Stimmed

I just had a car accident today and I feel like crap. I could really use some of your car accident stories to make me feel like I'm not alone. Mine goes as follows.

It was raining lightly and the road was wet. I got stuck behind a van at a red light. At the green we both went and right after the intersection someone going the other direction swerved into our lane. Also at this time I was trying to make a right lane change. The van slammed on her brakes right when I was looking in my right side mirror. I looked back and slammed on my brakes but was too late and since it was wet I skidded a little. I hit her at probably 10-15 mi/hr. Her car only had some scratches on her bumper but mine the grill/hood/and lights were screwed. Worse than that is when she got out of the car she complained of her neck hurting. I got my car to the shop and it is gonna be at least 1k in repair, and now this lady is going to sue me for neck injuries... Now I feel like crap.

How about your accident stories?

onetime2

The biggest one I was involved in was a four car chain reaction. Traffic had stopped quickly in the left lane of a major local highway and I came to a stop about a foot or two behind the car in front of me. I was looking in my rearview to see whether the car behind me would stop in time and that driver did, but just barely. I looked ahead of me for a second and the next thing I knew <<SLAM>> I was hammered and pushed into the car in front of me. Apparently the girl behind the girl right behind me was looking at the other lane trying to get over and never even slowed down before plowing into the car behind me. The car that caused it all ended up in the lane next to me almost even with my car.

I got out to check on everyone and the girl behind me (extremely attractive) starts crying that she has no insurance. I'm thinking, shit that's gonna make life difficult. The state police show up take everything down and make no mention of the girl's lack of insurance. Of course, he also gave her a ride home since her car was totalled so...

My car had less than 1k miles on it and had almost $7k worth of damage to it (front and rear). It took almost 3 months for the car to get repaired and it never drove wuite right again.

Accidents suck!

__________________
Strive to be more curious than ignorant.

Cujo

Ok. How about this one. I had just left work and was in a hurry to get home. Instead of going through town like I usually do I decided to take the back road because it would be quicker. Well it had rained most of the day and as I was pulling out of the lot at work it began to snow (late January 1996). So as I'm driving down concession rd. 13 (bad omen) I notice that there are ice patches all over the road but I'm in a hurry so I don't adjust my speed. As I drove up over a small rise in the road I hit a huge ass patch of black ice and before I know it my truck is spinning out of control. My truck does 2 complete 360s and halfway through the 3rd one it nails a hydro pole, the hit is centred on the drivers door and I go flying. I become concious about 10 minutes later laying on the floor of the passenger side with glass all over me. My left femur is broken in 3 places, left hip, acetabulum and femoral head are destroyed and lower back is crushed. As the ambulance crew is pulling me from the wreckage of my S-10 I look towards the road to see the OPP officer hit the same patch of ice I hit and skid his car into the ditch on the other side. I needed 12 hours of surgery to repair my hip and spent 2 months in hospital and 8 months in a wheelchair. I still walk with a bit of a limp and am the perfect weather vane. I can tell when its going to rain hours before it starts

denim

The "neck pain" thing is just normal. Pay it no mind as it's your insurance company's problem.

I had an accident last January, but it wasn't much. Much more interesting was the one I had in 1991. More only if asked.

homerhop

been in 3 so far
1st. wet roads bad bend ...car wrote off, damaged elbow

2nd. stopped at lights guy behind not minding wrote off 4 cars. Compressed 3 bones in my lower spine.

3rd. gravel on bend, went through ditch minor damage to car, bruised head

__________________
its evolution baby

Destrox

Okay then:

First day of the spring semester, 2nd year into college. January 15th 2002 ~6pm, I'm in the north east (NW PA) so this is our biggest snow season except this year it was very spring like.

The roads had been very nice, a little damp that night but nothing worth noting. So i'm going up this hill on a right turn bend at about 45mph and suddenly I find my self on black ice.

The back end of my 99' Ranger starts sliding INTO the oncomming traffic lane and of course, somone has to happen to be comming down the hill. He wasnt able to stop either from the black ice, we collided in a extreemly hard impact that slams my head into the doors window givin me a nice big fuckin headache.

