Car accidents

[ShadowSoldier]

Who's been in them! Raise your hands!

Just woke up, called parents, found out they were in one. Not seriously hurt. Little sister was taken to the hospital to get checked out, but our car is fucked, which means no driving for me (we only have a truck now which my dad is taking into retirement).

So, who's been in one? How bad?

 

[DinohScene]

Seen a few happen, never been in one meself luckily.

 

[the_randomizer]

That...really sucks dude But I'm glad everyone's all right.

 

[AceWarhead]

Been in one, and seen 3.
First one, I was 5 and in the car. Really scary stuff, feeling the impact of it.

 

[Clarky]

Worst I had was sliding on some ice and breaking a guys bumper. My uncle was in a pretty bad crash when I was 7, he is now brain damaged and crippled. My mum was in a couple back in 02 I think, 2 write off's and she had to have a knee op afterwards

 

[trumpet-205]

Not me but my dad experienced it twice. He hated driving after the second incident, since his insurance company screwed him.

He was not at fault, but since other party had no insurance at the time of incident (which is illegal in US) his insurance company figured it was best to settled with them (so there is no need for lawsuit). Saying my dad was at fault, paid undisclosed amount of settlement, and jacked up my dad's insurance fee for couple months.

Everyone except my dad was happy about the outcome.

 

[DinohScene]

Worst I had was sliding on some ice and breaking a guys bumper.

Half an year ago, some old git backed up right into be bumper whilst on a parking lot and tried to shove the blame on me.
The fella wanted to call the police in, told him that he's the one that wanted to drive away.
In the end, got 50 quid for it to get a rear bumper from the scrapyard.
Ended up just polishing it a little and leaving the crack in, hardly visable anyway.

 

[Hop2089]

Been in 3, 2 minor with little to no damage to either car and 1 with moderate damage to my own and the other van had to be towed, no injuries in any of them and all happened at rush hour. I got a ticket for driving too close for my first one which didn't cause much damage to my own car or the car I hit since it was such a low speed collision.

 

[Sicklyboy]

Jeep wrangler backed up at a stop light to change lanes, didn't look behind him and ran into my car. Bumper is dented, his insurance paid me $750 for damages.

I was behind a lady at this tricky intersection, crossing two lanes of high speed traffic, so I gotta watch both sides when I pull out. I thought she was gonna go so I was gonna pull real close behind her to get in on the break in traffic, so I floored it. She ended up hesitating and stopped, I looked ahead of me and saw that and slammed on my brakes. I ended up rear ending her, not super hard though, we got out and I apologized profusely. There was no visible damage to her car, so she said she didn't see any need to file a report.

 

[ShadowSoldier]

Jeep wrangler backed up at a stop light to change lanes, didn't look behind him and ran into my car. Bumper is dented, his insurance paid me $750 for damages.

I was behind a lady at this tricky intersection, crossing two lanes of high speed traffic, so I gotta watch both sides when I pull out. I thought she was gonna go so I was gonna pull real close behind her to get in on the break in traffic, so I floored it. She ended up hesitating and stopped, I looked ahead of me and saw that and slammed on my brakes. I ended up rear ending her, not super hard though, we got out and I apologized profusely. There was no visible damage to her car, so she said she didn't see any need to file a report.

Yeah, some people like that are good. Some people here, even if they see a scratch on their already scratched up bumper, they'll file a report.

But today my mom told me what happened. They were making a left turn at a light, and the opposing lane's light had turned yellow, and my parents went because the car was so far away. As soon as they pull out, the guy boots it so he can beat the red light, and instead pegged my parents and sister, and now our car is totaled.

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

I've been in like...4, all caused by someone else/I wasn't driving.

First one, some moron was backing out of a parking lot at a grocery store without looking, he floored it and bumped my car. There was no damage, but I had him pay me $300 on the spot cuz fuck him.

Second one, I was leaving school when this idiot behind me rear ended me. I knew he wasn't looking, because this was supposedly the 5th time he's done this to someone. The damage was minor, only issue was some chipped paint (which is still there actually, haven't gotten it painted over yet). We decided to settle it without insurance, he gave our family $1000 which we then had to use to fix a problem with out plumbing (literally the next day a pipe burst and flooded our crawl space >.<)

The third one I guess isn't much of an accident, but some moron had scrapped his car against my front bumper. Scratched off a shit ton of paint, and dislodged the bumper. Never found out who did it, but our insurance replaced the bumper and repainted the car.

The 4th one was when I was little, my mother was driving when someone ran a red light and T-boned our car on the passenger side. We were both fine, thanks to both of us being on the drivers side, but the car was totaled. Ended up getting a replacement, but that was long ago and we don't have the car anymore.

 

[trumpet-205]

Yeah, some people like that are good. Some people here, even if they see a scratch on their already scratched up bumper, they'll file a report.

But today my mom told me what happened. They were making a left turn at a light, and the opposing lane's light had turned yellow, and my parents went because the car was so far away. As soon as they pull out, the guy boots it so he can beat the red light, and instead pegged my parents and sister, and now our car is totaled.

