and remember, be careful out there....

[gary]

i dunno why i'm posting this here, but i am...

i was in a nifty car accident tonight. van full of teenage kids decdies it wants to make a left turn, from the middle lane. they hit the brakes and come across in front of me, in the left lane. (we're both going the same direction)....i slammed on the brakes, but still plowed into the back of them. caravan rear hatches are quite soft, apparently, as it crumpled and blew the back window of the van all over the hood of my truck. i began to skid sideways after the impact, and i thought i was gonna roll(coilovers=lotsa body roll)...i cranked the wheel into the skid, unlocked the brakes, and saved it...not patting myself on the back there, just impressed that i did it as well and as quickly as i did. cops arrived, and took the report. get this, it's gonna be my fault since i did the hitting, whether they made an unsafe/illegal lane change or not...no witnesses, of course.

no injuries to me or the occupants in the van, luckily....here's the redeeming part of this... at least it is to me, we'll see what the insurance says...other than some paint loss, not a bit of damage on the front of my truck...my bumper, which is connected to my engine cage, which is connected to the rest of the truck's cage, DID NOT BUDGE!!!! no repairs necessary to my truck....other than a little touch up spray paint...ya gotta like that.

moral of the story, you ask??...be careful, cuz there are idiot drivers out there, and even though they [I have been warned] up, it may end up as your fault in the eyes of the law....

p.s. here's a pic of the bumper (battering ram? http://www.race-dezert.com/vb3/attachments/old/images/graemlins/wink.gif), before it was painted

[Eric_M]

that sucks gary!! did you try and find any skid marks that would prove those A$$holes swerved into your lane, then where/when you locked your brakes up? i really hate bad drivers with a pation, they piss me off, slow drivers also get me going too...

[Tyson]

Hey gary I was there http://www.race-dezert.com/vb3/attachments/old/images/graemlins/wink.gif http://www.race-dezert.com/vb3/attachments/old/images/graemlins/wink.gif I saw the whole thing, what do you mean no witnesses??

J/K sorry bro that really sucks, hope the insurance people see it differently. Just out of curiosity, what did the other driver say? Sorry? omit guilt? anything?


T

[Jack]

Don't give up. If it goes as your fault, your rates will go up for years to come. There should be no question that when someone comes into your lane it is there fault unless it can be PROVED that you could have avoided it and willfully did not.

[rokker]

Shhhh&#%&*T!!! - I hear you on the bad driver/not your fault thing. A couple years ago I was going straight through an intersection on a green light. A car coming from the oposite direction tried to make a quick left hand turn in front of me while they were waiting in the interection. Needless to say they were not quick enough.

My front bumper took its toll on the left rear portion of their vehicle while there were no damages to my truck/bumper, but get this... they ended up SUEING me!!! Those SONS OF B%$&#^S!!! Whoever heard of "left turn yields etc..." anyways the case ended up going to a moderator who found it 50/50 each our faults which still went on my record as an accident which = higher insurace rates for 2 years... sometimes you just cant win.

[gary]

no skid marks from them...just me

the other driver was a young hispanic gangster lookin' kid, and he didn't say anything to me. his gangster girlfriend got out of the car, and started cussing me out and yelling and screaming, and the other passengers got out and were just staring at me...

i had an A++ rating on my insurance before this, no tickets or accidents for 6-7 years...i guess we'll see what happens now.

[91yotaprerunner]

Im with u guys on the bad driver deal. I was in an accident because and old guy couldnt decided where he was going, i finally got tired of waiting and since it was a street wide enough to be 2 lanes, i decided to pass him on the right since he was hugging the left side of the road, as i went to pass he decided to turn right, no blinker or anything, but since i am a teenage driver with white fenders everything is automatically my fault, also since i did the hitting as in gary's case. So now i am sitting around with a restricted license unable to drive. My insurance company was at least cool about it and understood how much of a pain the the a$$ old people drivers are.

[CanyonMan]

Similar incident here.

Had a guy swerve around traffic to try and beat the left turn arrow. I was already pulling into the left turn lane when he swerved around cars (at least 5 or 6 back) and clipped my front end. He spun out and hit the car directly in front of me in the lane I was just in. Guess what, it was deemed my fault even though he was the one attempting to run the red light. Sucky part is, everyone left the scene of the accident (middle of rush hour) and the lady the a@@hole hit never saw it coming. Bumped my premiums up big time. There should be some sort of law or revision of the law for thses kind of accidents.

