I just need to say something:

I narrowly avoided an accident this morning on the commute into work.

The bottom line is a Lexus failed to yield to oncoming traffic while making a turn at an intersection. I locked up the brakes and missed him, but the Mustang on my right tagged him on the rear passenger wheel. Like most accidents, another 1/16 of a second and the accident would have never happened.

The point of the post is the following; I hope everyone on the board maintains financial responsibility. In this case, neither driver had insurance. Plus, even though the Mustang driver was not at fault, he did not even have a DL. He was old enough, and it was not suspended. He just did not go through the process to obtain a license. The other driver tried to walk home. As a “good” witness, I waited around until the Police showed to give a statement and then left.

I am lucky that I was not involved. You can imagine my hostility if I had been involved. Even though I have more than enough insurance, I would have been angry if either one of them caused me to have an accident. Drivers without insurance or a DL ultimately cost legal drivers money in higher insurance rates. That is not the sole factor but does contribute to the ridiculous premiums everyone has to pay to insure their vehicle.

Moral of the story is to drive legally. You know who you are if you are driving without the proper requirements. All I have to say is that the circumstances will eventually catch up to you. If might not be today or tomorrow, but something will happen when you least expect it. I make every car payment and insurance premium, I guess that I just expect every other driver to do the same.

I will get off my soap box and everyone have a nice Thursday.

 

You said you "locked up" the brakes. Did the ABS not kick in?

 

The dude driving the lexus did not have insurance? What the F?

 

$300,000 in liability for me is like $160/year more than $30,000 in liability... so I got it.

 

I should have said "braked aggressively." Yes, the ABS did kick on and no skid marks were left. Again, I was just lucky. I guess without the ABS I might have tagged him as well.

 

Who drives an LS without insurance and then tries to walk home after an accident? I guess it just shows you that you can't tag a person by what they drive.

 

half my neighborhood drives luxury cars without insurance. they can't afford it... they have to make their car payment!

 

I just did some digging on-line:

1998 Mustang Coupe (not a GT) and a 1994 Lexus LS4. I cannot imagine either one have a super high premium, especially if they only carry liability. I say if you cannot afford the insurance, then you cannot afford to drive.

 

You're kidding? In TX, the guy without a DL and ins didn't get thrown in jail and the other guy, no ins, didn't get any heavy fines?

 

When the Officer showed, he took me aside and took down my contact information and a statement of what I witnessed. He then asked me to leave. There was nothing else for me to do at that point. From looking at the accident evidence, it was not difficult to see what happened.

I would guess that the Mustang driver with no DL or insurance might have been arrested. I "think" it is up to the officer's discretion on the arrest but I am not positive. He could possibly let him go as long as he did not drive away. He also got a no insurance ticket at the least. I am sure the Lexus driver was ticketed for no insurance and probably failure to yield right of way. I am not a Cop so the above is just a guess.

I guess I was impressed that neither of them had insurance. This incident makes me worry about EVERY other driver on the road now.

 

This actually works out perfectly. They both had no insurance, so they cause no one but themselves money.

 

Holy shit, man! Good thing nothing happened to you. I must agree with you that people without driver's licenses and insurance need to stay off the road. However, let's not forget that they're not the only ones who need to stay off the road. Financial responsibility is one thing, but common sense and common courtesy need to be practiced as well. If the guy in the Lexus had not been in such a hurry to make the turn, then this whole situation could have easily been avoided.

 

thats why some states have mandatory uninsured motorist insurance...i have to pay more on my premium for the fawkers driving out there with no insurance

glad ur ok, been sad to see anything happen to a fellow TSXer esp with all the mods

 

Thanks and you have no idea how relieved I was to emerge with not even a scratch.

I was in the far left lane and the Mustang was in the middle lane, or right next to me. I feel very lucky. The TSX is barely 5 months old and I have already sunk quite a chunk of salary into mods.

