Glad to hear you survived relatively unscathed, Coldie. Nonetheless, please remember to include with the remittance to Mr. BrakeHappy the ever popular bumpersticker here in Silicon Valley:
I brake for no apparent reason.
The only one that might suit him better is:
I brake for hallucinations.
The other day I was riding to work on my pushbike, and my wife was riding behind. There’s a particular set of lights that when the first one goes green, you need to go like fuck to get through, so that you catch green at all the rest. Otherwise, you get caught by each of them going red which is a pain in the arse. So to give us a margin, we usually hang back from the first red, then rush at it so that we reach it just as it goes green (by timing our run from watching the lights the other way) so that we have the speed up to get through all the lights. Does this all make sense?
So anyway, we are doing our trick and as I arrive at the line, the light is still red. Now this light is to allow buses to out of a side tunnel and turn onto the road we are on. They are notorious for coming through late on the lights and you can’t see them very well because they come out of the tunnel. So with this in mind, I think “Shit, the light hasn’t changed, I’m not going through on the red”. So I brake slightly. And my wife hits me from behind, and falls off. Not much harm done, but she’s mad as all hell at me for slowing for no reason (the light did change to green a fraction of a second after I brake) and without warning.
Frankly, it was my call. I wasn’t prepared to go through a red light and I’d make the same decision again. My wife’s bruised leg could have been a dead Princhester if I’d been hit by a bus. It’s my decision to be cautious.
I’m glad you’re alright Coldfire, but I can’t agree with you calling the other driver names. It was his call. He’s free to stop if he wants. He shouldn’t be under pressure to make his decision about proceeding through the intersection on the basis that if he doesn’t go, you will hit him from behind.
I’ll go away now.
The only reason I have an issue with your posts is because you’ve called the guy “brainiac”, “mr. BrakeHappy”, and “idiot”. He’s not an idiot for stopping. You’re an idiot for rearending someone because you weren’t being careful and paying attention.
Oh, you’re right. The guy must not have paid attention in driver’s ed; he forgot the rule that says you can’t brake in front of a motorcyclist, because they will rear-end you if you do. You’re ragging on a new driver for being cautious. Wonderful.
No problem. But on my way out I’ll try *doubly *hard not to look out for any idiots who might go crazy and use the brakes; wouldn’t want to rear-end anyone.
well i just got my car written off. morning rush hour and i’m driving along busy road and i got distracted by a pedestian in the middle of the road trying to cross. once past them i suddenly see the car in front is stopped at a pedestrian crossing and slam on the brakes. i think “shit i’ve hit the bugger” but by some minor miracle my car stops about half a foot short and for half a second i feel releif. this is only half a second we’re talking about here however, as it is followed by a massive thump up my behind, and, rather ironically, i am pushed into the car in front.
thing is i cant remember why i didnt see the car in front of me stopped sooner? had it just stopped as the lights changed? or had it been waiting there while i passed the pedestrian (who was pretty fecking stupid trying to cross a busy road 20 metres from a crossing). i dunno i feel pretty bad for the guy behind me - yeah he shouldnt have been so close behind perhaps but everyone drives quite close packed in the rush hour. but i suppose he wasnt paying attention enough either as he must just have been following my speed not looking what was happening further ahead.
What is your major malfuntion, LoverBoy? Let me sum it up for you:[ul][li]I know that I will always be at fault when I rearend someone, no matter what circumstances. I have acknowledged this several times in this thread, including the OP.[/li][li]The reason I refer to the Suzuki driver with derogatory names, is because he started accelerating onto a completely deserted road, only to then step on his brakes and come to a full stop for no fucking reason whatsoever. If you do this sort of shit routinely, and consider it safe driving, you too shall be rearended one day. And luckily for you, you will not be at fault. :rolleyes:[/li][li]As said previously, the collision occured because I looked right at the moment he accelerated, and therefore did not see him brake. The lesson learned, thusly, is: always watch the car in front of you. That doesn’t mean I don’t think the guy’s a fucking idiot for accelerating, and then stopping. He IS. It just means I should have been anticipating better. [/ul]So, in summation: the guy WAS an idiot for stopping under these circumstances, especially since he had already begun accelerating towards a completely deserted road. I have no idea why this is so difficult to grasp, and seeing as you’re the only one asking dumb questions here, I guess I’m explaining it clearly enough for everyone else.[/li][/quote]
In other news, I just got off the phone with the girl who was in the car last night. Turns out the car’s in her name. She had “a mechanic” look at the car, and he told her “it would cost about NLG 1500 to fix with second hand parts”. The retail value of this particular 1985 Suzuki Swift is between NLG 1000 and NLG 1500, a quick Internet search reveals. No fucking WAY, missie. Your bumper is slightly pushed down on the right hand side. That doesn’t mean I’m gonna pay for the entire value of your POS car. And if I do, I’ll just do it by the official insurance way, so an expert will no doubt declare your car a total loss IF the costs are anywhere NEAR those NLG 1500 (I’m guessing the real figure is more like NLG 400 to NLG 500, and she’s just trying to get some money out of it since I said I wanted to keep the insurance out of it). Little bitch.