So your parents turned on red light?

 

[Zaide]

Yeah, some people like that are good. Some people here, even if they see a scratch on their already scratched up bumper, they'll file a report.

But today my mom told me what happened. They were making a left turn at a light, and the opposing lane's light had turned yellow, and my parents went because the car was so far away. As soon as they pull out, the guy boots it so he can beat the red light, and instead pegged my parents and sister, and now our car is totaled.

I was in the car with my friend when something similar happened from the other side. We were coming up to a light that turned yellow, but we were close enough to make it. Then someone turned left in front of us. My friend hit the brakes so hard that when we hit the other car his right femur broke and the two pieces slid together (basically his right leg shrunk by about 3 inches). Thankfully his girlfriend, their 4 month old baby, and myself were all OK.

 

[ShadowSoldier]

So your parents turned on red light?

No, my parents turned on their green light. The guy ran the yellow/red light and ended up hitting my parents.

 

[Ericthegreat]

No, my parents turned on their green light. The guy ran the yellow/red light and ended up hitting my parents.

I was there and I saw them turn on red! Filing my witness report as we speak, cause 1 witness report = > reality.

 

[allanj87]

Flipped my subaru rolled a few times into a field with a ton of fencing wrapped around my tyres and car, total wreck roll cage was the only thing that saved me didn't even have a bruise :L got 3500 insurance pay off when the car was fucked all ready so win win?

 

[nukeboy95]

not me but my dad's $500 accord got hit by a lexus last week

 

[PityOnU]

So, who's been in one? How bad?

Personally, I have caused or been directly involved in (surprisingly) zero accidents/collisions/whatever you want to call them.

It's pretty odd because I have a "spirited" driving style and an American V8.

The secret to driving seems to be figuring out just how much of a dick to be.

You can't be too nice because then people are like "WTF is this guy doing? Why is he being nice?" Then they hesitate and accidents occur.

If you're too much of an asshole you take chances you shouldn't that people don't expect and either plow into others (people have almost wrecked me a few times now... fucking idiots out there) or they aren't paying attention and plow into you.

If you're just the right amount of asshole then other people expect you to act like that asshole and everything goes smoothly.

UHP tires FTW, btw. Saved me more than a few times at this point.

 

[FAST6191]

Assuming that does not count.

Seen any number of prangs out on the streets.
Was passenger a few times, seatbelt marks/swellings take ages to go away.
Not on the road but set any number of motorbikes on their side and the meat sack has been a nice example of the "objects in motion tend to stay in motion" law of physics many more times.

As I knock about with a few mechanics (for a hot moment vehicle recovery was a money printing operation) and firemen there have been some good stories, they are not my stories though so sharing them is probably not the done thing.

For the most part though I drive or ride as defensively as possible, try to know the machine I am on at every level* and will take every effort to spare myself and my passengers, if any, the slightest harm at any cost to the machine or surroundings*.

*if you are somewhere where you can see a road and it starts raining watch the people driving crouch down like they are getting wet. More generally it takes the form of never swerve to avoid a deer if the chances are the swerve is going to end worse.

Edit. For me the general summary of PityOnU's method is the same as my own and is "drive like everybody else can not".

 

[Ace]

I've never been in one, but I've witnessed a few. All in all, I've seen 4 over the years: All tragically fatal.

First one was in France. My family went Eurotripping by the coast, an expensive-looking car blasts past us way over the speed limit. A few minutes later, we drive by a crumple of metal and debris smashed into a truck going the opposite direction. No other passengers involved - Fatal for the driver.

Next one happened on a Wednesday on the road where I live. I recall it's a Wednesday because it happened during the street races people do on our roads, which always fall on a Wednesday every few weeks. Two passengers involved: A son (driver) and his mother (passenger) - fatal for both. A memorial on the road was set up; I remember walking there and leaving flowers for the people who passed.

The next one happened last summer. A mother with one child and one toddler was leaving a gas station a couple hundred metres from my place. Not paying proper attention as she was turning onto the road, she drives into a concrete divider, panics, hits the gas, which barrel rolls the car several times into the opposite lane, where it gets struck by another car. Police, ambulance and fire departments are all called to shut down the road for the next 3 hours. The mother and child sustained injuries and were picked up by an air ambulance, and I later heard that the toddler passed due to the injuries. As there were no public records of the event, I cannot be certain, but I suspect it did happen.

The last one happened that same summer. It happened just outside my apartment building, actually. I was not present to see the crash, but supposedly a pickup truck on the road lost control of its breaks and rammed into a car at 70 km/h. Shortly after, the same pickup truck runs over the divider into the opposite lane, but amazingly gets dodged by three vehicles. Police, ambulance and fire departments are all called to shut down the road for the next 5 hours. 2 injured in the rammed car, 2 fatalities in the pickup truck.

It isn't easy to live next to a highway. At least it hasn't been for the past ten years.