It's a parking lot, not a racetrack

[Deserted]

So, yesterday, I was dropping a passenger off at a small medical complex. (Maybe 1/8th of a mile square.) In the middle of the parking lot is a slightly open area (with brickwork that makes it look like it's meant to be a roundabout).

As we approached the roundabout, we noticed a PT Cruiser just sitting there, blocking traffic... and then we noticed that the passenger side was mangled, including the front tire being so bent over that it looked ready to break off. I commented to my passenger, "I wonder how fast the other guy was going to do that much damage?"

An hour later, I happen to get the call to drive the same passenger home. He tells me that he found out what happened. Turns out that a full-size pickup parked near the wreckage was "the other guy". The truck had been backing out when the PT Cruiser came rocketing around a corner and hit the truck.

Damage to the truck? I couldn't see any (and I was within a few feet). Maybe some swapped paint. Damage to the PT Cruiser? Totaled, and the driver had been ambulanced away.

[eltf177]

What disturbs me is that, according to the cops, the person backing out is responsible.

The same thing happened to my brother, who swore the b*tch was speeding through the lot and thus it was _her_ fault. Nope, the cops said it was my brother's responsibility despite the fact his tiny Honda was between two huge SUV's and he was backing out slowly and beeping his horn.

[Food Lady]

Stupid, stupid rules. Here, if you rear-end someone, it's your fault, even if the other person were to just instantly stop in the middle of traffic or swerve for no reason.

[eltf177]

Stupid, stupid rules. Here, if you rear-end someone, it's your fault, even if the other person were to just instantly stop in the middle of traffic or swerve for no reason.

Same here in VA, although I've _heard_ they do look into whether or not the person who got hit contributed in some way (stopped for no good reason or cut in front of the other car and then slowed/stopped).

[Deserted]

Stupid, stupid rules. Here, if you rear-end someone, it's your fault, even if the other person were to just instantly stop in the middle of traffic or swerve for no reason.

In Desert Hell, it's your fault unless you can somehow prove that it isn't. Case in point: a Big Green Cab (not mine) was at a red light. The truck in front of him suddenly goes into reverse and slams into the cab, then the driver jumps out and says to the cabbie, "Why'd you hit me?" Unbeknownst to that guy (but beknowst to Big Green Cab Co) that cab had a traffic cam installed and running. (Cabbie kept his mouth shut about it.)

The guy demanded Big Green Cab Co pay damages. They refused. Guy got a lawyer, who made the same demands and threatened lawsuit. Big Green Cab Co sent the lawyer a copy of the cam footage. Never heard from either of them again.

We now use that footage as part of our training.

(As for the wreck I originally posted about, there were no police or other emergency responders present while I was there, so I missed the "fun" by quite some time, and didn't talk to any actual witnesses, but the way it was told to me, it's DEFINITELY the PT Cruiser's fault.)

[wolfie]

Another way to prove that "getting rear ended" was actually "backing into other vehicle" is a forensic examination of the bulbs from the backup lights. If an incandescent bulb is subjected to a shock while it's lit, the filament will look different (high temperature = softened).

[mathnerd]

In Desert Hell, it's your fault unless you can somehow prove that it isn't. Case in point: a Big Green Cab (not mine) was at a red light. The truck in front of him suddenly goes into reverse and slams into the cab, then the driver jumps out and says to the cabbie, "Why'd you hit me?" Unbeknownst to that guy (but beknowst to Big Green Cab Co) that cab had a traffic cam installed and running. (Cabbie kept his mouth shut about it.)

The guy demanded Big Green Cab Co pay damages. They refused. Guy got a lawyer, who made the same demands and threatened lawsuit. Big Green Cab Co sent the lawyer a copy of the cam footage. Never heard from either of them again.

I know truckers are starting to install dash cams en masse for just this reason. A friend of a fiend actually went through this recently, where a pick up truck brake-checked him on a downhill mountain grade, causing the semi to rear end him. The dash cam footage changed the DOT's mind pretty fast. My friend nearly had the same thing happen to him (with me in the passenger seat of the semi...the one and only time I looked for the passenger side brake pedal) but was somehow able to maneuver around it.

I know a lot of people who drive for a living don't like the idea of dash cams, but with the crazy 4 wheelers on the road looking for an insurance scam, they seem like a really good idea to me.

[wolfie]

I know a lot of people who drive for a living don't like the idea of dash cams, but with the crazy 4 wheelers on the road looking for an insurance scam, they seem like a really good idea to me.

Some crazy, others just ignorant. Last week, I was approaching a service plaza when I saw a "double" pulling out. At the time, a cluster of 3 cars was passing me, so I lifted off the accelerator to help them get out of my way before I closed on the "double". One of the cars (I believe it was the first in line - wasn't paying much attention to it since it had already "cleared" me) pulled into the right lane after passing the "slow truck" (below the speed limit, but still a decent cruising speed). From his actions, he wasn't looking ahead - as I was changing into the left lane (the cluster had passed me, leaving a clear space), he slammed on the brakes as if he suddenly realized "OMG - there's an even slower truck ahead", then cut me off (I had to hit the brakes, he had decellerated that much) in order to pass the "double". If he'd been looking ahead, he would have seen the "double" and stayed in the left lane until he passed it.

