I’ll give odds of 10:1 that the guy was texting or talking on his cell.
Hey big fella!
Should be back in June, so get your act together 
W00T!
I’m looking forward to next June.
Allow me to be your tour guide.
I’m making a list 
I got the front page of the police report today. I was actually hit by a 19 year old girl.
Anybody want to take bets if she was updating face book, tweeting, texting, or talking with her BFF?
I doubt anyone here would take that bet.
I had to report a collision today - one of the first questions my insurance agency asked me was, “Were you talking on a cellphone? Were you texting on a cellphone?” Nope, and nope - I have no idea how people can possibly think they can drive while doing other things. My collision today was caused not by me not being a good enough driver, but by me not anticipating how bad another driver was (she pulled halfway into the driving lane from a parking lot and then just stopped).
Huh. I was hit by a 19 year old girl, talking on her cell phone (before the texting days, early 90’s). Almost killed, and totaled a damn fine, rare motorcycle.
So I’m confused, did the 19 yr old girl look like a man or was someone else climbing out the drivers door of her car?
I’m glad you’re OK, and I just wanted to say that this is a truly beautiful line:
Apparently between the pain and the distance (5-6 car lengths) I mis-identified the driver as a guy.
My bad.
They are still an asshole however.
Apologizing after causing a car accident can get you sued. It says right on every insurance card I’ve ever had to not admit fault at the scene. Hope you’re feeling better.
When you rear end a stopped car at at 65MPH there isn’t much you can say that will get you into more trouble. It was her fucking fault. Period.
Not necessarily from an insurance point of view.
For instance, were you stopped too close to the car in front of you? Were your brakes too worn to keep your vehicle stopped safely? Did you have your foot off your brake, depending on the clutch to keep you stopped? Did you have one or both brake lights out? Was there snow or rain or water or fog or bright sunlight or darkness that could have had an affect on her ability to stop?
None of these may apply in your situation, but there are all sorts of things that insurance companies will look for to determine who owes what share of fault. Especially, in a multi-car accident.
Yes, as a rear end collision accident she will own the lion share of the blame for hitting you, but you can expect that insurance comanies will look for anything they can to spread the blame (and cost).
That makes sense and agreed - I just wondered if they were trying shenanigans like claiming a passenger was the driver and got caught.
Sometimes it’s just pure stupidity that causes accidents. Thankfully this one had no injuries. From the South Dakota Highway Patrol’s Facebook page:
Last night at about 7:05 pm Mitchell Troopers were called to a non-injury crash on Interstate 90 near Mitchell, SD, in the construction zone. A eastbound vehicle was attempting to make a U-turn when it was struck by a westbound vehicle.
Couple years ago I traded my indestructible flipper phone for something smarter with a touch screen. I used to wonder what all the fuss was about with texting and driving because I could do it without ever taking my eyes off the road (I had the keypad memorized–there were only the 12 telephone buttons plus a couple cell phone buttons to the side). With my touch screen I can barely text while concentrating on the phone, and I can’t imagine it would be much easier using a slider with a full keyboard–I now see what all the fuss is about and am astonished people actually try it. May as well be taking a nap or driving with a blindfold on.
I was a passenger in a car where this happened just a few weeks ago. Fortunately, the traffic had been pretty stop and go for a while (a highway construction zone), so the speeds were already much lower. OTOH, that made the rear driver’s actions (or lack of them) even more inexcusable since she certainly knew and had known that the cars ahead of her were stopping and going.
Fortunately for everyone else, the driver that caused the whole thing was the only one injured, and she ended up being arrested. She had previously done something else (don’t know what) and her license had been suspended, so she had no business being behind the wheel in the first place.
On our last 12 day cross-country tour, people were driving along, doing the downwards head-bob of the texter all over the place. It’s ubiquitous.
Didn’t read the OP I see.
I was stopped 2-3 car lengths back from the car in front of me.
As far as the brakes go all new as of 7 months ago using top quality parts.
My foot was still on the brakes auto trans.
Brakes lights all functional. BTW Volvos inform the driver with a plain text message if a bulb is out, so I know the brake lights were good.
Very rarely does it rain or snow in Southern California in September.
Weather was warm and dry. I have never heard of sunlight causing an increase in stopping distance. I would remind you that everyone else was able to stop without hitting the car in front of them.
So despite your best efforts to paint me as the bad guy this was all her fault.
None of these may apply in your situation, but there are all sorts of things that insurance companies will look for to determine who owes what share of fault. Especially, in a multi-car accident.
Yes, as a rear end collision accident she will own the lion share of the blame for hitting you, but you can expect that insurance comanies will look for anything they can to spread the blame (and cost).
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That’s one interpretation, another is that they will conduct a thorough investigation to ensure liability is apportioned appropriately to all parties according to their culpability in the accident. Same wine, different bottle, I guess.
I have had defense attornies (working for MY insureds mind you) muse about playing the “sudden emergency” card. As in: had Rick been paying proper attention to traffic, he would not have had to stop so abruptly and thus he precipitated the accident…blah blah blah." And sure, academically it’s an approach worth considering–rarely. But I always play devil’s advocate against it because it cuts both ways: Yeah, maybe Rick did approach slowing/stopped traffic faster than we’d have liked, but he still managed to get stopped whereas my insured, arguably doing the same thing, did not. You play that card in trial and a jury will simply see it as a weasel move and the defendant is fucked. Which is not to say the jury always hangs the guy in back (and this is getting to my first post in this thread). Jury can do pretty much whatever the hell it wants when it comes to deciding liability and damages. On more than one occasion I’ve seen them screw the guy in front just because they didn’t like him. The jury can, on its own, decide Rick stopped too fast, or they can decide he wasn’t injured, or that he was injured but his treatment was overpriced or excessive, etc. thereby justifying a zero or very small award.