A big scooter? I is to larf! For invisibility, try a bicycle sometime!
I’ve been on the receiving end of an auto collision several times. Every one of those accidents occurred while I was driving in Los Angeles. IMO the cities with the highest insurance rates will be the cities where good drivers have more accidents by just being in the way of a crappy driver.
Now that we have moved to a lower-insurance-rate area … we are accident free (so far).
IMO it’s safer to act as if you’re invisible whether you are or not, so we are in agreement.
I just wish I could tell which drivers are actually blind from further away.
My two favorite blind driver stories:
I was walking past a parking ramp once, and the driver hit the attendant’s booth, apparently not able to see the entry lane. Then he backed up, turned his wheels, and crept ahead, and hit the booth again. Then, the idiot attendant got out of the booth and started giving the driver instructions on how to straighten up to get into the ramp, where he could hit lots more stuff, including people and parked cars.
Another time I was driving along a main street and saw this car creeping out of a side street. At first I was so far away that I thought he’d be finished through the intersection before I got there. Then he stopped for a bit and started creeping again. By this time I was getting close and I thought his view might be blocked by cars parked close to the corner. Then I saw the driver and he was still creeping and I thought, “He’s pulled out far enough to see me for sure, so he will stop now.” But he didn’t, and even though he was probably only going 5 mph, I ended up having to hit the brakes and stop to let him go by. And then I was close enough, stopped right next to him, to see him really close up, and I could tell by the way he was peering around and squinting that he STILL didn’t see me. If I had a cell phone I would have called the cops on him.
Accidents are (for most drivers) a rare thing, but close calls happen more often, and as was suggested upthread, they are perhaps a more statistically useful indicator of questionable driving skill. The more close calls you have, the more likely one of those close calls will eventually match up with an occasion when someone else isn’t paying attention either. And even if the accident is officially ruled someone else’s fault, that doesn’t mean you could not have avoided it.
I’ve been driving for 26 years. Two accidents, both times I was rear-ended at very low speeds by another driver, neither one involved visible damage or a police report.
My record includes 165,000 miles of motorcycle riding over the past 14 years; close calls in the saddle are also very rare for me because I made it a point to develop my riding skills and maintain a high level of situational awareness. I wear high-viz gear and have extra forward lighting; it’s very rare that people pull out in front of me in traffic. I recognize that things may be different for riders who dress head-to-toe in black leather and ride a bike with one small dim headlight out front.
The answer is yes. I don’t care if someone crashed into her every single time; it’s called watching the road. People do stupid shit, people fly around corners without yielding to oncoming traffic, people merge without signaling, people blow through stop signs. Pay attention. I’ve dodged a few accidents by being cautious of stupid jerks. If she’s not doing that, she’s a bad driver.
I’ll play devils advocate here for a sec…
I drive quite a bit (20K-25K mi a year mostly city) about once a month I see someone do something stupid that if I were to help things along would result in an accident that was not my fault. Several offramps in my town have bad visibility and cars tend to nose a couple feet across the line for a better view, if you sat and watched that intersection, its not uncommon for some folks to push that to 3+ feet which puts them into the cross traffic.
We also have a lovely no U turn spot. The no U turn rule is to provide cover for a protected right turn. I used to go through that protected right several times a day and stopped to avoid collisions with people making the illegal U turn on no less than 3 occasions.
If I had wanted to I could have easily plowed my honda ridgeline into one of those U turners…saw them coming every time and had several seconds to react. easily could have racked up plenty of insurance $.
If you are seeking it…people leave openings every day. Being pregnant or having kids in the car makes you look a heck of a lot less likely to be doing it on purpose, even if you are.
I think it depends on the circumstances. Just because a driver isn’t at fault doesn’t mean that driver couldn’t have done more to help avoid the collision. For instance, if you’re stopped at a red light and you get rear-ended, there’s nothing you could have done. But if someone clips you while in the process of cutting you off, it’s still their fault, but an aware driver might have swerved and/or adjusted speed to avoid the collision. In my 14 years or so of driving, I’ve avoided plenty of potential accidents because I was able to avoid that sort of situation or had a feeling someone might run a stop sign and took the extra precaution.