People, if you see a truck changing lanes (or signaling to make a lane change), and can't immediately figure out why he's doing it, look around - the driver has probably seen something you didn't, and is wanting to avoid it. We don't change lanes just for shits and giggles.

[mathnerd]

People, if you see a truck changing lanes (or signaling to make a lane change), and can't immediately figure out why he's doing it, look around - the driver has probably seen something you didn't, and is wanting to avoid it. We don't change lanes just for shits and giggles.

I spent a week last year riding with an OTR trucker. I was amazed at the difference in visibility between the cab of a semi and even a large passenger vehicle.

[Deserted]

I know a lot of people who drive for a living don't like the idea of dash cams, but with the crazy 4 wheelers on the road looking for an insurance scam, they seem like a really good idea to me.

I dunno about everyone else, but I LOVE the whole dash cam thing. If something happens that isn't my fault and it's caught on cam, I'm golden. (If it is my fault, I'm honest enough to admit it. Plus, you know, the whole dash cam thing.)

[wolfie]

I spent a week last year riding with an OTR trucker. I was amazed at the difference in visibility between the cab of a semi and even a large passenger vehicle.

In general, that's the case, but for the specific incident I mentioned the "double" would have been visible even to someone in a car (if they'd been LOOKING BEYOND THEIR FRONT BUMPER).

[ADeMartino]

In Desert Hell, it's your fault unless you can somehow prove that it isn't.

In the late 1970s, I was a passenger (not yet old enough to drive) in my mom's big tuna-boat Oldsmobile. We were stopped at a traffic light, and it had JUST that moment turned green. Even as mom stepped on the gas to go, we heard a terrific screech of tires and WHAM! The Olds lurched foward and slightly sideways. Folks, if you can make a 1972 Olds Eighty-Eight lurch like that, you've really clobbered it hard.

The vehicle that had ass-ended us was a flipping JAGUAR. The lady driving it jumped out of the car, rushed up to my mom and started shrieking, wanting to know why we'd 'backed into her'. Not a hint of 'Hey, are you all right?', but plenty of 'It's YOUR fault I don't know how to drive!"

Uh, NO. I was only 14 at the time, and it was fairly evident where the fault was, even if I HADN'T been in the car at the time. Long, black skid marks aligning PERFECTLY with the wheels of the Jag told the cop the whole story, including the part where the Jag had very obviously been traveling at something close to 50 miles per hour (the speed limit was 35, incidentally).

There was more to the story, though. Had the woman remained in her car and waited patiently for the ticket and the tow truck, it would have just been a ticket and an insurance claim. But noooooOOOOOOooooooo! Instead, she elected to scream and carry on and make a scene until the officer noticed something peculiar about the way she walked. He administered a sobriety check and yup, she failed.

Incidentally, that Jag was seriously f*cked up. Mom's Olds, on the other hand, drove away with only a bent-up bumper, busted tail light, and very little other damage.

I inherited that car when I got my license. What a f*cking barge. It was like driving the Queen Mary, though I think the Queen Mary probably got better fuel economy.

[BearLeeBadenaugh]

I miss station wagons like that!

Working at a Boy scout camp, bunch of us counselors used a weekend off to go see Pink Floyd in the twin cities. Swampy fell asleep/passed out driving on the way home and took us off roading off the edge of the highway. Drove through a billboard support post and bounced off a fence a few times before snagging some barbed wire on a back tire, which eventually drug us to a stop. I, being the CIT(counsellor in training, aka staff trainee), was riding all the way in the far back. Still wound up being the one who climbed up and shut off the car and took it out of gear. After everyone piled out, or was drug out, the damage was surveyed. The bumper was bent in about 3", some minor damage on the hood, the windshield was intact, the roof rack was gone, and there was a tire-sized, wheel-like-object made of barbed wire at the right rear. A few more scratches, and possibly some new dents on the sides, but nobody cared about that. Already had a bunch of those. Despite there being eight scout camp councilors, half of which were Eagle scouts themselves, nobody had a way to cut barbed wire, so we had to abandon the wheel. We were able to put on the spare after pushing the car back up to solid ground, and I was nominated to drive us home. Despite the fact that I was 15. Everybody else passed back out and started snoring, some even before we started driving away. Made for a lovely two hour drive. I got my petty revenge by leaving them to the mercy of the mosquitos in the parking lot when we got home. Actually felt a little bad the next day, most of em thanked me for getting us home and not telling the camp director. Nobody was bent about me not waking them either, lol, the general consensus was "one drunk, sure I'll carry your ass. But seven? F**** that shit! Let em lay!" Ahhh, Wisconsin drinking culture. Lived here all my life, guess I'm even part of it, but I sure as hell don't understand it.