Car Accidents

[Burak Gazan]

One minor, not at fault; was sideswiped by fella who made illegal u-turn across 3 lanes of traffic into me, I almost swerved to miss him but he scraped along my lower driver door, rear quarter panel, and damaged the left rear tire. What made it worse was this in my then-new Mustang, 3 days out of the dealer

It was all paid by his insurance, but that wasnt the point. Remarkably, I did not think about killing him. Must make me more level headed than I thought

[Maxentius]

I don't drive (living in NYC makes it something of a nuisance to both own and drive a car), but when I was ten, my grandfather let me drive his golf cart around the course with him in the passenger seat. Being the speed-addicted bundle of energy and idiocy I was at the time, the concept of 'brakes' was something of an arcane notion. I jumped the edge of the green, got about a foot of air in the process, and managed to start pinwheeling before my Grandfather got the wheel away from me.

[Tinkerbell]

... and this Masshole didn't even stop at his stop sign, or look at all to see if anyone was coming.

By Masshole, you wouldn't mean a resident of the greater Massachusetts area, would you?


The only accident I have ever been in was when my father was driving us to the hospital to see my grandfather. A block away from the hospital, I looked up from my magazine just in time to see a car hit us head on. It was a long time ago, so I don't remember whose fault it was. I just know it took me a long time to sit in the front seat of a car again.

EDIT: I have also been in more near-misses than I ever care to count. Some of them my fault, some of them not. This is why it is so frackin' important to pay attention and wear your seat belt all the time. I hate people who do their make-up while they are talking on the phone and singing along to the radio -- oh, and they just so happen to be OPERATING A POTENTIALLY DEADLY MACHINE AT A HIGH SPEED.

[Stormin]

Nothing yet, but then I have only been driving a few years now. It's surprising that more doesn't happen though considering how retarded the drivers are around here. Turn signals are the exception to the rule, speeding is more common than going the limit and cops enjoy following my car around rather than catching the asshats who pass me in school zones -_-

[RogueIce]

One, technically two.

The first is the technicality. I was waiting to turn right at an intersection, and when I was looking to my left and saw it was clear, I started to go forward. Stupid me, I totally forgot about the car in front of me.

Yes, my dumbass fault. But the reason I scrape by with it being a technicality is that I was moving so slow when I tapped his back bender (I had only released the brake, not stepped on the gas) that there was no damage to either vehicle. So after we both got out and took a look, the guy came to the conclusion it wasn't worth bothering over and we went our seperate ways.

The second one was fairly minor and not my fault. I was going straight through an intersection with a solid green light, and the person in the other lane tried to do a U-turn in front of me. I tried like Hell to step in time but she had simply pulled out when I was too close. As it is I fucked up my bumper, hood, and driver's side headlight/blinker pretty good. But the impact apparently wasn't enough to trigger my airbag.

Thankfully a cop happened to be driving along and came over about a couple minutes later so we didn't even have to call them, and gave her the ticket for failure to yield. Stupidly though when it came time for the insurance companies to do their thing, she somehow tried to claim she had the arrow, which is utter bullshit (if it was true, I obviously would have gotten the ticket, now wouldn't I?) so they weren't going to pay for the damages. So I got the truck fixed and I have no idea whether my insurance ever got the money from the other company (because it was technically my parent's insurance; living at home and attending school at the time).

[Vampiress_Miyu]

By Masshole, you wouldn't mean a resident of the greater Massachusetts area, would you?

Eh. I'm allowed to say that. =P I know MAAANY massholes.

[Melchior]

Several, actually, but only as a passenger (I seldom make any use of my driving license), including a disquieting number of accidents that happened while I was the passenger of a bus. In the worst of those the bus collided at high speed with a car coming from a intersecting street, sending it spinning ahead and swerving enough to impact with the line of parked vehicles on the left (this obviously caused the sliding doors to jam); luckily there where only very minor injuries (none, in my case).

[Wanderer]

One accident.

A speeding Straight Truck rear ended my LHS. Luckily I was turning into an exit lane and was only side swiped at 78mph. Still I went flying and again fate made it so I landed back end of my car first so I didn't suffer injuries. My air bag didn't even deploy.

Sherrif happened to be personally patrolling that stretch of the road and responded quickly.

When it was done, the straight truck driver was driving off the log, speeding, and was wanted on child molestation charges and thus arrested.

I also had near close calls with speeding Semi Truckers driving me of the road into the shoulders, the fucking assholes.

