Car accidents: absolutely unbelievable

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

It all started so innocently. I was awarded a $50 gift certificate at the fancy restaurant on top of the hotel that employs me, as thanks for my perfect attendance in 2007. Since there was no way I could eat $50 worth of food by myself (and there would be no “cash back” for not spending the whole $50), I decided it would be nice to take my mom and stepdad out to dinner. They’ll be heading back to South Dakota in a few weeks, so I wanted to do something nice for them before they leave.

So today they were on their way to my house to pick me up, and as they were driving up the street several blocks from my house, another car pulled out of a driveway, directly in front of them. There was no time to stop, so they ran into this other driver. Police came, quickly determined that it was the other driver’s fault, and sent my folks on their way.

So they arrived at my house a bit late, and I saw there was very little damage to their car. So I got in the back seat of their car, and we headed for the restaurant, which was three blocks away. We got about one block …

… We were stopped at the red light, waiting to cross the first of three major streets between us and our destination, when some idiot coming from our left made a right turn way too fast — and slammed straight into the rear driver’s side door of our car (I’m glad I was sitting on the other side), bounced off, and then hauled ass out of there, up the street behind us and taking the first left. Gone. I tried to catch the license plate, but thanks to this furshlugginer snow (what the hell?), the rear window had too much water beaded up on it and I couldn’t make it out. Note that the snow had nothing whatsoever to do with this crash - there was no snow or even slush on the pavement. This was purely a case of a driver taking a corner way too fast and being unable to complete the turn.

Here, I drew a picture (photo of actual intersection from Google Maps). As you can see, the corner the other driver was trying to make is not a nice, simple 90° corner. The speed limit on the three-lane one-way street there is 30 MPH, and he was going at least that fast and not slowing to down to turn. Centrifugal force (or is that centripetal force?), my friend. I drive around that corner all the time, and I know you have to slow way down on that one.

Thankfully, none of us were hurt, though I guess we’ll see how our necks feel tomorrow morning. Since this was a hit-and-run, I don’t know who will pay if I need medical treatment. My mom’s insurance?

Sigh. At least dinner was good.

2

I have an Uninsured Motorist clause on my auto insurance that I believe would cover that. Whether your mother has it or not, or how who pays is determined, will be decided by your state law and the insurance company. But at least no one was badly injured. Sore muscles are bothersome, but don’t usually last long.

3

Did you catch the make/model/color or the car, catch a glimpse of the driver? If so, call the police and give them that info. There are cases of the police catching a hit and run just by noticing damage similar to what they would expect on a similar car. We’ve had a case in Milwaukee where someone did a hit and run and someone got some basic info about that car (make/model). The police put out the word to the body shops and a body shop in Illinois reported her. I beleive a death was involved in that one. I think they hit a lady that was standing in the street to check her mail.

4

You parent’s policy’s medical payments section will cover all of you for sure, I don’t know about UM coverage. Talk to your agent, attorney, or read your policy, or wait for one our local legal eagles to stop by here.

5

Absolute fucking cowards.

Sorry. I have seen, and been the victim of, hit and runs. Hope everything works out OK - at least that their insurance covers it, at best that the cops catch the jerk who did it and they nail him to the wall.

6

Tell your parents to switch off the Invisibility Cloak next time they’re driving in your town :smiley:

Seriously, glad everyone is ok!

7

Heh. The same cop who responded to the first crash showed up for the second crash (the accidents were barely 30 minutes apart!) He picked up the broken pieces of the other car’s amber turn signal/marker light from the pavement, so maybe the cops can use that to determine the make and/or model of the car. The whole thing happened so fast that the best description I could give was that I thought it was a gold-colored, late model Ford. You know, that’s one problem with this modern, aerodynamic, cab-forward design philosophy: so many cars from so many makers look almost exactly alike. Twenty-plus years ago, it was really easy to quickly distinguish between a Ford, a GM, and a Chrysler because each had a distinct, “signature” look. Not so much these days.

Anyway, from the size of the dent in my mom’s car (the whole rear door panel is caved in), the damage to the other car is probably pretty obvious. Maybe if I have time in the next couple days I’ll take a walkabout around the neighborhood and see if any cars look familiar.

Maybe we’ll get lucky and the driver was some teenager whose parents will see the damage and do the right thing. The more likely scenario (one that unfortunately happens all the time around here) is that it was an illegal Mexican with no driver’s license or insurance :frowning:

8

chuckles

A couple of years ago, I ate Easter Dinner at my brother’s in-laws house. It was with amusement that we noticed that there were at least 4 cars, all gold at the house. Not all the same gold. We had a Honda Gold, a Ford Gold, a Saturn Gold, a Toyota Gold, . . .

Of course, one can more easily tell differences in color detail when all the cars are parked for a period of time.

I hope you can avoid being in any more accidents for a while.

9

With the weather we’ve been having here it’s even harder to distinguish color, thanks to the layer of dirt (the stuff left behind when it rains/snows) on everybody’s car. My mom thought the car was tan, but I was able to figure out it was gold because I was sitting in the back seat and thus was the only one able to get a long look at it as it sped away.

My mom just e-mailed me the picture she took of the damage right after we got done talking to the cop. This accident could have easily been much worse (though not for us). If we hadn’t been sitting there at the time, the other driver probably would have gone over the curb and through the side of the dry cleaner’s shop there. The cleaners just finished remodeling the front of their shop a few months ago.

Well, this is the first one I’ve been involved in since 1989. That one was my fault, but pretty minor. I slid on packed snow & ice while making a right turn at about 5 MPH and crunched the front left corner panel of the car that was stopped on the cross street. Low speed + my '73 Oldsmobile Toronado + the other guy’s '75 Cadillac Fleetwood = no injuries, minor damage.