I just saw a stupid stupid accident.

I just saw a stupid stupid accident.

I was coming to work down Southfield freeway for the locals. Luckily there was a prior accident involving three cars with a wrecker there. Why was this lucky? Because about 2-300 feet after that accident there was an on ramp. Now in case no one has noticed we’ve had quite a lot of snow and ice recently, so there is an icy/snow wall about 18” – 2’ high but very narrow as the on ramp comes down and turns into a merge lane. A woman in a 5 or so year old Explorer comes down the on ramp. Can she wait the 30 feet to reach the merge lane proper? No, she tries to drive over the ice wall!?!? Whisky Tango Foxtrot? I mean why? This is why we were all lucky for the previous accident. We’d all been snaking past it in the left two lanes at about 10 mph and only just got into the clear. Said dumb ass woman smacks through the snow bank. Loses control and shoot straight across all three lanes into the concrete central divider and doesn’t hit any of the cars on the freeway. If there had been no accident we would all have been doing 60 mph and she would have scored a perfect bowling strike and taken half of us to hell with her. Car was smashed up but she was apparently OK, so against my normal course of judgment I said berkeley it, I’m not stopping she can sort it out herself.

I mean why the hell did she try and do that?

SUV mentality...she wouldn't have tried that in a sports car.

It doesn't work like this?!

I had a post typed up, but my momma always said if you can't say nothing good don't say nothing at all.

I suggest we start a petition against using the word "accident" in cases such as this. There was no "accident", just the consequences of an act of remarkable stupidity.

Adrian_Thompson wrote: I just saw a stupid stupid stupid.

There. Fixed it.

N Sperlo wrote:

Adrian_Thompson wrote: I just saw a stupid stupid stupid.

There. Fixed it.

True, so very very true

Of course she was all right. A more relevant observation would have been did she finish her text or spill her drink.

Was it a stupid decision or had she already lost control when she hit the ice bank?

Impaitence.

Everyone is always in a hurry.

What's funny is how many people complain about work, but seem to always be in a hurry to get there. And for this woman, assuming I figure your time near, isn't working an actual shift. So being 1-2 min early or late really means nothing. Why be early if you are going to be miserable.

And it's also funny how stupid people get when they are in a hurry. For nothing.

I drove from northern Vermont to PA via Albany NY yesterday. I saw so much stupid in traffic that I was worried it might be catchy. People hung up on curbs, two cars parked in the lane on the interstate looking at animals, a bus squeezing 3 cars onto the shoulder to pass a Winnebago... it's pandemic I tells ya.

1988RedT2 wrote: I suggest we start a petition against using the word "accident" in cases such as this. There was no "accident", just the consequences of an act of remarkable stupidity.

A lot of law enforcement uses the term wreck instead of accident because the latter could imply a lack of fault.

Could the onramp have been icy and she lost steering control? I'm really trying in my life to look for the good in people, and work under the assumption that people don't knowingly and intentionally do stupid things. Really hoping that people do the same for me

...and case point of why many people would benefit from every tech nanny, self driving vehicle that could be invented.

In reply to Teh E36 M3:

True! There's plenty of real, genuine stupidity going around, but I try to have a stab at benefit of the doubt where there's any doubt to be scrounged up. Not always possible...

Hot Fuzz on "accident" terminology: youtube link
I'll take any opportunity to link that movie...

Just went past one yesterday:

Small car jammed underneath the tow bar between the first and second trailer of a truck (moving soil from a construction site) that had pulled into the street. This style:

The only thing I can figure is the car saw the truck pull out, figured it was only one trailer and drove to pass behind it fast enough that they could not stop when they realized it had another trailer!

Around the firehouse, we like to say that people's stupidity keeps us in business.

Had an almost stupid today too. Coming through an intersection and a car backs out of a driveway across traffic in front of me, to stop and turn so he is going the opposite way I am going... if he had waited 10 seconds, it would have been perfectly clear both ways. The guy behind me almost plowed into me as the anti-locks on the disco worked overtime to keep almost 3 tons of british metal from running over said stupid person

alfadriver wrote: Impaitence. Everyone is always in a hurry. And it's also funny how stupid people get when they are in a hurry. For nothing.

I drive a big gas guzzling Disco.. so I tend to accelerate slower than most folk. Today I was heading home and through my (lack of) acceleration, a 4 car opening had produced itself between me and the car in front as I hit my signal to make a left. The guy behind me, who had been riding my bumper so closely I could not even tell what make his car was.. flew around me as fast as he could.. all so he could hit the brakes and ride the bumper of the guy I was following.

I bet I got home a lot more relaxed than he did

Well we just need to give her an auto-braking car!

Were you near Dearborn? Seems a lot of awful drivers congregate there.

My driver's ed (no drivers in Detroit schools were educated BTW) instructor said "in my class we don't say 'accident'. It's an incident. Every time a vehicle comes into contact with anything other than the air, or airborne water it was avoidable." I've found this to be true. If you have a single vehicle accident because a ball joint broke, well, no doubt that ball joint was clunking for a few months prior, etc.
Adrian, glad you were all doing The Southfield Crawl and were saved.

I once heard someone here say, "A meteorite hitting your car is an accident; anything else is driver error."

Had 3 dick wads today try to exit in front of me from the fast lane.

I just show them my tires "Say are those 22"s or 24"s on my 80,000 pound semi? I can't seem to remember!"

2 of them missed their exit, the 3rd almost got turned sideways by my front bumper but made his exit....

Are there smart accidents?

Why are they called accidents, when they are wrecks usually caused by negligence?

DrBoost wrote: My driver's ed (no drivers in Detroit schools were educated BTW) instructor said "in my class we don't say 'accident'. It's an incident. Every time a vehicle comes into contact with anything other than the air, or airborne water it was avoidable." I've found this to be true. If you have a single vehicle accident because a ball joint broke, well, no doubt that ball joint was clunking for a few months prior, etc. Adrian, glad you were all doing The Southfield Crawl and were saved.

Unless you have a Fiat 124 Spider with one of the bad balljoints that went around a while back. They tended to let go without warning. I agree with you otherwise.

In reply to JoeyM: Nah-that's an "Act of God" (which amuses me because God throwing meteorites at you kinda goes against that whole benevolent thing )