This must be a bad 24 hour period for me. In 24 hours, I've had two narrow accidents.

First one... I'm on the left lane on 880. From behind, I see two Integras zooooom up, one on the left lane one on the right lane. The teg on the left lane (behind me) cuts to the right lane and then swerves in front of me. Thing is, his rear end still hasn't cleared my front! I slam my brakes and my car skids. My car goes off the road and ALMOST hits the concrete center divider.

Second one... it's a blind corner on a two lane little street. One lane in each direction. and I turn right after checking that nobody is on the right lane. And I almost slam into some idiot driving on the wrong side of the lane. The asshole blasts his horn at me and even gives me the finger. The nerve of some guys...

So here's the question... In either of those cases, if I had hit the divider or the other car, am I at fault?

 

Unless you have a witness or a set of video cameras running full-time, it probably wouldn't matter (If you can't find the "person" at fault or PROVE that they are at fault, it's your word against theirs. Perhaps, if you were hurt bad enough, the cops would come for a police report to help you out -- just don't count on that happening for non-injury accidents.)


The "bummer" is -- if you "avoid" an accident (like a rear-ending by hitting something else), you can make a "clear-cut" accident situation very-fuzzy...


It's not a simple answer when you get out of the "classroom"...


So, if you had a cop behind you in case one -- yeah, they would go after the guy for unsafe lane change, unsafe/reckless driving/ racing, and so on (same crap in the case of the wrong lane driver). I would mention, that I was in a car in a near head-on accident (as a passenger) when someone hit my friend while straddling the double-yellow line. They moved their car from the accident position-- it was straddling the double-yellow line, and they insisted that it was too dangerous to leave it there (around a blind curve). When the cops finally arrived, it was our word against hers (she said we were driving on the wrong side of the road – yeah, right). People do tend to lie. Hence, my comment about having video tape or a cop behind you...

 

in PA, your policy gets "dinged" for damage you did not cause if there is no other driver to take the blame. even a hit and run would be "your fault". it's what your insurance has to pay that affects your rates, not the accident.

we have a lot of deer in this area and that is the one single car accident situation that would not affect your insurance. my agent outright told me, if a deer jumps in front of me and i have a choice of mowing down the deer and taking my chances, swerving into another lane and hitting a car or a divider or something, aim for the deer if there aren't any other ways out because you WILL pay for it with higher rates. not with the deer, though.

i'd like to see insurance companies give a "free" year like every 5 years if you go claim free. what a racket. if people weren't so freakin lawsuit happy...

 

That sucks! Glad your ok.


And yeah, I've had my fair share of bad karma! Really makes you wonder sometimes. But then again I just figure there's a bunch of morons on the road.

They give away drivers licenses! Be glad it's harder to get your private pilots license.

 

So in case #2, I should hit the guy head on, and presumably there's gonna be glass and stuff on the road that will vindicate my position.

I *ALWAYS* keep a camera in my glove compartment just for situations like that. It's just one of the crummy disposables, but it gets the job done. Learned my lesson earlier that if you have one good picture, the other guy's story will fall to pieces.

 

Dude that sucks...i live in San Jose too and there are some times I would love to strangle the necks of some of those people. I hate the ones where your crusiing at a good speed and someone goes through the effort to cut you off and goes slower than you or when you need to get over and they speed up not letting you over and so on...dang San Jose drivers!

 

Just hit em head on.....our car weighs over 3500 lbs.....and has 4 sets of airbags.....and is front heavy....short of an SUV or truck...we win...

 

Hmm... I like this analysis! Anyone know where I can buy an OEM front ram thingy like what they have on the cop cars?

 

Sure, if you don't care about how hurt you are... I don't think the cars will be able to move under their own power and there will probably be an injury. Hey, who cares if you need a wheel chair for the rest of your life, you got the other person's insurance to cover the cost of a new car (that presumes that the dork doing the driving in the wayward car even has insurance!)

BTW, in case there was any "lack" of communication over "my passenger experience... the person driving the car who got hit by the "twit" driving down the middle of the double-yellow line, didn't have more than a second to try and avoid this duffus. In addition, I've escaped more than a few "4-way stop runners", by sliding my (RWD) car sideways in an empty oncoming lane (I saved my life, but I don't think it would have looked too good if a cop had come along after the moron split the scene after "my" near death experience.)


I wasn't talking about a "still" camera (although that is a terrific idea for jerk-offs that I mentioned), there will come a time where you may find yourself being "right", but having to do something that looks very wrong (in the case of hit-and-run and in the incidents you have mentioned). I was thinking more along the line of 360-degree high-res video (hey, make that hit-and-run stick...)

 

I was just kidding about the head on thing. You're right, I don't want to end in a wheelchair or 6 feet under. And I also love my car to death. It's just not the same after being hit. Even ifthe body shop does a great job on it, it has still been err... violated?

I totally understand what you mean by you could be in the right but end up doing something that looks wrong. I once swerved to avoid an idiot motorcyclist who skidded and fell into my lane. I ran up the kerb and the cop that just happened to drive by gave me all kinds of funny looks.

That 360 hi-res video cam would be a cool mod... Motion/shock activated...