So was the boyfriend insured to drive ? just asking out of concern for the law…
Well, apart from the details - I didn’t actually hit, and the sudden & unmotivated braker was on a bike. (A Suzuki, btw.)
But yeah, it’s classic: Eyes adverted, another trafficant does something unpredictable and gets in my way, slam brakes, lose control, balance, paint finish & lots of self-respect (in that order). Adrenalin gets bike upright again, and pretty damn quick, too.
Bummer of enourmous bummitude. But WTF, everybody owes a spill and one you can ride away from is just Fate tapping you ever-so-gently on the shoulder.
S. Norman
:mad: same sort of thing happened to Dad and Mom. Some idiot in a sunfire decided to pass my father, using the same lane he was in because he was driving to the inside of said lane. He then decided to follow the young lady, help her out of the car, and oh so kindly advise her never to fucking do that again.
They were in mid-city traffic, not as bad as it could have been on, say, a highway, but idiots like that still manage to kill people.
Dang, Coldie! You hardly ever hear about a bike hitting a car!
Sorry about the bike. You know I love my Seca II (which to everyone else is what the Diversion is called in the U.S.). Fairly fast, fairly maneuverable, inexpensive to buy and own, and it even looks good.
The fuel could have leaked out of the vent in the top of the tank. It’s the little hole with the rubber gasket behind the filler hole.
A similar thing happened to me several years ago. I was in my 1966 MGB that my mom had bought new. When I got the car it wasn’t running. I had the engine overhauled and the faded red interior was re-done in black. The chalky white paint was replaced with MG’s “vermillion”, which I called “bright orange”. The nice chrome grille gleamed. I was at a stop sign behind an El Camino with a screen in the rear window. Brain lady pulled into the westbound lane to make a left and I pulled up to the line. She was waiting for eastbound traffic to clear and then saw westbound traffic approaching. So she selected reverse and quickly backed up to her original position – where I happened to be. My bumper was okay, but I needed a new grille and bumper overriders. She was at fault, and her insurance company paid for my damages.
Unfortunately, your crash was your fault (as you have admitted). Even though the guy in front of you stopped suddenly for no reason, in the U.S. the police would say “Driver number two (you) was following too close to stop in time to avoid a collision.”
Motorcycle Riders’ Rule #1: People in cars will try to kill you if they have the opportunity. You have to watch them constantly. It can be difficult at intersections because you need to watch other things than the four-wheeler.
Oh well. You’re okay, the bike’s okay, no one was hurt. Chalk it up to experience. Trust no one in a car.
And have fun on that bike! 
I guess that has to be just about everybody with a motorcycle’s first accident.
I was tooling along, having just recently pulled out from a red light on a busy city road. I looked at something off to the left, just for a moment, and when I look back in front of me everyone’s just stopped. Being new at this whole two-wheeled thing, I hit the brakes a little hard, and lost traction on the front wheel, causing the bike to pitch over. I slid into the back of the car in front of me, causing a little scratch on their bumper, and a big scratch on my tank. The scary part of the whole thing was that when I fell off the bike, I rolled into the travel lane on my right. Luckily there wasn’t a car about to occupy that particular place at that particular time, or I’da been squashed.
featherlou’s rules are pretty much right on the money, except that I’d combine Rules #2 & 3 into “Always Assume People Will Do Stupid Things.”
About a month after I’d bought my first car - brand new and putting me seriously out of pocket - I took a trip up north to see my friends.
One four hour drive later, I arrived safely and most entertained with my acceleration. My friends were suitably impressed.
We had more friends coming via the train, so I volunteered to pick them up. Unfortunately the no-through-road my friends lived in was very tight, so it took a looong time to complete the 7 million point turn required.
Still - job done. Other friends picked up from train station. Returned to first friends’ house.
Brain wave - I’ll reverse into their road to avoid the later awkward manoevering.
This successfully accomplished (hah! You thought I was going to crash!), I returned indoors. News - more friends to be picked up. Will I do it? Well, I’ve now done about 5 hours driving in the day, but I love my new car so of course!
Drive to station, pick up friends, stop on way home to pick up beer. Get back to road. Decide to reverse in again.
