I think my cars have them. Around 2001 my Jeep Cherokee was rear-ended as I sat stopped on the freeway in traffic. (The girl who hit me was playing with her radio or something.) Up here in Washington, I was rear-ended in my first Prius twice in one week as I sat stopped in traffic on the freeway. I came home from work one day to find that someone had run into my Cherokee as it was parked in front of my house. It was shifted three feet over, and took out part of the fence.
Today I was in my second Prius, waiting to make a right turn out of the parking lot. Approaching drivers had an unobstructed view of me. A semi-trailer going to the cargo terminal stopped mostly past the parking lot exit. OK, he’s stopped. No oncoming traffic. Time to make my right turn. As I slowly moved forward, the truck driver shifted into reverse and started backing up. All I could do was lay on the horn. He did stop… after crunching my right-front fender.
Apparently the terminal gate was closed and there was a sign directing drivers to another gate. But the driver did not see the sign until after he was already committed. So he didn’t see the sign telling him to turn before he got to where he stopped, and he didn’t see me waiting in the exit for him to pass, and he didn’t see me when he decided to shift into reverse and start backing without looking.
Jumpin’ Jesus on a pogo stick! What is it about my vehicles that makes people want to run into them?
Anyway, my insurance is going to pay my claim, and I have an appointment with the collision repair place tomorrow. My insurance will contact/has contacted the blind Russian truck driver’s boss’s insurance company to get reimbursed.
I was driving a rented Hyundai Incognito, err, Sonata, a couple of weeks ago, and I’d swear the vehicle had active cloaking technology for the number of times I was nearly sideswiped, hit or run off the road. Didn’t help any that the car was pale ghostly silver.
Normally, I drive a stupid-large RED pickup (no lifts, oversized tires, etc. - it was just born big) and even that becomes transparent on occasion. But that Hyundai on Bay Area freeways was frightening.
There does seem to be some correlation between car color and being driven into. Personally, I think light beige/silvery cars are practically impossible to see during certain lighting conditions, and driving a white SUV in areas with lots of snow is a really bad choice. There is a reason why school buses are orange.
I once had a dark-blue car (CHevy Nova) and everybody hit it. The POLICE hit it. (They had good insurance.) People were always side-scraping or backing into that thing when it was parked. Fortunately, it was visible enough when underway.
A friend had a dark-blue car that had a similar problem, only people hit her when she was driving it also, and once I borrowed it and somebody hit me. He jumped out to see if he had done any damage (I was fine). There were so many gouges and scratches, I couldn’t tell, and I didn’t think my friend could, either.
I will say that up to that point I had blamed my friend’s driving for her woes. She was not a very good driver. But here’s what happened to me: I was going to parallel park and was signaling and waiting while the car that was in the place pulled out. This guy whipped around the corner, decided he had room to go around me, and it turned out, he didn’t.
I also had a silver-grey car that essentially wasn’t safe in any public parking venue.
But now I have a dark-blue car and aside from a couple of door dings, it’s been fine.
From 2001-2012, I had a black Hyundai Santa Fe. Someone hit it about once every 2 years. Including one month before I traded it in.
One time, it was in the body shop for an accident, and someone hit the rental car.
I’ve had less trouble since I got rid of that thing.
I had a work truck, a 1999 GMC Suburban outfitted as a TV microwave transmission truck that was hit on average every 3 months or so. And truly never my fault. Ended up buying a dash cam to protect myself from blame.
Used to call it the asshole magnet.
These days I have had plenty of close calls and 1 impact in my ‘new’ company car, a Ford Explorer that I have had for a year. Still use the dash cam. Still helps.
Oh, both vehicles are white in my case. City of operation, DC.
They have been changing so quickly the only thing I can recommend is to find a nice, independent blog and find out what the latest and best is.
I have been using a Lukas LK 7900 Ara on my work truck and I am quite happy with the results. It’s the night video that’s hardest to capture, and a Lukas uses a Sony CMOS chip which is pretty good.
I blame the fact that the smart is so much smaller than most cars for the number of times I’ve had to aggressively swerve out of someone’s way as they try to move into the same space I occupy. My husband has been rear-ended in it twice. So far I’ve managed to avoid being smooshed, but it’s provided me with additional ammunition in my ongoing argument with my husband over a motorcycle.
At least if we fail to swerve fast enough in the Smart there is a pretense of protection.
My daily driver is a classic 2 seater sports car. I bought my first one about a year ago and drove it for three months before I was T-boned by an old woman in a big Cadillac with Florida plates (the trifecta of bad driver stereotypes). It totaled the car. It took several months to get the insurance payout and locate another car of the same year and model. I bought the replacement in October of last year. I December I was run off the road by an inattentive driver. Significant suspension damage and minor body damage, but not totaled. It was in the shop for 3 months because it takes time to locate parts for a 30 year old vehicle. I’ve had it back now for about a month, maybe other people will let it live this time.
After a period of time where people ran into my car about once a year by driving into the back of it while it was stopped, I had a new accident. My car was apparently invisible to a woman who was (according to her) waiting at a stop sign and she came right across my path. I swerved to avoid t-boning her car, but we both ended up smashed into a light pole. She said she didn’t see me. My car was brown. I eventually received an insurance settlement for my injuries, pain and suffering.
Since that time I have insisted on having a bright-colored car. Yellow if I can get it, or at least red. The car I’m driving now is old and unreliable, but it’s a really, really bright bronze/yellow color that they don’t even make any more. The person who says he/she doesn’t see it would have to be blind.
The truck driver’s insurance agent just called. She said his statement (‘He couldn’t go through and backed up’) and my statement (‘As I began to make my turn he started backing up’) matched. She said she sees no problem with the claim. My insurance company will pay the collision center, and the truck driver’s insurance company will pay my insurance company.
Someone hit me twice in the same accident. Turning right-on-red onto busy highway, the pickup to my left – who could not go “straight on red,” of course – nevertheless pulled forward, blocking my view of traffic oncoming from my left. I rolled forward-and-right a few feet so I could see around him, almost sticking my nose into the merge lane, and stopped.
WHAM WHAM! Two stunning blows to the back of my Festiva almost pushed me out into traffic.
The driver behind me had hit me two times. Reconstructing the accident, I figure she thought I’d spotted a gap in traffic, decided she could squeeze in if she stayed nailed to my ass, floored it, then looked back over her left shoulder for the gap. When I stopped, she has lead-footed the accelerator and wasn’t looking at me…hit me, bounced back, peeled out and hit me again.
I was perhaps under the influence of adrenaline when we both jumped out of our cars.