Gaming World Forums
General Category => General Talk => Topic started by: VinceP on August 21, 2008, 03:25:46 am
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Yes. Today, it finally happened. I couldn't believe it. It was one of those things where you just think "that sort of thing just won't happen to me". Then it happens.
First, let's just clear this up. I'm 17 years old, and I don't have my license yet. I'm driving on a learner's permit. I should have my license within another month.
The irony of this just amazes me. I was driving (with my grandfather as passenger) to driving school. I come to an intersection which is maybe 3 minutes away from my house. I'm doing the speed limit, 35 mph. I'm a good driver; I don't speed, and I have yet to make a major mistake. So the light at the intersection is green. I drive on through, minding my own business. As soon as I pull out past the white line at the beginning of the intersection, the light turns yellow. Well, my town is covered in those god damned red-light cameras, which takes a picture of you if you run a red light. I was worried I wouldn't make it in time so I push hard on the accelerator. I'm probably going 45 through a yellow light.
There's a woman on the opposite side of the intersection, getting ready to make a left turn. I saw her, and I saw her turn signal. I obviously had the right of way. The next thing I know, this woman makes her turn WAY too early, doesn't yield; doesn't even LOOK at me at ALL. She pulls right in front of me as I'm doing 45 trying to beat the light. When I see her, it's too late. I slam on the brakes and swerve to the right, hoping to slide the car to the side and avoid collision. But nope.
I run right into the side of her car. My right headlight is destroyed and the bumper is dented and mangled. My car had to be towed away; she was able to drive her's home just fine.
Being the noble guy that I am, I immediately threw my car into park and jumped out, which was a stupid thing to do now that I think of it. I could've been injured and not realized it. I run up to the woman and ask if she's okay; she is. I'm fine, too. The police come, time passses, and she is eventually charged with failure to yield. I wasn't at fault, and I'll still be able to get my license without delay. Luckily, there was a cop just a few cars away when it happened, who saw everything. If it wasn't for him, I would be the first to blame, since I'm the teenage driver without a license.
Now I have to deal with all these damn legal issues. People will be calling me asking for what happened, I have to make statements, and I'll probably have to appear in court. All because some dumbass woman didn't feel like looking straight fucking ahead of her. 90% of driving, I've learned, is being able to predict other people's mistakes on the road.
Still, it could be worse, and I'm thankful no one got hurt. So what bad driving experiences have you guys had?
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I get my license in 8 days actually, but thankfully I havent gotten into an accident yet. I think its a matter of when it will happen, not if - even if its not your fault. Theres plenty of idiots out there not looking where they are going, I can vouch for that for sure.
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Goddamn that sucks man, that must have been scary! Luckily I haven't had an accident yet, although I've had some close calls, once I even pulled into a parking lot and sat there for a minutes because I was all shaken up.
Do you know how much it's gong to cost to repair your car?
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You're mad lucky a cop was there man. I am 16 with a permit, going to take the test month. I am fucking scared as fuck about my upcoming first accident.
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My own first accident was ironic. I finally had the liberty of living on my own, alone, as I prefer to be. Not being the Alpha Male in one's own home as an adult is torture. Anyway, I was driving along the main street of my hometown as I had for five years in various vehicles, and I stopped at a red light I was all too familiar with, a sturdy Subaru SUV in front of me. One moment, I was singing along to what at the time was the new Depeche Mode album, the next, I was eating airbag. I just stayed in the car and laughed through my nosebleed and the airbag until I cried. Some crazy driver had hit me at thirty-five miles an hour from behind, and because my foot had slipped off the brake, my vehicle was smashed front and rear at the stop light.
Fortunately, the SUV in front managed to only have a bit of a bent fender and the offending party suffered no serious damage as well. Unfortunately for me, my little 1993 Ford Taurus looked like trash and I got to take a sick day from work, which made me seem irresponsible.
Naturally, I thought all was over and I would get the insurance pay-out for a totaled car. But my father back-stabbed me and took the whole pay-out since the insurance and title were still dually named from when I was a minor. Seeing as I was already cutting it close on my salary, I decided to fix my car all by myself and take my own father to a small claims court, where I was briefly pwned.
Needless to say, my first accident taught me not to trust even my own father with my money, and that soppy people who can't cry while driving are dangerous. That, and it gave me time to figure out how to properly cannibalize one totaled car to get another running. Being a distant relative to some reliable junkers, it didn't take long or cost much. Thats the way life is for a popular, upstanding county denizen where I hail from.
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First rule of traffic safety: Always assume everyone else is retarded.
This has saved my life a few times.
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First rule of traffic safety: Always assume everyone else is retarded.
This has saved my life a few times.
Here, here! And to think I had the balls to drive a motorcycle before I even touched a car makes me wonder.
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the only accident I've ever been in was a single car accident (I dropped a cigarette in my lap and grazed the cap end of a guard rail)
didnt do much damage to the rail but completely tore away my right front fender and scratched along the whole right body of the car. That was a 3000 dollar body repair job chrisssttttt. actually I'm really still feeling the financial drain since that. I've had to really budget my money tightly since then and I will never really get to be free with my money ever again (just applied for student loans today ughhh)
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That sucks but dude at least you're not at fault. It would be much much worse to have gotten something like that on your record.
