vwcorvette said:There are no accidents, only driver error. Sorry, but true. Hope you're okay.
What do you call the accidents caused by mechanical failure.
vwcorvette said:There are no accidents, only driver error. Sorry, but true. Hope you're okay.
What do you call the accidents caused by mechanical failure.
Dusterbd13 said:I stopped counting at 53.
I don't reccomend them. At 37, ive got the body of an 80 year old man.
in 21 years, you've had 53 accidents?
Yes. S10 pulled out in front of me and I T-boned him at 60 back in 2010. I had to use photobucket to retrieve this photo. That's the first time I've used PB in a VERY long time. I recall some comments about it recently here and I can see why. Their website is berkleying useless.
Yeah, they're no fun, but it sounds like you're ok, that's the important part. I have been in 2 within a year, after not having anything more than a minor bump in traffic over the last 15 years. Last year, I was cutoff by a car who was trying to make an unprotected left turn and ended up stopping in front of me, car behind me couldn't stop so I ended up getting hit at 30 or so mph. $6k in damage from that one. 2 weeks ago I was sitting at a red light and a car pulled out from a cross street behind me, got T-boned and launched into the back of my car, which then launched me in front of the car that T-boned the one that landed in my trunk. $12k in damage and totaled this time, still dealing with insurance and finding a car. If you want to see pictures, here's the thread Versa is dead thread. I've got some shoulder and middle back pain but otherwise unscathed. My 2 year old who was with me had no injuries thank God.
Grtechguy said:Dusterbd13 said:I stopped counting at 53.
I don't reccomend them. At 37, ive got the body of an 80 year old man.
in 21 years, you've had 53 accidents?
Yup.
18-22 was not kind to me. Wound up with some liver damage too, if you know what i mean. That was the majority. Since then, only two were blatantly my fault. One was due to speeding. Otherf was me backing my wifes car into my truck in the driveway.
That number takes into account everything from minor fender-benders to total losses. Luckily I was in rural Tennessee where the sheriff's didn't give a E36 M3.
I 180'ed my 65 fastback in 1978 going around a turn at 50 mph that I had done dozens of times before. I didn't realize a very local rain had just hit and the street was wet. Hit the right front fender against the left side guard rail and crunched it a little plus broke the headlight. I was able to drive away after a little bending of the sheet metal to stop it from cutting the tire.
No cops, thank goodness. My girlfriend had weed, I don't smoke it but I didn't stop her from doing it in my car, my bad.
In 1978 Louisiana we would have been put in jail for sure and probably looking at a felony conviction.
32, no accidents ever. I've never even been in a car during a accident. Hell I don't think i've ever seen an accident happen before. I'm sure I jynxed myself somehow with writing that, so if that changes I'll come back for an edit.
17, screwing around on snowy roads:
Traffic on the highway stopped suddenly, much to the surprise of the lady a couple cars back. She swerved into the right lane and eventually came to a halt after using my car and the guard rail as brakes. Totalled both cars.
Rain storm in January in Vermont created some of the most glare ice I've ever seen. From ~30mph I think I did five full revolutions down the on ramp before finally finding the guard rail. It was so slippery I could barely stand up when I got out of the car to assess.
Japspec, that's why we have insurance. No one got hurt, everything else is just sheet metal.
Almost got blistered last night at a 4-way 1/2 block from my house. Mrs. 914 and I coming back from the gym, came to a full and complete stop, Saturn heading from the opposite direction, I wait a second to establish his speed etc. and start the turn; next thing you know this 19 year old and his gf flat spot the tires and slides up to my right side. I rolled down the window and told him how he just ran a stop sign in a 4-way, blank stare.
I guess expect the unexpected?
I've had a few. Too few to mention.
Toyman01 said:vwcorvette said:There are no accidents, only driver error. Sorry, but true. Hope you're okay.
What do you call the accidents caused by mechanical failure.
You call them a running, driving BiTurbo because they're just about as rare.
mtn said:Knock on wood, I've never hit anyone other than in my own driveway while moving cars. I have been backed into though, and pretty much everyone in my family has been in at least one accident. I'm waiting for mine to come, and I'm sure it will. Living in Chicagoland, it almost has to happen.
My wife rolled a car when she was 16-she's not sure how. She rear ended someone at 26, totaled the car (but only because I had the body shop find every possible thing, we could have zip-tied the bumper up and kept driving it for years but I hated that damn car). Got rear ended a year later. That had almost no damage.