[Guardsman Bass]

I've been in a number of near-misses. One or two of them were my fault (I should have paid better attention), but mostly they were because some jackass tried to rush a light or a stop sign, or didn't bother to actually look in the mirror when they were changing lanes. My personal favorite was when I was driving down a hill with my brother, on a four lane road where the road expands to a five lane road (three lanes on our side) due to a smaller road converging on to the bigger road we were on. There we were, in the middle lane, when this stupid bitch talking on her cell phone pulls along side us at high speed and starts merging into the lane, right into us. I sharply pulled over to the left, and the bitch effortlessly pulled into the center lane, totally oblivious to the fact that she almost pushed her car right up against the passenger side of mine. I honked, then passed her and flipped her off.

The accident where I was driving was just a bumper hit at probably 5-10 mph in an over-crowded school parking lot, where a bunch of wankers weren't showing any courtesy on the road and cutting in. The accident where I wasn't was weird; the breaks on my friends' car failed for some reason, so we just started rolling down the hill at 20-25 mph and rolled right into the back of someone's car. Strangely, the brakes then started working again, and we got to his place safely.

[Enigma]

I've been in a few but they were all minor and was at fault for only two of them.

The first time was when I rear ended a Civic with my dad's Aerostar because I misjudged the speed of the traffic when it then suddenly stopped. Looking back, I can only blame my inexperience.

When I had my '92 Grand Am and working as a courier I was in a few accidents in which none were my fault. I was the last car to get hit in a 5 car rear ender, Amazingly, despite my foot on the brakes, my car was shoved forward about 8 feet and all that showed was an one inch crack on my bumper.

Also during one winter, I was accelerating through an intersection when a woman in an F-150 type pickup tried to slow down in order to make a right turn, instead her truck slid forward and into my path. I smacked into her door. I got out and noticed almost no damage except some slight misalignment on the passenger headlight and fender while her truck door was smashed and a moderate dent in the panel below the door.

The last incident with my Grand Am was when in the same winter I saw the street I needed to turn into, but when I applied the brakes and began to turn, the car instead, turned slightly but went straight into a street sign. I only had a couple of small scratched but the street sign was bent paralleled to the street.

With my '90 Corrolla SR5, some contract city dipshit worker thought it was a smart move to turn left from the second left lane and drove into the front corner of my car.

With my current car, I rear ended a Beetle. There was no way I could have avoided the car. I was going with the flow when suddenly three cars in front of me changed lane revealing the Beetle stopped with it's left blinker on waiting to turn. Had it not been raining I would have succeeded stopping in time but instead I hydroplaned. Fortunately my car wasn't damaged and the only damage to the Beetle was a popped out marker light.

Last September, I took an anti-nauseant and half an hour later briefly passed out and drove into a shallow island (the one on the road not in water:) ). Trashed the front right corner.

[Kanastrous]

Sideswiped an oncoming car on a tight, twisty uphill road while driving through my neighborhood. We split the liability on that one.

Been rear-ended two or three times on the freeway, in the car. Minor to zero damage.

Got smacked off my bike by a Pontiac-driving doofus one Halloween. Plenty of witnesses, totally his fault, totaled his car, totaled my bike.

Clipped the passenger-side mirror clean off a Toyota; had to avoid the car which suddenly crowded in from the #3 lane on Wilshire, jinked left and *smack* off it came. Bought the driver a new one and we called it even.

Rolled a pickup truck at about 70 mph on a Mexican highway, returning from eclipse-watching in Baja. Two passengers ejected from the bed (minor injuries), front passenger sustained a head injury and had to be aerovaced to San Diego, the rest of us caught the very first bus north and didn't look back.

[Phantasee]

Oi, too many, but the worst was as passenger. I ended up in a small SUV that rolled over after it got clipped on the rear end, just behind the rear wheel. Took out the rear hatch door, spun the SUV out, and one tire caught the edge of the road, which was raised high enough that the entire thing fell in, and rolled over twice before coming to a stop on the drivers side.

I was in the back seat, so I didn't feel too much in the spin, just a bit in the roll, but I was strapped in tight (and I was holding on to my sleeping bag, so I had some padding). The other guy went straight into the ditch, hit a telephone or power pole (big wooden one), and I shit you not, the entire engine was tossed out, with the pole wrapped up to the firewall.

[Kanastrous]

...

[Napoleon the Clown]

A few near misses, but no wrecks when I was driving. I don't drive a ton, I am very aware of the people around me, and I drive in a rational manner. I don't speed unless everyone else is doing so, and that's so that I don't get hit by an inattentive jackass. I'm also kind enough to let other cars merge, rather than running them off the road. Really, more wrecks could be avoided if people didn't drive like complete assholes, though that honestly goes without saying.


