Question about accidents

[UfoTofU]

Most teenagers in the US are excited about getting their permits and licenses. I wasn't, worried I'd hit a pedestrian who didn't look both ways before crossing. I was also six when I emigrated from Vietnam, where there are practically no traffic regulations and accidents were rampant. Children even younger than I would run across the streets while scooters zoomed by.

My brother's coworker has told me couple of times that he's never been in an accident because he's a good driver, taking the road on like it's an obstacle course and avoiding hits from drivers who aren't where they're supposed to be.

A family friend has also told me sooner or later accidents happen - worse case scenario being accidents caused by drunk drivers.

This is a thread about how long you've been driving, how many accidents you've had, what kind they were, whose fault they were, et cetera

[jamesqf]

Answer: a long time, and two accidents. Both were rear-enders, me stopped for at the end of a line of other cars, and the car behind hitting me.

I do generally agree with your brother's coworker: I've avoided quite a number of potential accidents by being aware of other traffic, Some might say that my definition of aware equates to paranoid - comes from a lot of motorcycle riding, where you live longer if you start off assuming that a significant portion of car drivers actually WANT to kill you, and are just waiting for you to give them a chance :-)

[UfoTofU]

In my last accident, I was rear ended. I was avoiding rear ending the guy who cut in front me from the yellow lane in bumper-to-bumper traffic. When traffic started again, he sped off. The man behind me hit me hard too

[Piwoslaw]

Originally Posted by kitaimdao

My brother's coworker has told me couple of times that he's never been in an accident because he's a good driver, taking the road on like it's an obstacle course and avoiding hits from drivers who aren't where they're supposed to be.

There is only so much you can do yourself. Even the best driver can get rear-ended or hit a ped that jumps out from behind something without looking.

In the last 10 years I haven't had any real accidents, only a few close calls. Once I had to get out of the way of a truck speeding down the middle of the road, pulling a mirror off from a car parked on the side. It was the truck's fault, but I had to pay mirror's owner $20
A few months ago we were coming back from a long trip, it was dark, the weather was crappy, I was the only driver, tired and mad at some nonsense that had been going on earlier, and I didn't notice a yield sign. I saw a car speeding right towards my side. Thankfully I was going slow, but the car was heavy (4 people plus load). I stopped just in time.
Many years ago I was driving down a street in Warsaw, going some 50-60 km/h, with a tram going the same speed right next to me. Suddenly the tram turns on me, instead of going straight. At full speed and without a turn signal. I hit the gas and barely made it. After that had to stop for 10 minutes for my adrenaline to go down.
And once I almost hit a cyclist while backing. The parking lot had hedges in dumb places.
Gee, looks like I'm a hazard and should have my licence revoked

EDIT: Tas reminded me that I also got 1 ticket in my life: For not having my lights on in the middle of a sunny day (lights should always be on here). Soon I'm installing automatic LED DRLs, shaving about 150-200 watts from my load

[UfoTofU]

When I first started driving, I think a woman and her two young children were crossing the road after the cross signal ended and when the left-turn light was on for me to go and yelled at me because I almost hit her

[SVOboy]

4 years, zero accidents.

[tasdrouille]

12 years. Had a head on collision during my first year of driving, fault was 50/50. Also got rear ended on the highway 6 years ago. Only got a single ticket in y life, for speeding, 2 weeks after I got my license. Not a chance that's gonna happen again with the kind of driving I'm doing nowadays.

[Doofus McFancypants]

19 years of driving.
1 minor accident. ( about 15 years ago)

at cross street i miss judged the oncomming traffics speed ( assumed the car was doing speedlimit - i was wrong - car was speeding) - got my rear bumber clipped ( pulled plastic off) and the other car had minor damage as well.

was lucky. Now i ASSUME they are speeding and not paying attention.

90% of crash avoidance is paying attention True you cannot stop ALL crashes - you can only avoid ones you can control as well as ones you can see comming.

Example - when driving on highway and someone is merging into my lane from an on ramp - I ASSUME they are not going to look to see if I am there and will start to slow down to give them room ( even though LEGALLY they have to slow for me) I have avoided several Issues this way.

steve

[i_am_socket]

12 years, 3 accidents, 0 moving violations.

First one was my fault, I rear ended an old lady who stopped at the bottom of an off-ramp.
Second one was their fault, I got rear ended by someone in stop and go traffic who was busy checking another lane she wasn't in.
Third one was 3 people removed's fault. Traffic suddenly stopped on the highway and the lady driving the 3rd vehicle back didn't hit the brakes in time and hit the person in front of her, who was pushed into the guy in front of him, who was pushed into me, who just barely tapped the guy in front of me (no damage to the front of my car).

Some accidents you can avoid by paying attention. Some accidents you can't because someone else didn't.

[UfoTofU]

Yea, I don't know how you could've avoided your last accident