically speaking, once he was in that position, you DID fail to yield. Hence, technically, you're guilty of failure to yield.

I'm not saying it's right (moraly), and I'm not a lawyer, but I think that's what they'd say if you took it to court.

[Arragonis]

Its another argument for driving with a camera. This isn't expensive to do, a mini DV one from fleabay with a 8GB Micro SD card will record 2-3 hours including sound. When its full it starts to delete the oldest file so you get the last 2-3 hours continuously.

Price of camera and card ~$35.

The look on the other driver's face when you say "well, lets review the film from my in car camera" - priceless.

EDIT - As others have tapped sometimes all those cameras have a use, can you see if there are cameras next time you are there and then ask whoever looks after the road for footage ? They will start to rotate tapes or whatever they store it on though so this needs to be done quickly.

[d0sitmatr]

that is a good point arragonis, although if you have followed the news in the states in the past few years, we're not actually allowed to do that, invasion of privacy or some such.

there have been several cases lately where people have actually been arrested for filming traffic stop. cops dont like to be filmed it seems, even though they are allowed that privilege...

I think DD has the right of it here, without any witnesses to the fact, you are pretty much SoL. and I do hope you didnt take my comment the wrong way, I wasnt trying to be insulting or anything of the sort, it does sound like the other person was fully in the wrong, by common sense standards, but the law is rarely, if ever, governed by common sense....
I think you might just have to bite the bullet on this one. and I am sorry to hear that as Ive been there, done that, and hate that I felt like I had no recourse.

[SentraSE-R]

There's no problem with filming what you see on public roads from inside your car. But how many of us are willing to wear a helmet cam every day in anticipation of that one accident in the next decade?

Filming an LEO while he's in the process of ticketing you might well be frowned upon, though.