We both happened to end up completly off the road at least so comming traffic wont be a threat from either direction, turns out i completly took off his front driver corner. And my truck was hitright behind the rear wheel, ended up bending the frame of my truck, and just about took off the bed.

Noone was hurt from the ordeal besides my lil bang to the head, the guy took it very well at least. And while the police where taking our info, not even 20 feet from us another two vehicles collide, nowhere near as severe, but scared the shit out of us.

The accident was legally my fault, but the police and the guy understood that it was black ice and there was pretty much nothing we could do about it, so I wasnt even given points or a insurence raise.

They other two vehicles that almost hit us turns out the one guy had no liscence, and was on probation.. he was fucked.

My truck was about 500$ short of being classified of "Totaled", luckily my insurence was extreemly nice and I only paid the 300$ deductible for a $6,000 repair job.

__________________
You bore me.... next.

Destrox

I actually had another accident about 8 months later after that one, in the same vehicle.

But this one was my dumbass self's fault, I was on my way to class again day of a big fuckin test for my COBOL programming language class. So i'm on the way there, and some dude in front of us (There was a lot of heavy traffic this day since it was so nice out) that decided to suddenly turn. Well about 3 of us in the line of traffic had no way of knowing this since we couldnt see. Just lines of ppl hitting thier brakes hard, I the unlucky basterd I am, was the only one that had nowhere to go besides into the backend of somone else.

I was about 6 inches short of missing this womens vehicle, sadly I didnt miss. Damage to her 1988 towncar was just about a bad tail light on passenger side, dented bumper and a new trunk hood. My truck on the other hand, being the 99 Ranger thats pretty much made out of fiberglass is torn to pieces.

This cost me 3,000$ out of my pocket no insurence was delt with since the women didnt press any charges.

She would have lost her license or some shit since she wasnt suppost to be driving anyways. ( I didnt get into this, it was as far from my business as possible )

I seem to have good luck with hitting the right people at least, but hitting anyone is bad no matter how you see it.

__________________
You bore me.... next.

cchris

Sounds like a competition.

It is as scary as fuck when you are involved in an accident and to just relate an experience........

I was lucky one day.

We were drunk and we were young.
Coming home from one of many concerts 30 miles away in "town" we did the slide on the country road "bend" and went down the embankment.
The speed was unknown to all of us at the time but we rolled and missed a tree by fucking inches.
I look back now and still shudder as to what could have been.

__________________
There's a fine line between participation and mockery

grayman

My wife had an appointment at the hospital in Iowa City and we were running late, so I was speeding. It was about 7:45 am. It had rained hard that morning and the grass and shoulder were wet, but the road was fairly dry. We were driving in the left lane on a divided highway and there was this stupid bug flying around my head, driving me crazy. I took my eyes off the road for a split second to swat it, and when I looked up, I was on the shoulder. When I tried to get back on the road, we spun. We were approaching a divided bridge over a small river with a wishbone shaped guardrail to keep people from going between the two bridges. We bounced off the guardrail and continued to spin across the median and the two lanes of oncoming traffic. This is all I remember. Other drivers who saw us said that we flipped the car and went up and over a fence. All I know is that we landed less than 10 feet from the river, right side up, which is why I thought we just spun. My wife was not wearing her seatbelt and smacked her head very hard on the side window. I was wearing my seatbelt and I was okay. I got out of the car to check on the damage and my wife, but the people who stopped to help us said I should get back in the car until the ambulance arrived. Unfortunately, because I was in the car when they arrived, they had to take me out on a backboard. My wife and I both checked out just fine and the hospital, but my wife was not pleased when they cut her clothes off of her. I had borrowed a cell phone from one of the people who stopped and called my in-laws to let them know we had an accident. This was before I knew we flipped and I just told them we ran off the road. When they drove by on their way to the hospital, they didn't think that the car on the complete opposite side of the highway could possibly have been ours, but it was. I guess that as the tow truck was pulling the car out of the grass, the water from the river had risen enough to cover the tires on the car. The car was totaled, but we were still very lucky. My wife and I were fine and the backseat was crushed, so if our daughters had been with us, they would have been killed. The best part of the story is that it was a rental car, and for the first time ever, I had not gotten their insurance. Saving that extra $35 on the rental cost me thousands in deductibles and higher premiums.