-CGTSX2004
I agree with you 100% on the common sense/courtesy thing. I try my best to drive with a decent attitude. Most accidents just make no sense.

I guess those pints of green beer yesterday yielded some luck today. :P

 

What you witnessed may be the most common cause of 2-car collisions; someone failing to yield while turning left on a green light. I see this happen all the time. Even if the guy going straight at the light is on a dirt road, you still have to yield to him; most people must not realize this. I think it is worth adding 15seconds to every light cycle for left turn arrows just for all these stupid people.

And for Gilbo: this thread shows that RWD doesn't cure stupid.

 

My only accident was exactly the opposite. I was turning left on a 2 lane road and stopped to wait for oncoming traffic to pass. Unfortunatly the truck behind me didn't see me stop. Totalled the car. The worst part? It was a 65 Mustang my father and I were restoring. :'( Luckily this guy did have insurance and admitted it was all his fault.

 

Not being racist here but were either of them not us citizens? I know plenty of people who 'arent suppose to be here' who are driving.

 

Do you mean illegal alien? What does that have to do with bad driving and common courtesy? There are plenty of immigrant who can drive just fine, and there are plenty of us citizens who shouldn't be driving at all!

 

I'm not a US citizen, have a non-immigrant visa, and complete comprehensive insurance on my TSX.

As far as I'm concerned, you comment wasn't racist. It was ignorant.

 

That wasnt my point.

Being an alien has nothing to do with how well you drive.

It does however have to do with somebody being able to get a valid license and insurance.

That is ALL i was saying.

 

For the insurance part, I live in a state (CO) where non-insured drivers are a rampant problem and is responsible for raising everyone else's rates.

I remember talking to my friend working at the Subaru dealership in Pueblo (sidenote: Pueblo, CO is the third largest market in the US in WRX sales, go figure) and he said that most WRX customers were younger than 25, and most of them had insurance bills that would be higher than their monthly payments. Kinda scary.

As for foreign drivers being more of a nusance, I highly doubt that. Many of my foreign friends during college were the most careful drivers I've ever seen. One Arab friend even waited for his engine to warm up everytime, even if he was late for class, and never, I mean NEVER, drove over the speed limit (annoying, yes). Being a naturalized US citizen, I have to say that many US-born citizens are less appreciative of what they have. Heck, I had to pass a test to earn my citizenship. I've read that half of Us-born citizens can't even pass the test.

Junkster, who does think Canadian drivers are the worst... oops, here comes the flames.

 

I certainly did not intend to start a flame with this thread.

We were all males and that was the only similarity. All three of us were of different nationalities perhaps, but how could I tell anyway. I have no idea of the citizenship of anyone with the exception of myself. I am a native Texan, so that means I am even more important than a regular run of them mill US citizen anyway Just kidding of course! No one should take that the wrong way if you read many of my posts here.

I do not think nationality had any impact on what happened anyway. The person who caused the accident could barely speak English if it matters. I am sure there are some Germans (Schumacher is one) or Italians (Zanardi is one) or Canadians (Moore before his death) and many others (insert whatever nationality) who can and do/did drive the gears off an American.

I know that English was not his (the driver at fault) native language. I could not tell if he was scared and hid behind the language barrier or really do not understand. He DID understand the word Cop, and that is when he decided to walk home. Luckily the other driver talked or motioned him out of it. So with that said, perhaps he had a warrant or was undocumented, who knows.

-gfxdave99-
I now see your point. It is possible that might have been an issue.

 

But in all seriousness, Junkster does have a point. Many people take US citizenship for granted (this includes both born and naturalized citizens) and American society is a little worse for wear as a result of it. As for the driving issue as far as "undocumented immigrants" go, the recent bill brought up by the Bush administration to register "undocumented immigrants" and then offer them a 3 year temporary visa sounds like a good idea to me. By doing that, it encourages them to actually take the driver's license exam and get insured. They can't do those things without identification. However, as it stands right now, the driving exam is too easy to pass anyway and that should first be changed before we start letting more people drive. Did you know that most people I've talked to in recent years did not have to learn to parallel park to pass their driving exam? Come on!! Basic driving skill. Sheesh!!

