20 years driving
3 speeding tickets
1 went-through-red-light-and-felt-like-I-had-a-good-excuse-but-really-it-was-a-stupid-excuse
1 accident, not my fault
Driving since 1990.
No accidents, other than the incident in HS where I had a car that tended to stall when it first started. Left the house to go to school, hit the gas harder than I should have to keep it running in the turn around, skidded on some gravel and ran the car up the hill to my left. I’m actually glad it went that way, because if I’d gone the other way, I would probably have ended up inside a house.
1 parking ticket (Atlanta, MARTA station for an incident that still irritates me, not because I didn’t deserve the ticket - I did, and I paid it - but because I was on a pay phone, in tears, at night (in a portion of the station that was, in fact, well lit and I was obviously in tears) - MARTA cop looked at me, wrote the ticket, and drove off without checking to see if I was ok)
Pulled over twice. Once I wasn’t speeding, but when I saw the cop I braked, which I’m sure made it look like I was speeding and freaked when I noticed him. I wasn’t, he knew I wasn’t, and all was good. The other time I was coming up from Gulfport to Jackson MS on a Friday evening, looking forward to getting home after a week on the road. I was flying, going probably 80 in a 65, and I was at the front of a group of cars. Crested the hill, and there he was. I didn’t even try to brake - there was no chance I was going to get away with it and I was already planning my call to my boss (I was driving a company car at the time). The lights came on, I pulled over…another car pulled over behind me, thinking the cop was pulling her over. We both got waved on without him (or her) getting out of the car. The girl that had also pulled over pulled up beside me, rolled down her window and said “What was that??”. I didn’t speed the rest of the way home.
Let’s see.
1991: Got license.
1999: Speeding ticket in speedtrap town in Idaho.
1999: Slide off an icy Interstate-90 and through a barbwire fence in Blue Earth, MN. No flat tires, but several thousand damage to my SUV. (oops, didn’t even have the 4x4 on!)
2000: Speeding ticket a few blocks from where I lived in Montana. I had just stopped a few blocks prior, so I was probably speeding for less than a block.
2002: Rear-ended by another car, which in turn pushed my car into a third vehicle while in Virginia Beach. Other driver was at fault but the insurance company was hell to deal with. Total claims over $10,000 for damage for my car alone. No injuries.
2003: Ticket for going through a blinking red light at 3am in Maryland without stopping because I momentarily confused what to do at a blinking red light with what to do at a blinking yellow light. The ticketing officer claims I almost hit him. Bad timing!
2005: Another car hit my car while I was parked at work. (On a Saturday no less, when the parking lot is 95+% empty!) Fortunately, the other person left a note and her insurance paid the ~$1,000 to fix my car.
2006: (Just yesterday.) I tapped a car with my front bumper, causing a couple small scratches from the bolts that hold the license plate on. The other car’s rear bumper already had some other scratches and scrapes, so hopefuly the driver will not pursue this. That would be my first at-fault car accident.
Between 16 and 18, I was hell on wheels. My step father believed all cars should have as big an engine that will fit under the hood and most I drove were that tyep. I got 4 speeding tickets and was involved in 3 accidents, all my fault. The speeding were all for about 10 over and in Washington at the time, minors only had to pay a $3 fine. Accident #1 happened when I was driving way too fast and slid through a stop sign and hit a 57 Cadillac in the driver’s door. This happened in a 428 powered 64 Mercury Comet. Accident #2 happened when I ran a red light (girlfriend and I were having an argument over something stupid) while driving my mother’s 68 Pontiac Grand Prix. I hit an old guy driving a 63 Chevy pickup in the right rear wheel and almost knocked the rear end out of the truck. 5 minutes after the accident a young blonde gal drove around a guy guiding traffic around the accident scene and hit the truck’s rear end, this smashed up the front end of her little Datsun. I got a failure to yield ticket and mandatory driving school. The blonde gal’s parents sued my mom and stepfather but lost in court, the judge said she was at fault for the damage to her car.
Accident #3 happened when I slid on some black ice and hit a kid that had stopped in the middle of the road to let a buddy pull out of a gas station. Messed up the front end of a 62 Falcon, I had just put the engine in it a few weeks earlier. Got another failure to yield ticket and had my license suspended for 90 days, I spent most of the suspension time in Navy boot camp so it didn’t affect me much. Since then I got one speeding ticket in 1979 after a small town incorporated and lowered all the speed limits. Since then I have been a model citizen behind the wheel, never a ticket nor have I been pulled over.
I’ve been driving since 1970 or so.
Three accidents
The first was around 1972. I was driving out to see “Duck Soup” in winter when the light turned red in front of me. I hit the brakes: black ice. I couldn’t move into the other lane because there was a car next to me, so I tried to slow down using the breaks. When he cleared me, I spun out, stopping on the roadway turned all the way around.
While I’m trying to get out of it, another car comes along and hits the black ice. It spins like me, but doesn’t get all the way around. I remember watching it turn sideways and slam into the front of my car, then bounce off.
His BMW had a badly dented door. My old Chevy Nova had a bent license plate.
This was before official no-fault insurance, but in this case is was no one’s fault. I ended up filling out an accident report, but it didn’t affect my insurance, probably because he didn’t make a claim.
Second was in the 80s. I had just turned a corner when a teenager came running out from behind a car. Luckily, I was only going about 5 mph, so she was unhurt.
Third was a couple of years ago. I was driving when a minivan tried passing me, smashing my side view mirror. No claim, since the other guy paid for a new one.
After I got my licence at 17 I had these accidents in the next 2 years or so:
Run into by the turning car I was giving way to.
Reversed into by an impatient driver in a line of cars.
Twice t-boned at traffic lights by cars failing to give way. Both cars I was driving written off.
Rear of car ploughed into while I was parked sitting in the car talking to someone through the window. The other drivers excuse - he was looking back to see how he had nearly hit someone the day before.
The nothing until a couple of years ago when I was hit from behind at low speed by a truck.
As far as driving offences go I have been booked 4 times in 36 years and consider every one of them BS.
The first was many years ago and I was booked for doing 120 in a 110 zone at 3 AM on a deserted multilane highway with all my passengers asleep.
I was then booked 3 times from 1/1/2004 to 1/1/2005 by speed cameras on public holidays (NYD twice and Easter) again on virtually deserted multilane roads. On each occassion I was in the car with my son, chatting away, in no hurry to get where we were going.
Now I basically drive everywhere on cruise control since adjusting your speed to the conditions is too risky.
I’ve been driving for sixteen years with not a single accident, and only one ticket for not wearing my seatbelt.
Up until two years ago I drove daily, with five of those going out of state every weekday. You’d think I was lucky, but I’m really just very careful! I’ve narrowly avoided dozens of accidents…and deer crossings.