In my case, my car has been hit twice while I’ve been in it (and an additional 2 times while parked, which certainly can’t be blamed on me). One I was stopped at a red light and rearended fairly lightly, nothing I could do to avoid that. The other, it was stop and go traffic, I stopped and the guy two cars back just kept going and slammed the car behind me into me, nothing I could do there either. Those are the kind I don’t feel like could be used to say I’m a bad driver.
However, in the case of the OP, mentioning that most of them have not been getting rear-ended and have been head-on or side-swipes, I’m inclined to think that she probably isn’t very good, or is at least distracted enough that she’s missing the cues that might have helped her avoid those sorts of things. Chances are, a side-swipe might have been avoided if she’d observed an erratic or distracted driver and changed speed or changed lanes to get away from the driver, whereas distraction might have made her blind to those warning signs.
23 years of driving. Never an accident and never a scrape with a wall or pole or gate. The worst thing was I came back to my (rental) car and it had its bumper corner buckled in from a hit-and-run in a parking lot. I have had two windshields chip/crack from thrown rocks though.
1 ticket for driving on a sidewalk, however. The moment I saw that it was a sidewalk (about 10 feet onto it) and not a driveway around the KFC, I stopped and backed out, but the cop was not so forgiving.
So I say emphatically, Yes your friend is a bad driver.
Note that those were all back in the 1990s or thereabouts, so Chimera may well have improved since then.
With the person mentioned in the OP, I’d say she’s not necessarily a good driver; even if she wasn’t held at fault, being in that many accidents suggests she’s at the least not good at driving defensively. Also many accidents have some contribution by the “not at fault” party, even if they’re not officially cited.
I must be a bad driver. First, I am a woman. Secondly, I am always going somewhere. In 30 years, I have had 5 bad car accidents.
1- drunk driver pulled out in front of me on main road. Almost totaled my car
2- reaching for something, I ran off the road into a gully and slammed into a culvert…car spun and flipped.
3- Stupid me was 'playing with my new smart phone" and rear ended car in front of me
4- Was t-boned at an intersection as I was turning by an emotional woman whose husband had just died. Almost totaled the car. (Notice the ‘almost’ situations)
5- Lastly, and most sadly was yesterday. I was turning left in to a shopping center through three lanes of traffic during 5:00 traffic. The lanes closest to me opened up for me while traffic was at a standstill. The third lane farthest from me WAS CLEAR when I began my turn. At a very high speed, a young woman slammed into me, t-boned my BEAUTIFUL once-in -a-lifetime car. We have no info yet as to totaled or not. Both parties are ok, as luckily has been the case each time.
I think of myself as a good driver. I drive a lot. I am defensive. But, this has got to stop. Next house move will be to a remote part of the country where there isn’t any traffic. :(:smack:
#'s 2, 3 and 5 don’t look like good driving to me, and that’s more than half of your list.
I know it’s been four years, but you’re still wrong.
I was stopped in my lane due to traffic, and got rear ended so hard on the freeway that my car got pushed into the car in front of me. All three cars had damage, but mine was the worst.
Tell me, how could I have done better by “watching the road”? I watched quite well in my mirror as the car behind me didn’t slow down (because the driver was on the phone, of course) and rear ended me. The other lanes were full and moving. There was no where to go, nothing I could have done.
But according to you, I am a bad driver.
I’ve been driving since 1970 and had a few accidents, including two where I was rear-ended by the car behind me while sitting at a light. (I had been stopped for at least 20 seconds each time.) Never had a ticket for a moving violation in all that time.
One of my neighbors had a son in HS who was only a shade this side of being a genuine JD. He wrecked three cars in the six months right after he got his license. His mother bought him a brand-new muscle car the day he got his license, and then replaced each car with one slightly cheaper. (The fourth one may have ended up being a Fiat.) The surprising thing was how she would complain about the situation but ALWAYS insisted the wrecks were due solely to her son’s bad luck. (“The sun got in his eyes…”) All three were single-car accidents.