Good luck with your insurance company.

[picone]

unfortunately if you hit the back of someone's car, the police will write it up as your fault...under just about any circumstance. Sucks, but true. I hit the back of a Regal one time cuz it was dusk and the guy didn't have any brake lights. The guy locked 'em up right in front of me for no reason....pow. He had no insurance and no drivers license. Still would have been my fault.

[TRDshaunTRD]

How about this, I was driving in the far right lane when a car in the middle lane made a right turn in front of me and I hit her in the right side. The police report sighted her for an unsafe lane change and left fault on her side. So what does the insurance company do... 51% my fault! I HATE insurance companies!

[Jack]

I realy wonder if they do it as a racket that your insurence says your 51%, and the other persons says they are 51% so that both your rates go up, then nether one pays the other and they just make more money.

[PLS]

Yotaprerunner- An old man causing an accident in Hemet? I guess things haven't changed that much in the last 23 years since I left there. Are they still driving through the fronts of stores also?
Pete S.-BOYD RACING

[Steve_HKmtrsprts]

When my sister was driving my lifted Tahoe, a lady changed lanes into her lane causing my sister to clip her. No damage to the tahoe, but the rear panel of the other car had tons of damage. Police said it was the other drivers fault, unsafe lane change and that is how the insurance company saw it. The ladies ins. company had to give us money for the bumper which had just a scratch on the vinyl.

[Bryan_D]

Think thats bad? I was in stopped traffic and a cop comes cruising down the emergency lane with no lites or sirens and clips my bulge in the glass with his bars and falls over. He popped the visor off of his bike and stands up and starts yelling and me calling me a stupid SOB, then the captain shows up has me sign a paper saying that I was involved in the situation and it wasnt my fault. Well a couple months later I get a letter saying he is suing us for lost work since he slipped a disk had surgery and was missing over a year of work. Well I check my driving record and all it says is that I was charged with driving the wrong way on a one way road. Huh? I dont get it but I was at fault and he got the money because he was a DPS officer and I was a college student. Ended up the traffic was over a dog running across traffic on the off-ramp. http://www.race-dezert.com/vb3/attachments/old/images/graemlins/mad.gif

[sweetdevil]

Whatever the cop writes up is gold... Unfortunately your truck isn't exactly cop friendly... lol
I think the best thing to do is get the driver to sign saying it was his/her fault BEFORE the cop gets there... Because he can side with whoever he wants...

[91yotaprerunner]

PLS, ya the old people still do stuff like that, like driving down the wrong side of the road, doing 15 in a 45 MPH zone. They are soo busy complaining about teenage drivers they dont pay attention to the road. Ill admit i was in the wrong for passing on the right, but the road is wide enough for 2 lanes, and these old people need to learn make decisions as to which way they are going to turn.

[SpareChangeRacng]

If you guys haven't figured it out yet insurance is the biggest ripoff known to man. My rates went up after I was hit, and my insurance and the other drives attmited it was no fault of mine - WTF?

Bryan D - did you not get a copy of the paper you signed for the police chief? I would have held on to that thing like it was gold!

[5racer]

ya they still drive threw the stores but now they think there the old pull up dairys we used to have lol .

[desertratt]

at least you got to hit the sob! i had just taken off from a stop light when i had a guy pull out in front of me from a bunch of parked cars. i slamed on the brakes. went one way towards a school bus tried to save it but when i came back the other way cliped the other parked cars. when i hit a one of them it tore out my rear axel. the springs slid across the hood till it the wind shild then i just rolled of the top of it. cop said i was going to fast. after i got my truck drivable again i tried to see just how fast i could go top speed from the stop light to ware i crashed was 35. speed limit for the area was 40. so how was i going to fast? my insurance said i was at fault. i keep thinking i just should have punted the dumb a$$. would have saved my truck and 3 other cars.

[HTTP404]

I wonder who is at fault in this wreck.

Click here for driving lesson (http://sparkly.shackspace.com/clips/No%20Seat%20Belt.avi) http://www.race-dezert.com/vb3/attachments/old/images/graemlins/shocked.gif

[JrSyko]

And thats why you wear a seat belt. Why did this guy have a camera in his car?

I love the Dale Earnhart t-shirt as you'd think he'd be well aware of what happens when your belts fail or in this case at least wear them!

[HTTP404]

Ha, exactly!

