Question about accidents

[metroschultz]

It seem like a sixth sense at the time because we don't always recognize our own subconscious telling us to "get the he!! out of here".

In retrospect, after the Adrenalin has cooled down and your mind can reflect on the incident, you realize that you witnessed an accident like that in the past, or you were involved in one, or you were the cause of one. (guilty of the last) And your mind says;
I've seen this,
It ends bad,
We shouldn't be here,
!!!GET ME OUTA HERE!!!!!!!!
and then we move our cars to a safer lane or exit the highway before the big mess occurs and it feels like precognition.

[UfoTofU]

Let's agree that experience can help

[NiHaoMike]

Originally Posted by kitaimdao

I didn't have a point. It was self teasing. Anyway what's ironic is both you and dcb, in private message, mentioned "woman." I've always heard the stereotype refer to Asians in general.



It's also ironic that I've never met an Asian who didn't fit the stereotype. However, I know that stereotypes aren't true.

As for the sixth sense, God knows I need it

Austin Drive Clean - definitely contrary to the stereotype. (The interesting part is that she was involved in a minor accident just before the famous 48 state challenge, but she was definitely not at fault. She was getting ready to start the challenge and a truck backed into her parked car.)

I have also been in just one minor accident - not my fault. I was returning home from school and I braked hard at a light (which had a red light camera, BTW) that was turning red. The driver behind me was distracted and her car bumped mine. No damage. But I think it's still a good argument for putting countdown indicators at every light to allow drivers to time the lights.

[bgd73]

2006: quite dark, highway, going by dump site dysarts bangor maine. notorious in the 80s for mysterious melting tires and electrical "bermuda triangles". anyhoo. That was once a paid off secret.
I am going by, perculiar odor, right lane, a camaro weaving back and forth, something was alive in the air, I could smell that raunchy mismatched convertor (exahust) spewing something eye burning. No worries, I survived traffic jams in the 70s sitting tall in a smoky old cabover tractor trailer stuck in a city tunnel with the same brain melting odor...(it adds to the character I am today) er hum, anyway,

I was doing about 70ish, flow of traffic around me, I caught a glimpse of a taillight in my headlights. Honda. (I am bizarre like that in split seconds- it must be many years of trucking as a passenger)
The car was going so slow, on this looong right hand highway bend, I knew to go to the left, and squeeze between a camaro, and the honda, the camaro rubbed paint on my left, I flew by the 20mph honda on the 70mph highway, smacking mirrors, My car went sideways, I slid a long time,m assumed a rollover, exactly saodewyas for a 1000 yards, like I was on an oil slick, and smacked into guard rail, totalling car. One old lady still alive, my old sube: destroyed. I looked back at where mirrors touched...it was long frickin way off. I slid a long time.
The police never pursued camaro. Ironically it turned out to be some junkie busted in jail before figuring out who it was driving drunk like..no charges, no resolve. no faults. A few days after the wreck..my tires had melt spots and i could not touch them, i could smell it, like peppermint...the dump site caused the honda to have problems is my only guess, as strange things showed on my own car. Repulsive odor has a chemistry. Beware. I'd love to find out what that is that keeps sneaking into these mass flunking Maine dump piles: Massachussetts.

A subaru later, I had a life long steel part fail, strangely, I had just done hauling with the car, inspection etc. It smelled like peppermint, and I remembered using a tire from my wrecked car, in the same area it failed. This peppermint smell was a direct hit and ate 3/16 steel in 6 months. Freaky hey?

[UfoTofU]

Yes, that's freaky

[Piwoslaw]

bgd73: I bet that 20mph Honda was soneone hypermiling
Now someone should post

Back in 2006 I was hypermiling around Bangor, nice and slowish, when all of the sudden...

[stevey_frac]

Wow, now this is a thread I can add too!

I totaled two cars in two months. These were some of the first months of my driving. Both times i was sober. Both times i was going well under the speed limit. Both times I was the only vehicle involved.

I want you to think about that. Now add in that i was 17 at the time, and imagine what the insurance people did to me.

The first accident, it was very very icy. I slid through a T intersection and fell into the ditch on the other side. I hit on enough of an angle to write off the car by destroying the transmission. (it was an old car).

The second accident, I started driving off, and the window fogged up on me. I steered over to the side of the road to try and clean the window off better. I hit a parked Jeep and managed to roll the car. It rolled very gently. Gentlest way to completely destroy a vehicle. The driver window broke, and i undid my belt and fell out the broken window. Both accidents i walked away without so much as a scratch. For which i am very thankful.

Finally. After 6 years accident free, and about 300k kms of driving. I got rear-ended by a full size lexus (LS430) on the 2nd day i got my smart car. Did about $1000 worth of cosmetic damage to the smart, and wrote off the lexus. Lexus crumpled like a wet rag around the reinforced steel frame of the smart. His fault. I stopped. He failed to.

-Steve

[SuperTrooper]

33 years of driving. 3 accidents.

#1. 1980, on the back roads of Abbeville, Louisiana at 4 AM. I come around a sharp corner and there are 2 cops, a local and a state trooper, parked in the road talking. No flashers, just head and tail lights. My only choice was the ditch. The trooper took off and the local checked on me. Then he hooked a chain to his trailer hitch and pulled me out of the ditch. Other than the alignment being knocked out my Pinto was fine. I don't think he said ten words to me the whole time.