P.S. If you live near Iowa City, you can still see the dent we left in the guardrail. Northbound lane of 218 just as you approach Riverside, which is coincidentally where James T. Kirk was/will be born.

__________________
That's right - I'm a guy in a suit eating a Blizzard. F U.

cyder

The accident I was in wasn't too bad. It rained earlier in the day but the roads were drying up but there were some wet spots here and there. I was driving home through the backroads instead of the highway because I figured the highway would have more drunks coming back from the bars (2am). As I am going, I am with all of my friends in the car and we are doing about 80 km/h.

Ahead there were traintracks, I actually considered slowing down to something like 50 to take these tracks because I thought they were a little rough or bumpy. I didn't touch the brakes, just coasted a bit, worried that hitting the brakes hard with the roads a little wet and not the best railway crossing would send me spinning. A little before the crossing there was a sign showing a bend in the road ahead, of course I miss that completely. I go through the crossing without a problem and than I just say oh shit as I realize the bend is right there and there is no way I can get the car back on the road as the tires have already hit gravel.

I must say seatbelts work incredibly well. The last thing I saw while driving was the giant concrete polo coming right up into the middle of the car. Everyone was OK for the most part. Two of my friends weren't wearing seatbelts (dumbasses) but they were OK, one hit her head on the door window. The other person who was wearing her seatbelt was wearing it a little high on her belly, and it caused her to piss her pants.

I ended up not damaging the pole enough to cause me to replace it for the city, yay. And that is my very shattly written story, yay.

cyder

Not sure if these really count but I seem to have the ability to spin my car in the snow.

Driving to school one day, everything was cleared except between two lights for whatever reason no plows came through and cleared it. I was doing 35/40 while others were doing about 40-50. I was the last car to go through the red light, started going down hill when the car ahead of me stopped to make a turn into a side street. I have no idea how he stopped as everytime I even touched the brake the car started skidding and wanted to steer into oncoming traffic.

After three attempts of touching the brake and almost losing control of the car I realized I am going to fucking hit that car. The speeds weren't high but I was still worried. I tried once more and this time I did lose control and the front end of my car went into oncoming traffic while the rear stayed in my current lane.

Luckily I did not come on to this road 2 minutes earlier or later or there would have been a lot more cars coming from the red lights on either end. As it was the one car that was behind me from a side street was able to switch lanes, the two cars coming towards me were able to switch lanes, and I was able to complete my U turn, yay for 4 lane roads.

There were a couple of other close calls similia to this but I can't remember the details on it.

I had one friend who was driving to, well god knows where at 4 in the morning. He let his cousin without a license drive and they hit a pole real fucking good. The jaws of life were needed to pry the out. His leg was trapped inside and when it was all done a very broken leg with a lot of scaring, he is better now, his leg does give him some pain here and there but for the most part it is alright. His cousin was in the hospital for a while as well but I can't remember for what or anything but I think he hit his head pretty fierce on the window or something. His car was a tuna can, totally smashed and compacted.

remiel

my sister in law was coming through an intersection when her car got hit by a guy who ran a red light whilst talking on his cellphone.

They both pulled into a nearby parking lot to assess the damage, and the jackass actually said 'The damage isn't too bad, can I just go? I've got to pick my kids up from daycare'

yeah, she was really going to let him go after he's damaged her car and nearly killed her by BREAKING THE LAW, and let him go pick up his kids, so he can drive home with them talking on his cell and probably hit someone else on the way home.

Luckily there was a witness, so the police came, wrote him up, and now he has to pay both the fine for running the red and the money to get her car fixed.

__________________
"Then said Joseph to St. Mary, henceforth we will not allow him to go out of the house; for every one who displeases him is killed."

Gospel of the Infancy of Jesus Christ, 20:16

MSD

1: Took a corner at 15 when I should have gone 5, hit the triangular patch of snow that always ends up in the middle of t-intersections, and my right front wheel had a close encounter with the curb. The curb won. Cost me 500 bucks to replace the rim and a primary control rod.