Fall asleep, drive over a cliff, get taken out by a drunk with your seat belt on and you'll probably live to tell about it. I feel sorry for whoever he slammed into.

I wish I had the forward view of this one. The guy is probably driving a taxi. The camera system is really cool it monitors driving activity by continuously recording video, audio and four directions of G-forces on compact flash. G-forces caused by activities such as hard braking, acceleration, harsh cornering or collisions trigger the system to save the 30 seconds before, during and after the driving "event" for later viewing. DriveCam can also be manually activated by the driver at any time.

If I managed a fleet of vehicles I would put this on every one of them. Check out their web site and look at the videos, they'll crack you up.

www.drivecam.com (http://www.drivecam.com)

[1992f150]

the bus one that jumps the hill is great, especially how the guy in the back just gets up and strolls away like nothing happened.

[HTTP404]

Did you have your volume turned up?

"OOOOHHHH SHHITTTTTTTT!" http://www.race-dezert.com/vb3/attachments/old/images/graemlins/shocked.gif

[jdillon971]

WOW, that had to be real. I saw a news thing on those with the a local airport shuttle company.Its showing how they get covered better by insurance companies for having those as they get the whole thing on film (Digital)...

[BurnIndustires]

Hey, as for hitting wsomeone with no insurance.. good part is no matter who is at fault, and uninsured motorist cannot collect a dime! At least cali has somethin good goin on here.

[RacnCPA]

I thought for sure my rates would go up when the idiot stopped in front of me after taking off from a stop; yet it was my fault because I hit him from behind (at about 2mph, but steel bumper vs. T-Bird, bumper wins). NO increase in insurance rates and that was three years ago. Of course I do have the same color fenders as the rest of the truck, which may have helped, LOL. Good luck, it's all in HOW you tell your story to the judge and the fact that you BRING all of your written evidence to court, if that is where it ends up.

[RacnCPA]

You can fight that you know.

[CHASE550]

I know this is an old post but heres is how I finished my day at work last Tuesday. I sprained all the muscles in my neck and back, but today the doctor released me back to normal duties. Thank God that no one was seriously hurt.

[CHASE550]

Another pic

[SLORunner]

My brother (whos demolishin record includes an Infinity Q45, BMW 7 series, Mercedes C320, and a Volvo S80 I believe) did a real number on the back end of an '02 Nissan Maxima with his Rranger. He thought for sure he was in big trouble this time. The driver gets out and my bro quickly apologises, and tells him that he will call the cops and that he has insurance for this very reason. No worries right? The dude flips and says theres no way the cops are getting called. Truns out he has no insurance. He actually had the nerve to tell my bor that he would be paying for this out of his own pocket, no insurance or police involved. My brother said no way in hell, and when my dad and I showed up the guy ended up taking off since we were going to call the police to report it. So once again my brother gets out of paying for his accident. What luck.

[Brian Mapes]

Your bro is lucky, a year ago i rearend a guy and messed up my truck but only messed up the guys rear bumper and trunk. When he got out i asked him if he was alright and he said yea he was fine, then when the cop got their 2 min. later he ran up to the cop and said my neck hurts i need to go to the hospital. So now a year of arguing with my insurance company about how much he should get besides then money for fixing his car, he has me summoned to be sued. So now i am being sued for over 25000 $$ cuz this guy is lying out his a$$. My insurance company knows it so that is why they werent going to give him everything he wanted. I wasnt even going fast either, it was a really mild accident. Your bro is def. lucky. http://www.race-dezert.com/vb3/attachments/old/images/graemlins/mad.gif

[billymanfroy]

I guess the post is changing...

The guy I went to the swapmeet with got rear ended hard on the freeway up here and when they all stopped spinning and stuff they called the cops. By the time the cops got there the guy had bailed and ran through the wilderness to get away. Just left the vehicle and the cops said, "Must've been an illegal. Hope you have insurance." Great, thanks.

[gary]

here's my update...all the occupants are now claiming neck and back injuries. my insurance is gonna deny their injury claims, as they believe it was a 50/50 accident now, after hearing my story, and the poorly concocted one by the driver of the van. kinda in limbo now, waiting to hear the next move.*.
it was kinda funny when my insurance came out to take pics of my truck. the guy was looking for a blue 88 yota..instead, he finds my white fendered piece... http://www.race-dezert.com/vb3/attachments/old/images/graemlins/grin.gif