I did nearly get squished by a semi, last week. He changed lanes for no apparent reason, then started coming back over. Into the lane I had been occupying. Fortunately, the road was deserted other than him and myself, so I went a lane over, rather than getting squished. The same night I had a cop blow past me, going nearly twice as fast as I was. He was responding to a robbery or domestic dispute, or something, as his lights were off until he got up to where another cop was off to the side, lights flashing. Not exactly fun.

[Pu-239]

Fell asleep behind the wheel ( ) and when I came to, was speeding into a truck, so slammed brakes anywhere between 50-70MPH on the interstate and lost traction spinning into the left lane taking out another car and spinning into a ditch completely totalling both cars. Extremely lucky nobody got injured or died.

Then there's the near miss due to getting shocked and twitchy at truck pulling up alongside, and tire blowouts.

All this while only driving two years .


Now, I take a bike or public transport whenever I can, though this isn't possible if/when I start working off campus, depending on where.

[Darth Wong]

I've had a couple of minor fender benders, no serious accidents. Always in heavy rush-hour traffic, of course. One time I was driving down a major road and a woman just came flying out of a side-street as if I wasn't there. I wasn't speeding, but she claimed she saw me and I was speeding (you'd think that if she actually saw me, she wouldn't have driven right into me when I'm on the major road and she has the stop sign, which means that I have right of way). Another time I was in very heavy traffic and there was an incident ahead of me, so a whole bunch of cars slammed together bumper-to-bumper. I think I was #3.

[Executor32]

I've only been in 3 accidents. First was when I was in Lombard, waiting to turn left from my apartment complex. It was a 4-lane road, with a ~4-foot grassy divider. I waited for a good five minutes for traffic to die down, and when there was no traffic from the right and only a short school bus turning into the complex with a green limo behind it, I made my turn. I was then hit by the aforementioned green limo, who had decided it was a good idea to pass the school bus at that moment. Dented the hell out of the fender on that side, bent the wheel inward at the top about 30 degrees, and rendered the horn inoperable.

The second was when I hit a deer that came out from behind a bush in the ditch. It died, and it only dented the top of my hood, which popped right out.

The third was in the Wal-Mart parking lot. I was leaving, and I was in the lane waiting for someone in front of me to finish pulling out of their parking spot when, unbeknownst to me, a guy in a parking spot behind me started pulling out and didn't pay attention to what he was doing. I suddenly felt a sharp *thud*, and I looked back to see this jackass right up against my bumper. There was no damage to either car, though, so we just let it be.

[andrewgpaul]

Haven't hit anybody yet, thankfully. Had a close call once, though; going too fast, came up behind some stationary traffic and slammed on the brakes. Big cloud of smoke from the wheels, and the steering stopped working. Came to a halt about six inches behind the car in front.

[Einhander Sn0m4n]

Mine wasn't an accident, it was very deliberate. Read all about it here.

[J]

The second was when I hit a deer that came out from behind a bush in the ditch. It died, and it only dented the top of my hood, which popped right out.

I've yet to hit a deer while driving and I hope I never do, but I have hit a deer while biking on a paved trail near a river. I was riding along with my fiancé when a deer jumped out of the bushes right in front of me, I'm not entirely sure what happened, I felt an impact and the next thing I know I'm lying on the ground with the wind knocked out of me. The deer was ok, my bike was fine, and so was I after a few minutes.

[The Spartan]

Yeah a couple. When I was younger and dumber.

I was nearly in one today, but it wasn't because I did something stupid. Some jackass thought the best way to change lanes was to crowd me to the point that I had to hit my brakes (hitting my horn in the process) and then changing lanes into the space now available. What's most aggravating to me was that we weren't in heavy traffic and all he had to do was either speed up and pull in front of me, slow down and pull in behind me or use those strange blinking yellow lights that have some mysterious usage that I have yet to discern to inform me of his intentions so that I could slow down enough that he could move in front of me.

That shit is actually getting a lot more common it seems. Fuckheads thinking that they don't need to use a signal, just crowd you and make you move out of their way or turning in front of you, etc.

[Karrick]

I've been in two accidents. One was minor and not my fault, the other was me being a moron lucky to survive.

The minor accident was me heading out of my apartment complex's parking lot only to have some guy back into me as I drove past. Scratched the paint and put a nice dent in my passenger side door, but no other damage.