#2. 1983, on my Yamaha 750, sitting at a yield sign waiting for an opening for a traffic circle. 40ish bimbo in a red Corvette from New York bunts me across the traffic onto the center island. The bike is bent, but fixable. I sustain 2 dislocated fingers on my right hand, bruises down the whole right side of my body, a badly road-rashed leather jacket, and a cracked helmet from hitting the war memorial cannon in the center of the island. The bimbo drove away, but there were 10 witnesses who stayed with me waiting for the police and ambulance who gave info that tracked her down.

#3. 1986, stopped on a busy street waiting to make a left turn into an alley. When an opening in the opposing traffic occurs I shoot across the road, just as the person in the first parking space after the alley backs up to try to get into the flow. His car gets pushed into a light pole. It turns out he has no license or insurance. A month later I get a notice from my insurance company saying that his fat cow of a wife now has neck pain, and they settle for $5K+ $750 for totalling his Vega.

In the ensuing years I've had some close calls on my bike, but my riding buddies were less fortunate. In a 2 year period in the '90s I buried 3 of them, so I gave up motorcycles. Looking in the newspaper this morning I see that another just died in an accident on a wet road near his home. Every time I get the itch to get back on 2 wheels I get a reminder of why I gave it up.

[Funny]

My accidents very memorable.

#1 - about 3 months after getting my first car in 2001, about a year after getting my license - I back my 1985 Rx-7 up into my girlfriend's step-dad's F-150 while trying to make a get-away after he caught us less than fully clothed ...
Needless to say I stopped to assess the damage (I never even got out of the driveway), I had smashed in the tumbler for the hatch, dented the rear under the hatch window, and broken a couple plastic molding pieces... Her step dad came out and drove off pissed without saying a thing to me... I was terrified... I found out later that I had done NO DAMAGE TO HIS TRUCK, not even a scratch...
I am still with this girl today, and she and I are getting hitched in a couple of weeks . Her step-dad and I get along well now if you are wondering.
One of my friends does amazing bodywork, didn't report this one to the insurance company.

#2 - about a year after the first accident - following my girlfriend (same girl, in the same 1985 Rx-7) and I look down to change the radio station, when I look up she had come to a dead stop in her 1989 Buick (she missed the turn she was going to take). Thank God for video game reflexes - I turn the wheel a 1/4 left and lock up the brakes, Spin 180 and miss her back bumper with my back bumper with a few inches to spare (don't ask me how I managed that, I probably couldn't repeat it if I tried ) and slide a few more feet back up over the curb on the other side of the road and hit my passenger side fender on a concrete barrier, denting it a few inches. We are both facing each other and have the same "I can't believe that just happened!" look on our faces. Like the first accident, I drive away, no insurance call and get my bodywork buddy on the horn to fix the latest crackup.

#3 - March 2004 - After an Ice storm - before the roads had been sanded in my 2002 Toyota Corolla S. I left for work 45 minutes early so I could take my time. Going down an icy back road, around a corner my front wheels break loose and I start sliding around the corner... right into a telephone poll and mailbox. I don't have a cell phone at the time, so I walk to the next door neighbor's house (there was a big scary German Shepard in front of the house whose mailbox I hit) and telephone my mom to get down here and call the wrecker to haul my ride away. Within moments a police cruiser rolls up as I am assessing the damage of the accident and goes through the motions (are you okay son? what happened here?...). I had peeled back the fender like it was a banana peel and once the auto body shop got hold of it, they found a whopping $6000 in damage to the suspension and framework (the insurance company had estimated the damage at $2000) and the car wasn't totaled, thank God. It took a couple weeks to repair, but then it was like new again.

#4 - Driving on Main street in a nearby Town 2006 - 2002 Toyota Corolla S (same as #3 above) - My girlfriend was in the car with me for this one. I go around an SUV (still on my side of the yellow lines) that is taking a right onto an intersecting street and an 50+ year old woman pulls out from that side street right in front of me. I T-bone her going at least 30 MPH (that was with the brakes locked up and a tremendous amount of rubber being left behind). She shocked, I'm shocked, my girlfriend is shocked, we pull our cars over and the old bag can't get out. I had fused her car door with the B pillar and had to yank the door open for her. I tried to keep my cool, and asked her if she was okay and for her insurance information and waited for the police show up. I'm thinking to myself "wonderful, a 23 year old kid and a 50+ year old woman get into an accident of the above description, who is at fault..." Well thank the Lord I stayed on my side of the road (the tire tracks I left behind were a clear indicator of where my car had been) because after the cop checked out the scene he said "I'm sorry ma'am, but any insurance company is going to find you at fault because you pulled out into the main flow of traffic when it was unsafe to do so, the young gentleman (he called me a gentleman! ) was on his side of the road when the accident happened and you had a stop sign, indicating that you go when it is safe to proceed. Here is your citation. Have a nice day. Her insurance picks up the tab and I drive away with $2000 worth of damage. They insurance company can't total the car (because it was worth $2300 at the time ) and I still drive the Rolling Lemon today.

None of these have ever been against me (the two that were reported) and the icy road #3 accident? I had to go to a hearing and provide information to get that one taken off my record (just had to provide a few articles from newspapers that had statements from state troopers saying that the ice caused about 97 accidents that day).
So I consider myself lucky and drive much more defensively than in the past. Always pay attention!!!! It will save you and others lives!
I do believe you get almost a sixth sense when you have been driving for several years, I attribute it to experience .

[MazdaMatt]

That's funny... around here if you crash and it is icy... you're just another jackass that didn't take the weather into consideration and you're instantly at fault. Every time there is a snow storm the radio reports the number of accidents reported that day... here in London, Ontario a bad snow storm usually results in >100 accidents. This is one of the worst towns for driving that I've ever lived in.