 

The worst drivers I have EVER seen (keep in mind I have not been out of the US) were in midtown NYC. I feared for my life several times in my various cab rides.

 

Sorry, but as a Canadian, I have to put my 2 cents in.

Portland drivers are muuuuuch worse than Vancouver drivers.

When I drove down to Portland, they cut me off on I-5 with pretty much zero inch clearance.

At least Vancouver drivers give me 1/4 car clearance.

 

THE worst drivers in the world... South Koreans!!!

Try driving in Seoul and see how long you last. I remember NYC, but at least the drivers gave a honk as a warning most of the time to tell you that they are coming in. In Seoul, it's just wedging your front bumper into a space between two drivers and ramming yourself in. NO ONE moves for you, lets you in or even thinks twice about cutting you off. Even Europeans aren't that rude... French, maybe, but not as much.

You get in an accident in Seoul, you just come out of the car ready to box!!! There's no civility in that city in terms of driving. And Korea wonders why they don't get as many tourists as Japan... just plain rude.

Junkster, whose Korean.

 

~<Rock III>~

"ding, ding"

 

Junkster, I'm gonna have to contend that claim. I think that pretty much applies to Taiwan, Thailand, Philippines, and several other countries throughout Asia. It certainly isn't a problem only in Korea.

And I am from Taiwan so I've definitely seen it in person.

 

Holy crap.

 

If you think NYC is exciting, you should try out Naples or Rio on vacation some time. In Rio, if you hit a pedestrian, it's his fault. Which makes everything seem more like sport. In Naples, Green means go, Yellow means go faster, and Red means well...nothing.

Then there's Israel--it's easy to get lost and find yourself in a "bad" section of town, eg East Jerusalem. Of course, if you're into gun play, you can't beat Bagdad (although I have only 2nd hand knowledge of that). I hear LA is known for that too. Malta is exciting too, driving on the leftis always entertaining. A bit disappointing if you came to see a Maltese Falcon though...but I digress....

 

I have a friend who is stationed in Seoul... he says when they drive around... someone has to hang out of the vehicle with a tire iron to keep the 80yo mama-sans out of the way.

 

They probably saw your license plate Someone needs a bumpersticker that says "I swerve for Canadians"

 

LOL

Actually, I drive with a Washington licence plate. So in both places, I was a "foreigner".

And hell no - no bumper stickers marring the beauty of my TSX!

 

Good point on the Middle East driving. I went to Jordan once with one my buddies from there back in college for a week. Trust me, it doesn't matter whose fault it really was, cause you know you can't argue when the other person's got a AK in his back seat. And there is absolutely no rules in driving.

It's weird being in a country where people carrying guns in plain sight is just normal.


Junkster, who thinks LA isn't so bad.

 

Well i cant wait to do some worldwide traveling and see just how bad drivers can be

 

... with somebody else's car.

 

i suggest you explore the world of bad driving from a taxi. although its frightening, the drivers are actually pretty good at being bad. I didn't see any crashes even though the people are psychotic.

 

You know, come to think of it, I never saw any wrecks either. Surprising, especially how the traffic goes in Italy. (Lots of Tifosi.)

 

shit i am 18 and i have my own TSX but i do not have insurance. my tsx is insured under my mothers name but shit if i get insurance on myself i will be paying close to 4000 a year!!!!!!11 Are you fucking kidding me.

 

Lots of things to consider before purchase. Can I afford gas, can I afford regular maintenance, can I afford insurance and so forth. I for one, am tired of paying for other peoples insurance. If you can't legally insure the car you drive, you shouldn't be on the road. (Unless you have enough money stashed away so I can sue you when you wreck into me.)