At the end of last Christmas break I was heading back to school, a 5.5-6 hour trip from New Jersey to Rochester, NY. I was driving along in the left lane, doing about 75 mph. About halfway through I noticed that I was feeling a bit drowsy, and was starting to nod off. Instead of doing something smart, like getting off at the next exit for a nap someplace, I downed some coffee and kept going. I was sleepy enough to not notice the slush protruding into my lane from the shoulder until it was too late. The car pulled left and I must have over corrected because the next thing I knew I was sliding sideways across both lanes while backwards. I came to rest still pointing the wrong way with the driver's side of the car pinned against the right guard rail. Traffic continued to speed merrily past, save for the guy driving an SUV full of people that probably would have killed me had he been less attentive. My car was undrivable but repairable and no one was hurt.

[Oni Koneko Damien]

One that was my fault, a few others that I wasn't the driver, and a couple near-hits...

My fault: Was at a stoplight, paying more attention to the car in front of me than the light. It starts moving forward, and reflexively I follow. I glance up and notice the light's still red, and look forward just in time to see the car ahead has jammed on its breaks. 5mph fender-ding that didn't even scratch the paint.

Others: Rear-ended in Chicago by an asshole taxi-driver who then whipped around and squealed off, leaning on the horn the entire time.

Riding with parents, trying to get home in white-out blizzard conditions, turned too soon and ended up in a ditch.

Riding with friends, trying to take a nap, and opened my eyes just in time to notice the cornrows heading towards us at an unhealthy speed.

And the best near-hit: During my driver's test, I had right of way, when a goddamn semi ran the stop-sign on a cross-street right in front of me. I slammed on the breaks and he just about kissed my bumper as he went by. I think the fact that I saved the tester's life biased his decision to pass me just a little.

A minor nitpick: Aren't options 1 and 2 the same? An 'almost near miss' means you almost missed, which means you hit.

[LadyTevar]

I've been in a few fenderbenders, a couple my fault, mostly not.

I've been in three major accidents, two as a passenger, one as driver, none of them my fault.

The first was as a passenger in LadyJules' car. An old man pulled out in front of us, ignoring the stopsign on his side. LadyJules refused transport, old man's wife was already on oxygen so they took her in just in case. LadyJules should have gone, turns out she broke 3 ribs. I was banged up but fine.

Second wreck was when I was still married to the EX. He was driving, we were on the interstate with a lot of on and off ramps to our left. Jackass in front of us STOPS DEAD, forcing the EX to hit the breaks. I have enough time to look in the passenger side mirror and see a woman merging from the on ramp, putting on her makeup. SLAM!!!!!!
We were one of 8 accidents on that bridge that day. Jackass had driven away, totally untouched. Woman behind us had the our tow hitch through the radiator of her Brand New Oldsmobile. Totalled it. The little wagon was not only drivable, but didn't have any other damage to it.

But she died two years later when an underage, drunk driver with no insurance and stolen plates not only crossed into my lane, but followed me into the break-down lane as I tried to avoid him. Hit her right in the driver's side headlight, peeled the front quarterpanel around the tire like the key-top of a can of spam, smacked the front door 4 inches into the back door, breaks my right axle and nearly takes off my right foot as that section of floor crumples. Knocked the rearview mirror into the back seat, popped the steering wheel into my lap, and then his car swerves back across the road to plough into the railroad embankment deep enough to cover his passenger side tirewell completely.
I was banged up pretty badly, but nothing broken. I was even conscious enough to grab everything out of the car that needed to be grabbed, like Insurance Card and Registration... and my EX's sword that he kept under the passenger seat. I was shocky enough that when an off-duty nurse stopped to check on it, I followed her over to check on the other driver. I remember him rolling back and forth, moaning and crying about being hurt, while the bottom half of his leg *wasn't moving with him*, and thinking to myself "Dumbass, stop moving and it won't hurt as much".
I also remember hobbling back to my car and finally seeing the damage to her side, and wondering absently who was screaming. (It was me, sobbing about my dead car) Later, I was shocky enough to get into a fight with everyone who tried to take my EX's sword away from me at the hospital, because it was His and He wouldnt' want to lose it and He isn't here to take it and He's a work can you call him because No you can't have the Sword (repeat until they convinced me it would go in the hospital safe).

Btw: the police report from the drunk driver: "I had gone to the bar after work and driving home something hit me." (Officer's note: when asked why he was at a bar when he was under 21, patient stopped talking)

[TimothyC]

One Crash. It was raining and windy and my van started fishtailing, and I ended up moving sideways down the highway on ramp at 50 miles an hour. What stopped me from facing backwards was a light pole, that sheared of my rear tire, and blew in the rear doors.

She was drivable after that (all of the damage was aft of the rear tires), but the cost of repairing her was more than she was worth.