Lesson Learned: Always Expect the Worst in Other Drivers

[Kijona]

Click to make bigger.

So this happened yesterday morning on my way home from work. I'm OK, physically at least. To put it plainly, this was not my fault at all. I'll explain with an illustration:



In the above illustration, traffic was stopped in the left turn and straight-thru lanes waiting for the light to change. The blue and yellow diamond denotes a small bus/large van vehicle that was stopped. The red arrow is the direction of travel for the other driver.

I was in the right-turn only lane approaching the intersection preparing to turn right. Essentially, the other driver cut through the stopped cars and in front of that bus/van type vehicle in an attempt to enter the parking garage.

A number of factors came into play with this wreck. One was the fact that it was still somewhat dark (I had my headlights on, other driver did not). Another is that the bus was completely obscuring my view of the other two lanes, and undoubtedly the other driver's view of the lane he was crossing (mine) as well.

That having been said, this was completely and utterly the other driver's fault (he was cited, but we'll get to that in a minute). Not only did he fail to yield to traffic, he also ran the stop sign (according to a witness) where the side street lets out onto the main road (where he originated from). In addition, he was not exactly driving slowly.

I struck the rear-side of his truck (behind the back tire), yet I was only 3-5 feet from being parallel with the bus/van vehicle when he entered my line of sight. If he had just slowly been creeping through, like he SHOULD have been doing, I might have hit him somewhere in the front to mid-section, or probably not at all.

The police officers cited the guy (can't remember what they charged him with). He acted like he was being framed and that he was completely innocent. He tried to blame me for "speeding" and that I should have yielded to him. How fast could I have been going if I was getting ready to make a right turn? Not only that, my airbags were not deployed.

When that didn't work, he became belligerent and started getting upset and showing his true nature as a complete f%$king moron. Dude, you f%&ked up. Own up to it.

[Old Mechanic]

Not sure about Georgia, but in Virginia the law allows you to sue the ins company for "diminished value" even after the car is repaired, if it is repaired.
I woud check into your state laws, since carfax will now show the collision forever which will affect the value or the car when resold.
It's advice buddy, no need to go off on me like you did on the purchase thread.
If GA allows you to sue for "diminished value" then you might get the ins company to buy the car from you and just get another car, if they accept responsibility, assuming his insurance is current.


http://diminishedvalueofgeorgia.com/

regards
mech

[Kijona]

Not sure about Georgia, but in Virginia the law allows you to sue the ins company for "diminished value" even after the car is repaired, if it is repaired.
I woud check into your state laws, since carfax will now show the collision forever which will affect the value or the car when resold.
It's advice buddy, no need to go off on me like you did on the purchase thread.
If GA allows you to sue for "diminished value" then you might get the ins company to buy the car from you and just get another car, if they accept responsibility, assuming his insurance is current.


http://diminishedvalueofgeorgia.com/

regards
mech

Thanks for the help. I had a lawyer in my back pocket from the last time something like this happened (very minor damage but their insurance didn't want to pay). I've been in touch with him, we'll see what happens. Right now it's looking like just shy of $10k worth of damage, so I doubt that the other insurance company is going to buy out the car for only 25% damage versus value.

[Watcher]

First of all, glad you are ok and good thing you aren't at fault.  It's too bad your car got pretty messed up.

Definitely take this lesson to heart, though.  I'm an extremely defensive driver/rider with a little impatience.  I drive/ride quick, but I also drive/ride with the mentality that everyone has no f%$king clue what it is they are doing and if I am making it to my destination unscathed it will be through my sheer force of skill, perception, and judgement.

Accident free since I got my license, not that I haven't had close calls, but I get increasingly more aware and suspicious as time goes on.  You just never know.

I've seen basically everything. 

People signal left while in the left most lane of the expressway, then merge right, then turn their signal off   

Going like 20 under in daylight and dry conditions with no hazards on.    

Overloaded cars/trucks. 

Drivers without headlights all the freaking time.  (Waiting for auto manufacturers to take a hint from motorcycles and just make them all lights on all the time and all you get is a brights switch). 

No go on green.  I've seen people actually come to a complete stop on green lights before.    High?  Spaced out?  Distracted?  My opinion, shouldn't be on the road at all after that.  Take away their license.

Guy stopped in the left turn lane with the left turn signal on just randomly deciding "Nah, I wanna go straight" and pulling out into traffic without a mirror check let alone a head check, and they leave their left turn signal on.  Not even switched to a right turn signal, it just stays left.   

Saw a guy make a wide right turn out of a corner gas station.  Turned so wide he ended up in the left lane to go straight, then turned right at the intersection from the left lane cutting off another driver.  It was a corner gas station, he could have just exited on the correct side.   

Guys merging through the white "this is not a lane" markers. 

I saw a guy cut across a mild grass median to make an exit while doing 75mph on the interstate.  Almost lost it, too.

Saw a driver rear end a stopped school bus because he wasn't paying attention enough to see a giant yellow people mover with FLASHING RED LIGHTS! 

Drivers all the time slam on their brakes when emergency vehicles come by.  Not just slow down and move over and stop only at major intersections like you are supposed to, full on panic braking like the ambulance coming from the opposite direction that was visible for about 1.5 miles was a small child that suddenly ran out into the street chasing a ball. 

I saw drivers slow down and move over for tow trucks with amber strobes like they are emergency vehicles or something.  It's a damn tow truck.  He's not even actively picking a car, just driving along.   