2: Not at fault I got stuck behind an old woman who was most of the way through an intersection. I honked, assuming that she didn't know the light was green. Turns out she stalled. I park at the gas station on the corner that we're at, and help to push her car to safety on a side street. After pushing the car, the woman's daughter is there to drive her home. They get into the car, she backs up, and discovers that the laws of physics won't allow her car and my car to occupy the same space at the same time. This reminds me, I have to go call her insurance company now with the estimate from the body shop. 1600 for a headlight, fender, bumper repair, and paint.

Mael

i've been in 4 accidents.

1. was 15 and on my learners permit. i'm driving in the right lane of a 4 lane street, and the person in the left lane (same direction) decided to make a right turn at the street we were coming up on from the left lane. i didn't notice that he was going to do this and was going through the light. hit him, spun him around. over 4k worth in damages to my car, scratches to his. oh, and the person i hit was a kid who was one of my older bro's good friends. his mom does my mom's nails.

2. everyone on the expressway was stopped except the van that plowed into me.

3. at gas station, miscalculated a turn, stopped, went in reverse, didn't notice the guy who had pulled up on my ass. so i go 2 feet backwards and tap him. no damage. but i got to hit a BMW, so it was fun.

4. so far, no injuries in any of these, and other than number 3, they weren't my fault. this time, last january, i'm coming home from work and hit a patch of black ice while going through a curving exchange. lose control of the car, go off the expressway, T-bone gaurd rail with driverside door at 65mph, flip over once while still spinning. land right side up facing the express way. i sat in the car in the freezing cold for 15 minutes before someone stopped to help. i had to make a turniquette (sp?) to try to stop my leg from bleeding where the bone had broken the skin. i also tried to make a splint from the straps of my guitar bag and pieces of door. didn't work so well, really glad i didn't have to get out of the car. ended up with an open compound fracture of the left tibia and fibula, and 3 fractures in my pelvis. oh, and my left leg swelled up about 3 times as big as normal. they drained over 3 liters of fluid from it in surgery. funny thing about all this was that i had origanally bought a cell phone cause i was paranoid that my car would break down and i would need it. well, where was it? it had been in my left pocket, and it got thrown from the car in the accident. parents found it a couple days later about 20 feet from where the car ended up. nice and broken too.

edit: oh, and i had to pay $600 to replace the gaurd rail i broke (i pushed it in about 15 feet). and they didn't even let me keep the broken one.

and if any one wants to see pictures of the busted car or guard rail from 4, or any of my x-rays, PM me, glad to share!

rival

I've been in a couple of accidents. The only one worth writing about happened while I was riding shotgun. This was in high school, I think I was a Junior.

I had been getting rides to and from school from a friend of mine who, for whatever reason, was a godawful driver. He was 17, started driving at 16 and had already totaled one car. I'm sitting in the passenger's seat playing with the radio and I hear him say "Oh Shit".

Now, I heard this and thought, "That's very odd that he would say that. Here we are, driving along a completely empty road on a clear spring day. I wonder what type of problem he is having." By the time I finished that thought, the car was on it's roof. I have no idea how he rolled the car on a clear day while just starting to go down a slight hill.

Nobody was hurt, although my window busted open since we must have rolled on my side of the car. We kicked open his door and crawled out to see that we were a foot away from a telephone pole on my side and a foot from going down an embankment in front of us.

His dad bought him yet another car after that, but I opted for the bus.

RoadRage

One hour ago, as I type.

I'm driving a 1977 big-ass Blue Chevy Van on a sunny afternoon doing some courier work. Some shithead too busy talking to his girlfriend on his cellphone runs a stop sign and plows into my van. His excuse: "I didn't see it."

His little 2002 Kia is either totalled or damn near. My van is "totalled" as well, although it needs is a front right tire and the sliding door fixed. (The passenger door is only used for helping clear trash out, no loss there. The van would be totalled at about $500 in damage anyway.)

I had just bought a new tire for the front left and almost bought one for the front right. If I had, he'd have to wait three days to use his cellphone because I would have shoved it down his throat.

Moron got an ambulance ride. I'm at home just trying to cool off and settle down my anger before going to work to deliver pizzas tonight. I guess justice is served, but it's not as satisfying as kicking his teeth in would have been.