Just to point out stupidity in drivers though, my wife also rear ended someone at about 24 years old. It was a straight road, no body around but the car my wife hit, and herself. There was snow on the ground, enough that they were both driving very slowly. Well, there was an area in front of a driveway that had been plowed--the only part of the road that had (meaning the plow for the driveway also plowed out into the road, but the road wasn't plowed). Lady my wife was following slammed on the brakes in that plowed section, because she missed the turn into that driveway. My wife slammed on the brakes too, but not being in the plowed section, kept sliding until she hit the person. Wife was technically at fault, but what a dumbass driver ahead of her. Also, what a silly coincidence that it could possibly happen. Was my wife following too close? I suppose yes, but there was literally no reason for her to expect the person to slow down.
I had an almost identical thing happen. It was a reality check for me to expect the unexpected. IE being a defensive driver means not only looking but also THINKING ahead. There is no way around it your wife was at fault just like I was. Be thankful no one was hurt and learn from it was my take away from it.
Klayfish said:Toyman01 said:vwcorvette said:There are no accidents, only driver error. Sorry, but true. Hope you're okay.
What do you call the accidents caused by mechanical failure.
You call them a running, driving BiTurbo because they're just about as rare.
Haha!
Research shows that over 94 percent of crashes are the result of a driver error in decision making. I'd have to find the actual study. And you can add mechanical error in many instances due to neglect or deferred maintenance which falls under human error if not specifically driver error.
I've been in a few parking lot scrapes and one meaningful accident at around 30 last year after driving since my teens:
TL;DR version: Woman in a crossover pulled out from a side road way too close in front of my Samurai. I had to choose between making a sharp off-camber turn (in a Samurai) to get behind her, or trying to dodge in front of her and hoping she might look where the hell she's going in time. She didn't, and I didn't manage to stop in time either. Got a quarter of the Samurai cleaved off. She admitted fault. Think I had a fractured sternum but it healed up OK. My opinion of car insurance was amazingly further diminished after first-hand experience.
I added them up and was surprised that it was only 12, half of which were people running into me. A few times I went up the curb, in the ditch or hit a guardrail. I think I've only ever hit another car once and I rear ended them on an icy road - my fault 100%.
The best one was in the pre-internet days.
The local, and very good, buy and sell paper came out early Thursday mornings. If you got it early you got the best deals. So on my way to work, about 5am, I pulled into the gas station in my 88 S10. Always in a hurry, instead of shutting it off I just put it in neutral, and ran into the store to get it. The E brake didn't work but I was on the flat cement pad right up at the store so it wasn't going anywhere. So I thought. I looked out as it was rolling off the pad, almost in slow motion, right for the propane tanks. It followed the groove in the driveway from constant use turning left away from the tanks, exited the gas station onto a 4 lane highway, went right across the highway and down into the deep ditch across from the gas station not hitting a single thing. Luckily the kid running the station drove a 4wd blazer and I had a chain in the back of my truck. He closed the station for 5 minutes and pulled me out. I gave him the $10 bill I had in my pocket for his troubles, took off, and not only was there no damage to the truck, I wasn't even late for work.
vwcorvette said:Klayfish said:Toyman01 said:vwcorvette said:There are no accidents, only driver error. Sorry, but true. Hope you're okay.
What do you call the accidents caused by mechanical failure.
You call them a running, driving BiTurbo because they're just about as rare.
Haha!
Research shows that over 94 percent of crashes are the result of a driver error in decision making. I'd have to find the actual study. And you can add mechanical error in many instances due to neglect or deferred maintenance which falls under human error if not specifically driver error.
I don't keep records like that, but taking a rough guess I'd say the number is closer to 99.5% are human error.
February 1, 1983, I still remember the date. I was a sophmore in college and was heading to work at about 5 pm. It was raining. A 16 yo girl who just got her license turned and hit me head on. She was in a Buick Electra 225, I was in a '72 MG. Needless to say my car from the windshield forward was gone, the dash pushed back about two feet. The only thing I clearly remember is the mirror flying by my head. The girl stuck here head in right after and asked if I were dead, the next thing I remember was I woke up still in the car with an IV in my arm and paramedics and firemen there. It took about 45 minutes to get me out, and the ambulance still wasn't there and it was raining, so they covered me with a blanket and all the people gathered thought I was dead.