Almost got rear ended in my cage when a guy behind me hit the brakes in snow.  He started to skid, the solution he came up with to stop faster was to press harder on the brakes, that didn't work so he decided to turn the wheel and swerve, but he didn't let go of the brakes and when tires are locked up they don't do anything...  Lucky me, I was looking in my rear-view and noticed him spin the wheel to full lock and keep coming.  1st gear, 4WD, head-checked the intersection for cross-traffic, gassed it up and dumped the clutch, ran the red.  Saw his tires finally bite on the pavement I just revealed with my tire spin and he hopped the curb stopping almost nailing the traffic signal box.  Would have plowed the heck into me if I launched just a half second later.  Jeez, you'd think people who live in areas covered by snow 4 months out of the year would have a basic understanding on how to drive in it.  Nope.   

Again, almost got rear ended by a guy in the wet.  Left turn lane, long line, turned green, moving, moving, moving, turned red, line stopped.  Guy behind me was late to the party and was gunning it to catch up, didn't realize we stopped, panic braked, locked it up.  I heard him skid and looked in my rear view.  No time to react, nowhere to go even, just braced for impact but it never came.  Guys eyes were like dinner plates, and so were mine!  When we finally started moving, the little rock back my truck made when I launched literally scraped my bumper on his license plate mounting screws.  No BS!  I heard a tap at the time but thought it was maybe something I had in the back of the truck that shifted, but when I got home I looked out of curiosity and had a little  number eleven in the middle of the lower side of my bumper.   

Be safe, keep your eyes and ears open, always expect the worst.

[Old Mechanic]

US 1 Marathon, Florida Keys 1982, night, torrential thunderstorm. Drunk swerves into my lane. I can't go right, twelve foot deep vertical walled ditch for new water main. I had one option left, swerve across the oncoming lane of traffic into a dark parking lot with telephone poles, no way I could see them under those conditions.

I was driving a 1973 Alfa Romeo GTV and I lived that night, I was lucky.

Within 200 yards of the exact same spot 5 years earlier, my parents were driving and had a drunk swerve into their lane. The car they were driving was a 1977 Honda Accord, a salvage vehicle I had rebuilt. Mom was driving and Pop riding shotgun. My mother executed a picture perfect evasion move (a quote from POP a WW2 veteran pilot) and they avoid the head on collision with a car weighing twice that of the Accord. I think it was 1979. Collision would have been at 100 MPH combined, certain death.

Pop turns 94 this May 8th. A man who survived 30 missions over Germany with every 88 MM flack gun trying to shoot them out of the sky and came home and married a beautiful country girl, who popped my 10 pounds 8 ounces out in 2.5 hours while Pop was fixing a flat tire. They celebrated their 69th wedding anniversary this February.

Both of them and myself could have easily been killed by the carelessness of two drunk jerks. I always wonder if they killed someone else.

regards
mech

[Kijona]

First of all, glad you are ok and good thing you aren't at fault.  It's too bad your car got pretty messed up.

Definitely take this lesson to heart, though.  I'm an extremely defensive driver/rider with a little impatience.  I drive/ride quick, but I also drive/ride with the mentality that everyone has no f%$king clue what it is they are doing and if I am making it to my destination unscathed it will be through my sheer force of skill, perception, and judgement.

Accident free since I got my license, not that I haven't had close calls, but I get increasingly more aware and suspicious as time goes on.  You just never know.

I've seen basically everything. 

People signal left while in the left most lane of the expressway, then merge right, then turn their signal off   

Going like 20 under in daylight and dry conditions with no hazards on.    

Overloaded cars/trucks. 

Drivers without headlights all the freaking time.  (Waiting for auto manufacturers to take a hint from motorcycles and just make them all lights on all the time and all you get is a brights switch). 

No go on green.  I've seen people actually come to a complete stop on green lights before.    High?  Spaced out?  Distracted?  My opinion, shouldn't be on the road at all after that.  Take away their license.

Guy stopped in the left turn lane with the left turn signal on just randomly deciding "Nah, I wanna go straight" and pulling out into traffic without a mirror check let alone a head check, and they leave their left turn signal on.  Not even switched to a right turn signal, it just stays left.   

[...]

It's one of those things man. Personally, I've never been in a car wreck before (sans a small scuff somebody put on my back bumper a few years ago). However, no matter how good of a driver you are, and no matter how many precautions you take, there will be an unavoidable circumstance. I believe this to be one of them - there was no way possible for me to have seen the truck coming from the other side of the bus. Hell, I couldn't even tell there was a gap in front of the bus. I managed to grab some brakes before it happened but the timing was such that it didn't matter, even though I was only going at MOST 15mph.

[Watcher]

It's one of those things man...  No matter how good of a driver you are, and no matter how many precautions you take, there will be an unavoidable circumstance. I believe this to be one of them - there was no way possible for me to have seen the truck coming from the other side of the bus. Hell, I couldn't even tell there was a gap in front of the bus. I managed to grab some brakes before it happened but the timing was such that it didn't matter, even though I was only going at MOST 15mph.

Yeah, I hear you.  Sometimes its just as simple as being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

[Kijona]

The other insurance company put me in a rental car. When this originally happened I was in a Hyundai Veloster, which sucked majorly. I only got it because it was the absolutely cheapest thing the rental company had, and I wasn't sure if I was going to have to come out of pocket and be reimbursed later.

Well, anyway, I got in touch with the other insurance company and had them pick up the tab for the Hyundai. I made a bit of a stink about driving such an economy car (honestly I just wanted something with more power). They happily upgraded me to a "Premium" rental and now I've got a Dodge Challenger.

It's just a V6 but it's still much peppier than that Veloster. Plus, it's a much cooler looking car. It was either that or a 3.5L V6 Nissan Maxima, which would've been quicker, but I'm not a fan of Nissan personally. Plus the seats were hella uncomfortable.