__________________
Join TFP Team SETI
43K workunits complete, 34 members, more of each needed.

bermuDa

I had my first accident about three hours ago... I was taking my brother to a chiropractic appointment downtown, going down the road in the right lane. Suddenly some asshole decided to turn into a parking lot on the right without signalling. The van in front of me screeched to a halt. I slammed on the brakes but couldn't stop in time, and hit her rear bumper. She had a scratch or two and that was all, but my front headlights and grill are gone, and my hood is curled up. probably no more than a grand to fix, but that's a grand I don't have.

I want to hunt down the sonofabitch who didn't obey the law and make him pay for the damages, but thanks to california law, I'm automatically responsible. It pisses me off, but I'm doing my best to take comfort in the fact that nobody was hurt, and no damage was done to the van... so at least my insurance rates won't go up...

What really gets me is I made a choice to go down that road... I could've turned a minute earlier and avoided the whole situation but i didn't... GRRR!!!!

__________________
I am the very model of a moderator gentleman.

denim

You'd be automatically responsible just about anywhere. You didn't give yourself enough room to stop at your speed. (shrug)

Kllr Wolf

I have been in 2 real accidents.

The first one occured when I was with my prom date on the way to my house to drop off my mom's car while we went out with friends to get coffee, I was the victim of a hit and run. Thank goodness friends were following me home and were able to let my mom know it wasnt my fault.


The Second was I was a passenger and my friend rolled his car in the middle of the night, in the middle of nowhere. Car was totalled, he spent a week in the Hospital. Me I got lucky after not gettting hurt when the car rolled 3 1/2 time and went over a hundred yards in the process. I get a scratch on my stomach ,running to flag down the only car on the road, by hitting the barbed wire fence that if I would have been a foot to the left I would have gone through the hole in it the car had made.

__________________
Caffeine - the molecule of life.

tinfoil

I have only hit one vehicle. It was at low speed so my car just bounced off.

I was in a very near miss though. I was on highway 400 around Barrie (Ont) in the fast lane. I was doing about 120-130 when an old guy (michigan plates) in a white Caddy came up behind me at a much higher rate of speed, so I pulled over into the middle lane. A guy an an S10 went by behind the caddy.

The Caddy met with slower traffic up ahead so he crossed into the midde, then slow lane. When he tried to get back into the middle lane, he cut off a guy in an Explorer who then cut off the guy in the S10. He overcorrected and went into the gravel sending him flipping side over side. I ran over teh spare tire which he left unsecured in the bed of his truck and actually passed under the truck as it was flipping. The woman behind me came within inches of rear-ending me.

__________________
Get off your fuckin cross. We need the fuckin space to nail the next fool martyr.

Rodney

All my accidents are boring. Although I was "involved" in one scary one once in which I wasn't at fault and didn't get hit.

I was heading over a mountain expressway (four lanes, fast traffic, lot of tight curves, hillsides slope right down to the roadbed with maybe 1 food of shoulder) at midday. I'd crested the summit and was following a big mid-90s Z car down through some s-curves when suddenly the Z's brakes locked at 65 mph. It started spinning end for end, tires screaming continuously, plumes of smoke and dust shooting all around. It made five or six complete rotations and then rammed the dirt embankment at the side of the road, just past a blind turn. Which means that cars coming around the bend have about three seconds to see the car and change lanes, because there is really no shoulder.

Being an idiot, I pulled in behind and rapped on the glass. There was a dazed looking woman inside. She said she didn't do anything; the brakes just locked by themselves. And then they unlocked by themselves. The car was still running and it was only a couple of hundred yards to a pullout with a phone, so she eased it down there with me behind.

I would have doubted her story, except my wife had had a Nissan that did similar strange things. Flaky electronics, I guess. Scary that one's car could turn on one like that, though.

Rodney

You didn't hurt her. She's just out for whatever she can get. Hand on the neck right after getting out of the car? Most people are too shocked to think straight if they've really been hurt, and a lot of neck trauma in accidents doesn't really hurt until later. She's just doing drama to support her claim, she'll find a crooked chiropractor or somebody to claim soft tissue damage, and your insurance company will pay her a few grand to go away.