Anyway, broke my left ankle quite badly, and killed most of the tissue in my foot. There was some question about it having to be taken off, but after six months on the same level of my house the swelling had gone down and it recovered. Of course then I had to have surgery to repair the damage to the bones and was on crutches for another 6 months. During the first recovery period I had a call from the National Highway Safety Board wanting to know if it was ok to go take measurements of my car. Evidently it was in the 10 most dangerous cars list and they were documenting all wrecks at the time associated with them. Of course what did i buy to replace the MG? A TR4A of course. That had to be safer, right?
I've been rear-ended four times. Once with no damage, three times totaled the car I was in. I'm getting really sick of people not paying close enough attention to the world around them. Only one of these was a sudden stop on my part, and that was because traffic in general was stopping suddenly, all three lanes. The two other totals were signal and brake lights on, gentle stop, once waiting for someone ahead to make a left, once waiting to make a left myself.
At this point, when I'm on a motorcycle, I'll go around rather than stop and wait for an opportunity to turn left.
I've never caused an accident, but I'm way too human to begin to suggest it couldn't happen to me today. I've had near-misses, and momentary lapses of judgment. I tend to remember them; my heart skips a beat and my stomach drops when I remember moments where I did something dumb that could've gotten someone hurt.
I *think* (hope? I dunno...) that my tendency to take my near-misses seriously is one of the reasons my record's pretty good.
While I don't know that I could've avoided any of the times I was rear-ended, I'm also a big fan of the belief that there's a lot each of us can do to avoid being in an accident that's the other person's fault.
Close on a laugh? I don't trust white SUVs. I'm convinced that if you did a proper analysis, there'd be a statistically significant rate of terrible driving by people in white SUVs. Totally not joking.
And to the OP, on-topic; learn from it, but don't let it convince you that you're intrinsically a bad driver. Use it to make yourself a better driver. Though some blame lies with someone driving around in the dimness without lights, did it really come out of nowhere? (And maybe the answer is that it really wasn't possible to see them in time; I'm not in a position to say)
I have a titanium gray Miata. Near as I can tell it is practically invisible, so yes, more car accidents since I got it a few years ago than in the few decades prior to getting it.
I've been in a handful of accidents. Sometimes driving, some as a passenger. Some my fault, some not. From no visible damage to fairly heavy damage. No major injuries. Looking back on these events makes me realize two things
1) Today's cars are safe as berkeley
2) You know that last moment, right before impact, when you see it coming but there's nothing you can do about it? That E36 M3 makes a man feel alive, doesn't it? Theres nothing else quite like it.
It's been a few years but the statistic we were given inside the industry is folks will have some sort of car accident every seven years on average. My parting comment to folks whose cars I estimate is always "I hope I won't see you again" (given with a smile and a handshake. Most find it as amusing as I intended).
They are just cars, driven on roads polluted with people who view driving as a chore and give it zero thought and who have no developed skills, only bad habits. It's pretty amazing there aren't more wrecks.
I call it 'job security'.
I've been in four:
- A 180 spin as a teenager
- A minor parking lot bump (also as a teenager)
- Rear-ended in NJ
- I rear-ended someone last year who stopped short for a school bus in icy conditions
They're not fun, I try to take each one as an opportunity to see what I can do better. But ultimately, you have to let them roll off your back and not dwell on them.
Only once while I was driving some years ago. I believe it was considered 50/50 fault, but honestly if i was more careful I could have prevented it. Changed habits a bit, hasn't happened again. Later discovered the car I was driving barely had rear brakes, calipers rusted solid. Still, I could have avoided it. That's all you can do, figure out how it went wrong and fix the issue moving forward. Be glad nobody is dead.
Come to think of it, I haven't been in any accident (as driver or passenger) that were bad enough where the car I was in couldn't drive home. Once as a kid my mom's Lincoln was rear ended by a chain of cars so hard that the 2 behind us were smashed up beyond recognition, fluids everywhere, airbags blown. On our car the trunk still opened and shut! The cop thought we only witnessed the accident until we pointed to the nissan-shaped scuff mark on the rear bumper, and the smashed Nissan spewing fluids behind us. Not a highly observant cop...
dj06482 said:I've been in four:
- A 180 spin as a teenager
Where I come from, if the 180 doesn't wind up with you parked in the wall or another car, that's not an accident. That's just a bit of a learning experience.
I have been in four major accidents. Each one involved at least one semitruck.
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