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I had my first car crash when I was 16. And yup, it was my fault. But shit happens man, don't worry. The best thing is that you're fine. :)
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I've been in a couple of crashes but I've been lucky not to have one of my own yet. Don't plan to either!
And yeah, some people are criminally stupid/ignorant when it comes to driving.
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Wait... you were doing 45 in a 35? How are you not somewhat to blame for this? Did the cop see you going 45?
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Today, I Had My First Car Crash
This is not a good thing to say
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90% of driving, I've learned, is being able to predict other people's mistakes on the road.
Dude it's a valuable lesson and you are lucky to learn it early on!
The horn in my car doesn't work and there have been several times where some dumbass runs a stopsign or something and I have to make some serious evasive maneuvers but cannot communicate with the other car due to not having a horn :(
I also backed into a friend's car once and damaged his bumper very slightly (oh no!)
I also ran off the road once when I was much younger and too busy fiddling with my music to look at the road. I went soaring through the air, over a ditch, and landed in a cornfield. My car and I were fine but I have been a much more attentive driver ever since. It probably should have turned out much worse.
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Wait... you were doing 45 in a 35? How are you not somewhat to blame for this? Did the cop see you going 45?
I dont' think so. :)
45 is just an estimation, though. The point is I was just going faster to make sure I cleared the light. Because of that, if I hadn't hit the brake at the moment I did, someone probably would've gotten hurt colliding at those speeds.
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I dont' think so. :)
45 is just an estimation, though. The point is I was just going faster to make sure I cleared the light. Because of that, if I hadn't hit the brake at the moment I did, someone probably would've gotten hurt colliding at those speeds.
Well, a cop cannot pull you over for speeding if he does not have some sort of way to prove you were speeding. This could be either by hitting you with a radar gun or by simply looking at his speedometer, as cops typically drive 10+ over the speed limit themselves for this purpose. If he was stopped, he would have no frame of reference by which to give you a ticket that would hold up if you decided to contest it. Secondly, due to differences in speedometers on cars, you are typically given a 7mph leeway over the speed limit before a cop will pull you over. Many times this leeway might be as high as 15 mph depending on the motivation of the individual officer. The worst thing about this accident is that even though it was not your fault, you can probably expect a rise in your auto insurance, since you were logged as driving the car.
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So I was sent a crash report in the mail today.
The woman I hit said that she was in the middle of the intersection (I don't think she really was. I remember her being in the turn lane still.) waiting to turn when the light turned yellow. So she tried to turn really fast so she wouldn't get stuck in the intersection at a red light. So it was either turn then or get mashed by cars coming from her left and right. That's why I don't pull into the intersection when I turn left unless I can clearly see a break in the traffic ahead.
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I have just passed my test and I went out on my own for the first time today and it's so much scarier on your own. I am naturally cautious but if someone's going to be a retard then there's very little you can do except try to predict their stupidity and hope for the best.
And wear a seatbelt.
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Yea I need to go to a mandatory 200€+ robbery called the 2nd Phase which re-evaluates how a new driver is doing currently, next month. Its really fucking stupid but I guess there are reasons for it. I wouldn't mind too much if it wouldn't have that 200€ price tag on it for like 2 hours of driving around.
But I'm from a quiet lil' town, never been close to any accidents since theres hardly anyone to crash into. Almost drove into a ditch once when I had too much speed but nothing a bit of maneuvering didn't fix. I'm always really nervous though while driving, for no apparent reason.
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This is not a good thing to say
yes it is.
You gain a LOT of experience from your first car crash.
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I got hit by a car once. It was very painful.
I got my license around a year ago. This one time when I still had a permit, some asshole cut in front of me without turning on his/her blinker. Seeing as how this was close to my first time driving, I ran into the curb and blew out one of my wheels. It's all good, though. I think. We had to use a shitty spare tire and now the car always insists that something is wrong with it.
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I've never gotten into a full on collision but I get alot of close calls and just recently ran my brand new car into a highway median that ended up setting me back $1000.
Although I try to be careful I'm not a great driver and all my friends predict that I'll die in a car accident, but hopefully that won't happen.
I'm getting alot better than I used to be and the median thing happened because I tried to pull into an exit too late and hydroplaned into the median (it was raining heavily) but hopefully lesson learned because my bank account isn't getting any deeper right now...
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I haven't been in any accident while driving, but i've been a passenger when my friend got rear ended really hard. We stopped abruptly at a yellow light, and the guy behind us thought he would try to run it.
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I haven't gotten in an accident yet since getting my license 3 years ago, but I dread the day that it happens to me. Unfortunately my car always manages to get itself into accidents while always being parked and unoccupied... three times.
The first happened during a storm when a giant tree limb fell on the trunk door.
Second was a Saturday night when a (probably) drunk driver grazed the side of my car and ruined the door handle (this is why you never park on the side of the street in neighborhoods).
The last time was some old guy who wasn't used to my car being parked where it was (again, this is why you never park on the side of the street in neighborhoods!) and he backed into the bumper and completely knocked it off.
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4 years of crash-free driving. I'm an aggressive driver (no. not road rage). I go 10-20 over constantly and have never been pulled over, because I keep an eye out for cops. I almost got in a wreck once because a car was in my blind spot and I merged over. I hate blind spots. Man that sucks, I don't know what I'd do if I got in a wreck.