Unfortunately it is by now 5:30pm on Friday evening and the main, main road I need to reverse from is busy. I’ll need to be quick.
A gap! Quick! Erm, vision out of the rear is crap in the sports car and three friends cramped in the back don’t help - but hey! I’m young and indestructible, right?
Wrong. I shove my foot on the accelerator and reverse straight and fast into a car that has just parked where I was going to go.
Well, by the time I allow for loss of NCDs and so forth, I estimate that business cost me about £1,500 (or over $2,000).
Of course I was mad as hell at the time, but now I’m profoundly grateful for learning some of the cardinal rules of the road at an absurdly cheap price:
Patience. Never let anyone hurry you into completing a manoever. They can wait. Do it at your own pace
Humility. Don’t take on the difficult (that was a bastard of a road to reverse into off a main road) when the easy will do. Don’t overestimate your own abilities.
Self-control. Know when you are too tired to drive. Know when to say no.
The way I see it, I really needed to learn these lessons. Who knows - maybe if I hadn’t learned them then, I’d now be dead.
I’d try to see your accident the same way Coldie. You just learned some key lessons for the bargain sum of money only. Congratulations.
pan
Thanks for your kind thoughts and suggestions, guys.
London: yeah, the boyfriend’s OK to drive as long as his girl gives him permission, and he has a valid license.
Spiny: Well, at least you managed not to hit the other party, which would have meant a big difference for me. Like NOT having to go over there tonight to fill out the damn insurance papers because little miss greedy decided to try and cash in on an accident in which her car suffered almost no damage. 1500 Guilders, my ass. We’re gonna do it the official way, and if the damage is REALLY 1500, the car is a total loss, as my insurance agent said it has a current value of NLG 1000. So that’s the max I have to pay. I can then always decide to repay the insurance company, so my premium stays the same. I’m not happy about a thousand guilders damage, but I’d rather pay that than making this girl 1500 guilders richer because she thinks she can take advantage of the situation.
I took the bike to a Yamaha dealer, and it was fine. A few scratches on the exhaust, and on the fairing (very small ones, luckily). The steering bar is slightly bend, and needs replacing. Luckily, the fork was fine (them’s expensive bits). I’m gonna take it over there for maintenance on Thursday, and it’ll get a new chain (needs that too, not crash-related) and a new steering bar (NLG 100, tops). All in all, no big drama there.
So I went to the bike accessory shop afterwards, and got me some long thermal underwear, a Yamaha keychain, chain spray, and new winter gloves. And then I took the new kit out for a 2 hour ride.
Yup, it’s still fun, and I’m not scared riding it. Good. Let’s hope the costs of this new hobby of mine drop soon, it’s been quite expensive so far, if you calculate a per-kilometer-cost. 
Kabbes, I did something very similar, except I didn’t hit anything; I just put on a show of idiocy for innocent bystanders. I was trying to get into a parking garage downtown, and realized that I had missed the in-ramp, so I slam on the brakes, throw it in reverse, see cars coming towards me in my rear view, and accelerate like mad to get back to the ramp. I didn’t have the steering wheel straight, so my car veers towards the other lane, I over correct and smash into the curb. All done at a high rate of speed for backing up. Complete with screeching tires and loud crashing sounds when I ran into the curb. The attendant at the parking lot, who had a front row seat to my dumb-ass driving, didn’t say anything to me. I think he was too stunned by my display of driving skills.
[/dumb-ass driving hijack]
Wish I could have seen that featherlou. I would’ve been smiling for a week.
Hey - at least you got your lesson for free, eh?
pan
Anecdote time, eh? OK, I was driving home from work, my usual everyday route, when I notice a car stopped in the left hand lane, with two cars waiting behind, and NO oncoming traffic…no big deal, I have to brake a little more quickly, but it’s ok…except for…the sloppy assed drunken idiot behind me who just came out of the local tav and thinks he’s Michael Andretti in his Toyota truck. He hit me full force, pushing me into the car in front of me, totalling my pickup, putting my head through the rear window and of course, his face through his windshield.
Luckily, I just got a few stitches in my head and no other injury. The sight of seeing the cops haul him away all bloody in handcuffs was pretty gratifying, but it still pisses me to no end that the absolute bitch in the first car was stopped in traffic for NO REASON other than sheer stupidity. She even had the utter gall to go ahead and turn left AFTER the crash…fucking asshole!!! To top it off, the drunk was held solely to blame and she wasn’t even questioned. FUCK!
