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It seems lately I've seen a ton accidents where the at-fault driver is such an EW that they don't understand what they did wrong.
A good friend of mine got hit by a car while biking 2 days ago. No serious injuries, just bruises, scrapes, and whole front wheel of his very expensive road bike will have to be replaced. He's making a left turn on an advance green light at an intersection, and is more than halfway through his turn when a driver just approaching the intersection from the other way decides to make a right turn, at speed, without signaling, and against the red light.
I'm told the driver spent more than 20 minutes arguing with the cop, basically just repeating "I know I didn't signal, I know it didn't make a complete stop, but why does that make it my fault? I didn't really do anything wrong." (Emphasis theirs.)
Another example: There was recently yet another accident right in front of my building caused by someone going the wrong way through a single-lane one way entrance. Her response: "I know it's one way, but I was only going to the store..."
And another: At a near-by hotel, not my location, thankfully, a guest drove their car through the parking garage gate. Which is very very clearly labeled "Exit Only" with a big giant stop sign. This gate opens from the inside via a pressure sensor, and doesn't open at all for cars coming from outside. The guest just plowed right into it, totally sober. He said "It should have opened for me, I've been staying here all week."
And my personal favorite: A motorcycle fatality on my route into work. Don't know what his excuse would have been, but he was driving at night, with no light, in bad weather, with a heavily tinted visor on his helmet, and slammed into a van, also without lights, which was backing into the street out of a parking garage where she would have had no visibility had she even thought to check for traffic anyway. According to the police quote in the paper, "alcohol or narcotics are NOT considered to have been a factor in this incident" (Emphasis mine)
A good friend of mine got hit by a car while biking 2 days ago. No serious injuries, just bruises, scrapes, and whole front wheel of his very expensive road bike will have to be replaced. He's making a left turn on an advance green light at an intersection, and is more than halfway through his turn when a driver just approaching the intersection from the other way decides to make a right turn, at speed, without signaling, and against the red light.
I'm told the driver spent more than 20 minutes arguing with the cop, basically just repeating "I know I didn't signal, I know it didn't make a complete stop, but why does that make it my fault? I didn't really do anything wrong." (Emphasis theirs.)
Another example: There was recently yet another accident right in front of my building caused by someone going the wrong way through a single-lane one way entrance. Her response: "I know it's one way, but I was only going to the store..."
And another: At a near-by hotel, not my location, thankfully, a guest drove their car through the parking garage gate. Which is very very clearly labeled "Exit Only" with a big giant stop sign. This gate opens from the inside via a pressure sensor, and doesn't open at all for cars coming from outside. The guest just plowed right into it, totally sober. He said "It should have opened for me, I've been staying here all week."
And my personal favorite: A motorcycle fatality on my route into work. Don't know what his excuse would have been, but he was driving at night, with no light, in bad weather, with a heavily tinted visor on his helmet, and slammed into a van, also without lights, which was backing into the street out of a parking garage where she would have had no visibility had she even thought to check for traffic anyway. According to the police quote in the paper, "alcohol or narcotics are NOT considered to have been a factor in this incident" (Emphasis mine)
His reaction? " I thought that road went straight across!" Well, it did...but you went through the gate (a *big* gate with lots of reflectors on it too!), you dipshit! Because of the small ramp, and the slope of the field, his truck got enough air, to do a nose dive...straight into the ground. Needless to say, Grandma's neighbor wasn't amused, but at least he got a new gate out of it. Oh, and the driver? He was drunk out of his mind.
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