Helmet Head

AS A DRIVER, how many UNAVOIDABLE car accidents have you been involved in in your lifetime?

NOTE: By "UNAVOIDABLE" I mean there was nothing you could have done to avoid it, even if for the two minutes prior to the collision you were following every defensive driving rule in the book, including paying attention, stopping a car length behind the person in front of you, not tailgating, avoiding side-by-side and blind spot driving, slowing down before entering an intersection and checking for red-light runners, not entering an intersection until the light has been green for at least 4 seconds if there are any sight line issues whatsoever, etc.

Please describe what happened in each incident.

EDIT: By "car accident" I mean "car crash".

EDIT 2: Safety/advocacy relevance: the whole issue of traffic safety in general, and how driver behavior relates to likelihood of being involved in a crash, is clearly relevant to cycling safety. The typical number of unavoidable crash incidents among forum members while driving provides some interesting insight into the issue.

bmclaughlin807

Unavoidable? 0. No, wait... 1. I was going straight through an intersection and a lady turns left in front of me (She was northbound, I was southbound) .... I couldn't avoid the accident at all. But SHE could have, by not turning illegally in front of me.

recursive

Does this exclude collisions while cycling?

Helmet Head

Did you slow down before you entered the intersection?

https://www.roadtripamerica.com/Defen...ing/Rule20.htm

Helmet Head

Please assume "car accident" means "car crash"; a collision involving a car that you were driving.

pj7

I think this post likely belongs in "Foo", unless you wish to change your original post to reflect how it has to do with Advocating and safety issues for cyclists.
I will answer it though. from my recollection, I can name 2 incidents in which I was involved in.

One was a small rockslide from a highwall. I made reference to these in another of your threads. for those who are not familiar with the term "highwall" it is a large section of rock mountain that has been drilled and blasted away for either the purposes of strip mining or building a rod on a lower part of a mountain. I'm sure anyone who has driven thru Kentucky, West Virginia, or anywhere in the ap. Mountains has seen them. you have the road, then a ditch, the a big tall wall of rock that has drill marks from the top to bottm. Anyhow, I was driving along and several rocks came off the highwall, mostly the size of baseballs and the like. A few smashed my windshield and I was unable to see due to the spiderweb effect of the shattering glass. That, the the smell of urine and feces bellowing up from my BVDs as. I hit my brakes and turned the wheel to the right. If I turned it to the left I risked hitting an oncoming car or smashing thru a guardrail and plumeting down a ravine. Veering right resulted in front end damage to my car from hitting the wall. My girlfriedn and I were alright though.

the other incident was a drunk driver. I was coming home from work one night. My driveway was small at my parents house so I had to park on the street. there were no streetlights and I did not see the drunk driver behind me with no lights on. I pulled off to the side of the road (yes I used my turn signal) and before I could put it in park I had a vehicular proctology exam from a Trans-Am. there was nothing I could do in that situation. If I had noticed him I could not have accelerated as there was a car parked in front of me. The guy was bastardly drunk and was in the process of passing out when he hit me at 30mph. Once again, I was alright.

Helmet Head

Yes, it excludes motorcycles too.
I want to limit this to driving an automobile (car or truck).

Falkon 

One. I was driving down the parkway and a guy in a truck just pulled right out in front of me. I didn't even have time to attempt a swerve.

fat_bike_nut

One. I was rear-ended by a blond bimbo/airhead, sending me into the SUV in front of me. The worst part of it was, stupid cell phone talking teenager pulled a hit-and-run on me, SUV driver blamed EVERYTHING on ME, and I never found out what became of that case

Edit: I was hasty in voting for ONE. Make that TWO. The second time, I was also rear-ended, but at least I didn't crash into the car in front of me.

Helmet Head

Semantics again? I will indulge you in your silliness once in this thread.

In the Oxford American English dictionary (anyone with a Mac can verify) the following definition for accident is given, which is the one I obviously intended by writing car accident: a crash involving road or other vehicles.

Did anyone else have a problem understanding?

Right. I specified "AS A DRIVER", in the thread title, the poll question, and in the OP. Did you miss it?

Dchiefransom

I was on a four lane road, 45 mph, divided by a grass center section. I was coming up to my left turn, in the left of two lanes, no left turn lane. I was already slowing for the turn, when a woman started across from a stop sign on my right (I had no stop sign). I saw her start to move, and hit the brakes harder. I almost got to a complete stop, but hit her left front fender with my bumper. Going right would have put me into a vehicle going by, and going left would have gone into a car waiting to come onto the road I was on.

25 mph residential street with a yellow divider. I had pulled out over a block before and was still below the speed limit. A car pulled out from the curb on my right and tried to make a left turn from the right curb. I saw the car start to pull out and hit the brakes, turning my wheels slightly to the left. I hit his left front fender with my bumper. I couldn't swerve more to the left due to an oncoming car.

SingingSabre 

2. Both times I was hit from behind.

One was at a light that had just turned green (the guy in front of me didn't go, the guy behind me did).

The other was at stopped traffic. I stopped, the chick behind me didn't. I was thrown into the guy in front of me, bounced off him back into the girl who hit me, then back off of her into the guy in front of me.

What's your twist, HH?

Bekologist

jeez, mr head, this is a BICYCLING forum.