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Coldfire *
[li]The reason I refer to the Suzuki driver with derogatory names, is because he started accelerating onto a completely deserted road, only to then step on his brakes and come to a full stop for no fucking reason whatsoever. If you do this sort of shit routinely, and consider it safe driving, you too shall be rearended one day. And luckily for you, you will not be at fault. :rolleyes:…**[/li][/QUOTE]
If you had some impartial witnesses to this monumental lack of driving skills you might have gotten off the hook. I will relate an event that I once witnessed.
We are all sitting at a red light. I am three cars back. The light turns green. The first and second cars begin to move. For no apparent reason (to put it politely), the first car jams on its brakes and the second cars ploughs into its rear bumper. I stop in time to avoid the clusterfuck and pull to the curb. I hop out of my car and flourish one of my calling cards as I approach the driver of the second car. I mention quite loudly (as is my wont) that what I witnessed was erratic driving, that the driver of the first car stopped for no valid reason and how I would be happy to testify accordingly in open court.
At this point the first car’s driver (whom I strongly suspect of trying to pull some variant of the classic swoop and squat) sheepishly gets back into his car and trundles off. End of problems for the driver of the second car and I am out only three minutes of my time.
Coldie, the only thing that you lacked was impartial witnesses. If you had been able to produce them you might have been able to introduce such testimony in court in order to show that Mr. Happy Brakes was driving erratically and was, in fact, responsible for the entire incident. Sadly, this was not the case but I would not be so hard on myself in the same situation. Next time, make sure that you have an audience!
[sup]NOTE: ALL OBSERVATIONS SUBJECT TO STRICTURES OF LOCAL ORDINANCE AND CIVIL CODE. YOUR LIABILITY MAY VARY.[/SUP]
Further proof that some people should be forced to put signs on their cars:
“I Brake for No Apparent Reason”
“Idiot on board”
“dumb moving vehicle”
“Honk if you’d love Jesus to take me right now”
Glad you’re ok. That’s all that really matters to us.
b
Coldie - It must be one of those days… it’s good to hear that you came out of this okay and that your ride isn’t seriously damaged. It’s a nice looking machine, even if it is a Yamaha.
So I was on my way to the tailor’s this afternoon and as it turned out some guy thought that I too brake for no apparent reason.
I was merging onto the freeway and actually had to come to a complete stop as there was just no way I could merge into what was a solid wall of traffic. If I had been driving my rather perky car as opposed to my turtle slow van there still wouldn’t have been a way to get into the traffic flow without causing a pileup.
Just as soon as the traffic cleared up I planted my foot in it to get my van up to speed and this guy who shall be referred to as “fuckwit” decides he has to go around me on the fucking passenger side. The only problem with this is there isn’t enough room for him to get by me on my passenger side.
It was way too close and “fuckwit” felt the need to lay on the horn to demonstrate his displeasure of having to run his car up on the curb to avoid hitting me FROM BEHIND.
We’re talking road rage here. If I hadn’t been with the kids I would have at least been able to swear a little. My initial urge was to follow this guy home and kick the ever loving shit out of him.
I watched fuckwit drive on down the road ahead of me switching from lane to lane in an attempt to get through the wall of traffic that made me stop in the first place and almost hit another motorist.
And to think I want to drive a bike in this city full of fuckwits… what am I thinking?
I stopped reading after the part about Coldie putting on his leathers. I want to retain that vision in my brain for a LONG time.
(Glad to hear everything’s OK. BTW, I am a massage therapist, so just tell me where it hurts and I will make it all better again. What, it doesn’t hurt anywhere? Don’t be a goofball, c’mon over here and get your free rub down. Coupon redeemable at next LA or Amster-Dope Fests.)
I’m not the world’s best (or safest) driver, but I do have a firm rule that I leave lots of extra space between myself and a motercycle when I’m following. It’s common sense. Bikers are infinitely more vulnerable, and I don’t want someone’s death on my hands.
So I’m driving down the FDR (very busy NYC higway) and it’s PACKED. Everyone’s going 40-50mph, with 1-1.5 carlengths between them. And a very unhappy biker. For some unknown reason he nerges into my lane directly ahead of me, and I back off immediately to a safer following distance. He seems much happier.
A little while later, he pulls out into the left lane next to me. Almost immediately, there is a three-car accident directly in front of us, which blocks the right and middle lanes. I stop in time, he stops next to me, obviously worried that the accident was going to keep moving into his lane. Once everyone is stopped, the SUV behind him start honking for him to proceed through the still-partially-open left lane. He thinks for a moment, then waves me (in the completely blocked middle lane) ahead of him. I go through, he comes after me…
And the rest of traffic is stopped, because the SUV can’t fit through the partially blocked lane.
A gentleman, he was. And good karma paid off.
mischievous