In my opinion, good drivers are those who protect the safety of themselves, their passengers, AND that of other drivers by driving sensibly and defensively. They must also be courteous to other drivers. Beyond that, I can only point out that many terrible drivers have never had an accident…yet.
No one seems to be remarking on this. Are we supposed to sue the at-fault person every time there is an accident? Is this normal?
Let’s see, in my 49 years on earth:
-My fault: slid on ice into a parked car
-My fault: turned left in front of a bicyclist (I didn’t see him and he had minor injuries)
-Both at fault: backed into a Mercedes that was illegally parked
-Not my fault: deer through windshield (deer was uninsured :D)
-Not my fault: rear-ended at high speed (stopped at red light)
-Not my fault: rear-ended at low speed (again at a red light)
-Not my fault: THREE times t-boned at 4-way stop (different sites, over 15-year span)
-Not my fault: hit by a drunk lady while I was parked (major body damage)
My BFF was involved in a bad car accident a few years ago. She wasn’t at fault, but she’s a really, really awful driver; she has no confidence behind the wheel and has had some close calls when I have been the passenger (the reason I refuse to drive with her anymore). She is vastly over-cautious and, in my IMHO, is on par with a reckless driver in many ways.
My list over 20 years of driving:
Rear-ended in a freeway multi-car pileup, not my fault. I saw the smoke of locked up tires in front of me, stopped barely in time, and was then whomped from behind by the next car that didn’t stop.
Sideswiped my basketball pole while backing out of my driveway, munching my fender. My fault.
Spun out off the road and into an embankment on a slushy mountain road. My fault. I was in a small car with cars stacked up behind me feeling pressured into driving faster than I should have been.
Chunk of ice fell off the bottom of a semi on the freeway, which I drove over and mangled my under-carriage. Not my fault.
Well, my opinion hasn’t really changed since 2012.
Interestingly, I was almost on the receiving end of the left-turner across multiple lanes of traffic not long ago. I was on a congested stretch of city highway (three lanes in each direction, not divided). An oncoming driver saw what she thought was a clear stretch of road to make her left turn and materialized directly in front of me without warning (I wasn’t able to see her because my view was blocked by the cars to my left, one of which apparently slowed to let her through). Luckily I was able to emergency brake in time to avoid a crash.
If you’re turning left across multiple lanes like that, you CANNOT depend on the kindness of strangers who can’t see you. Make your turn at a light, or buy part ownership in the local body shop.
See post #7. Yes, if you get injured suing is normal, to pay your deductible even if you have good insurance. I think they usually get settled out of court.
Sorry, mostly your fault. The other driver might be a jerk, but you can’t assume there is no car anywhere you might be heading. That’s what defensive driving is all about.
I used to drive a road where there were lots of deer. You need to be aware. If the deer broke from cover, maybe you’re not to blame, but if the deer is standing in a field or by the road, slow down. The deer won’t hit you unless it is feeling suicidal that day.
You didn’t see that they were not slowing down?
The drunk lady herself? She must have packed a wallop! 
My car got hit by a drunk once when it was parked on the lawn during a break when I was 800 miles away. You can’t get anymore not at fault than that. My insurance actually went down after it.
My last accident was when a woman who was busy driving around where she used to swerved into the turn land I was occupying and hit me. Her insurance paid my deductible, but I still partially blame myself because I noticed she was driving erratically and should have stayed well behind her.
Hell, if you’re responding to a four year old thread, I guess I can bump something a few days old.
I’ve never been wrong in my entire life, and I’m not going to start now.
Seriously, though, I didn’t say every accident was your fault. I’ve been backed into in a drive-thru with cars behind me. Talk about complete f-ing helplessness while someone just smashes into your car! But over *six *accidents? Really? Even if other people are at fault, you gotta be defensive and aware.
Yes, sometimes accidents are unavoidable, even for the most defensive driver in the world. But how many before you say, “Okay, maybe you can afford to drive a little more defensively.” Is six enough? I say so.