Tom Stormcrowe

I had a vehicle totaled out in a completely unavoidable crash, unless you want to stretch the point on "avoidable" past the point of credibility in that I suppose I could have been in another location. I was hit by a driver while I was sitting at a light after he had an epileptic seizure and ran the light and swerved across the lanes, hitting 6 other vehicles in the process of hitting me while I was at a full stop. I was#1 in the chain and he hit me at an estimated 75 mph based on the damage to my car and distance traveled after hitting me and the other vehicles. Unbelievably, I only suffered a broken arm and nose from the crash.

-pops-

Hmmm.... I think I need some help on this one. A long time ago (highschool), I had a car with 3 female passengers and 3 males (including myself). We were driving along a completely deserted road, at night w/ the high beams on, obeying the speed limit, and I had both hands on the wheel. From the right hand side of the road a black dog darted across the ditch. It's head impacted squarely on the license plate (later observation), and I did not have time to brake or swerve. The dog passed completely under the vehicle, howling, and was observed by the tail lights to get up and run into the darkness.

The girls inquired if we'd just hit a dog. I decided to completely deny hitting any dogs, and indicated that we'd missed it and the howling had been due to a near miss. My friend in the right front passenger seat then chimed in with a complete cock-block by stating 'No way, man, you completely smoked that dog... Wow, it must really be F'd up!' Drama ensued further aft in the vehicle, and nobody hooked up later in the evening.


So, based on the references provided, I think I'm in the clear. Rule 37 applies to wildlife, and this animal was clearly domesticated. Rules 1-6 were implemented. We were following Rule 12, but this may have contributed since the dog came from 90 degrees (of course, we'll need a judgement on this). We are clear of the oft quoted Rule 20, since there were no intersections or driveways around. Rule 23, check - headlights on, highbeams on. Rule 26, check - I actually even straightened out the license plate first thing the next morning (although, in retrospect, it doing so prevented my parents from finding out about anything).


Findings of fact:
-Definitely needed a new wingman. Talk about the wrong thing to say!!! To his credit, he did later ackowledge that there was room for improvement.
-We really were not going to hook up with any of these girls anyway.

I'm gonna have to claim 'unavoidable' on this one, but am assuming positive intent and this is of course a matter of opinion.

SingingSabre 

That's what I'm thinking.

I'd like to know how I was "complicit" in any of my collisions, especially considering I was not cited for any of them. Maybe in that I was simply following the laws Sir Isaac Newton put into place...

pj7

heh
My highschool anatomy teacher was named Orloff Headspeak

zeytoun

If you're going to extrapolate from this data HH, you will also want to know how many years driving experience people who responded have. I guarantee you it on average less then the 50 year lifetime driving average that you postulate in your other thread.

banerjek

No accidents, been driving for 25 years. Most accidents can be prevented by people being ready for others to screw up -- I avoided rear end accident a few years ago by driving off the road because I saw in my mirrors that the guy behind me wouldn't stop in time.

I have screwed up behind the wheel, but thankfully when I did this, the other drivers were paying attention and avoided a wreck that would have been my fault.

Jalopy

At the risk of sounding like a bad driver, I have been in three. All in dry conditions during daylight hours with excellent visibility:

1. Four lane, moderate speed road, at an intersection with no turn lanes lanes. Waiting for an opening in opposing traffic to make a left turn. My turn signal was on and my foot was on the brake. Rear-ended by inattentive driver. (I was also "centerish" in the lane)

2. Just pulled into a marked on-street parking space. Car that was parked in front of me reversed into me.

3. Same scenario as in 1. but a different intersection.

Jalopy

chipcom 

Perfect example of yet another HH poll. Someone provides an answer and the response is interrogation and lectures about 'best practices'. You should put a disclaimer on all your polls: "I am doing this so I can teach you from the book of HH, because I am a zealot and I can't help myself".

And stay out of my PMs - if you ain't got the guts to say it in public, I don't wanna hear it.

AlmostTrick

Here's to your good driving record.
Twice I avoided being rear ended while waiting to make a left into my work place driveway. (there is no left turn lane, so you sometimes have to stop in the 50 mph traffic lane) Both times I seen the car coming up too fast from behind and had to abort my plans to turn and go straight instead. There is a collision here at least every month. Once while coming from the opposite direction on my bike, I witnessed the waiting driver get rear ended and pushed into oncoming traffic and hit again. This was only about 20 or 30 feet to my side and slightly ahead.

derath

3 unavoidable. Been rear ended twice. Both times I was boxed in during rush hour traffic and couldn't get out of the way. Once I was cut off by a truck driven by some illegal immigrants. Had to slam on the brakes and got hit in the back as a result, which sandwiched me in between the truck and van behind me.

That one was fun when the cop showed up and looked at their license (I couldn't even tell what country it was from) and found they were in a "borrowed" truck.

-D

SingingSabre 

First collision I was in was between a car and a sidewalk.

Second was boxed in at the start of a green light.

I've avoided a couple by quick lane changes, etc, too.

Been there...

jsharr

Heading down a two way, tree lined street, had an oncoming car turn left in front of me, no turn indicatior given. I was travelling well below speed limit, so no serious damage to either vehicle. No way to avoid accident.