Unfortunately, there are a lot of chiselers like her out there now. Too many people leeching off the insurance system, that's why rates are so high. Of course if insurance companies actually went after these people harder, the abuse would drop. But it's easier just to pay them off, if the claim is small enough, and pass the expense onto the customers.

Infinite Hybrid

Here's one, I wasn't involved, but my dad was. We were living in VA at the time and he was in the Navy. Anyways, we was on his way home (I think, it's been awhile since I've talked to him about it) and get into a front collision with someone. According to my mom, the reports said that the engine crashed in and broke his femur (the strongest bone in the leg) and he suffered brain damage. Was in a coma for about 3 weeks. I was about 7 years old at the time and my brother about a year old.

11 years later he is much better. Can walk on his own now but there is a noticeable limp though and some of the scars are still there. He just got his license back, but we still don't have a car yet. Overall, he is doing really good though.

I didn't want to be a downer or anything, I just tend to get a little more serious about car accidents. Glad both of you were able to walk out of cars though.

__________________
paramedics fell into the wound
like a rehired scab at a barehanded plant
an anesthetic penance beneath
the hail of contraband

mingusfingers

Haven't been in an accident yet, though I have a story. (Did I just jinx myself?)
My sister had a 92 tercel we had been keeping for her while she was in fresno. She was planning to sell it to us, for more than it was worth, though I wasn't paying. The day before she was going to head back to fresno and sell it to us, she rear ends a guy, and comes close to totalling her car. Just getting back from the shop now, with the spike in OUR insurance, and her still probably looking to get some cash from my parents for the car. (Arg.)

Edit-My Grandma was in the car too

__________________
Still Looking

Zooksport2

I grew up in the country, on a cattle station, or ranch?" Size about 1 million acres. For over 20 years. Over the years, whilst chasing wild cattle, camels etc, we had lots of spills, both bikes and vehicles. Worst off road accident was when I rolled a Landcruiser down a river embankment whilst chasing a mob of cattle. Wrecked the 4WD, but thats about all. Actually have rolled 4 vehicles my self, been in another 3, including 1 that killed my twin sister. My brother ran me over with a Land Rover when I was about 12. It was an accident, I'm sure of it! No Damage.

Was passenger in a Cessna 172 with my brother (same one) when the nose wheel broke upon landing, which spun us off the strip into a tree, wrecking the plane. (My brother has actually wrecked 2 planes, and damaged a third. He has also wrecked more vehicles)

Closest call, on-road was a lost door mirror when the Road-train I was driving clipped the door mirror of a Road-train coming in the opposit direction at a closing speed of probably 200 K's. Really worried me after I thought about just how close I came...

Worst on-road? A nurse pulled out from a stop sign in front of me on a M/Bike. Result- Broken leg, internal injuries etc that meant 13 weeks in hospital, and no bike. Lots of other "incidents" that are fairly trivial.

__________________

asshopo

My first and only accident.

I was turning left onto a road from a major road. There wasn't left turn lane light, so it was just a sign that said "left turn". So, the light turns green for me, I pull up a bit waiting for my chance to turn. It doesn't come and the light turns yellow. I wait for traffic to stop, and I start my turn. WHAM, some asshole comes from the right lane when the light is red. I couldn't see the right lane because the left lane had a semi, blocking my view. So I hit the guy in his driver door. Not to bad, except he hit the curb. 1 tire on the curb, the other on the sidewalk ramp causing his car to flip. Not once, not twice, but 3 times. Amazingly, NO one was seriously hurt, some scratches, some bruises.

The damn cop gave *ME* a ticket for failure to yeild to oncoming traffic. I about went to jail for arguing with him about it. The other driver should have gotten a "failer to obey traffic signal" ticket, but didn't. I figure it's cause I was 18 and he was 20something.

So, I fight the ticket. The other driver didn't show up at court, so all charges/points were dropped. Turns out, its my old best friend's (from middle school) older brother AND he didn't have insurance!

It worked out, but it was still annoying as all hell.

__________________
Patterns have a habit of repeating themselves.