My turn signal is on 100 feet before I make a turn and BEFORE I apply brakes.

Its just another indicator that gives drivers behind you more awareness of what you are planning to do.

Brake lights ?  I saw them...but only when it was too late.

I never saw a turn signal.   Her not using one does not excuse my inattentive driving, but it may have helped.

Lol. I got pulled over in Tampa on the crosstown, back in mid 2000's when there still were toll booths.  It was early, maybe 0300, and I was headed into MacDill. As I approached the tool booth I stayed maybe 50' back as there was big truck in front in the booth area and a vehicle behind me….the booth area is all concrete barrier….perfect ambush set up and kill zone.

Rule of thumb for vehicle ambush is use a blocking vehicle at least double the size of the target vehicle…..anyways truck leaves, I wait maybe 30 sec until it's well clear and then bust right through the booth. I had sunpass so all good but that concrete kill zone had my spider sense up. Turns out the guy behind me was TPD and he pulled me over.

He walks up and looks to see if I have a sunpass.  He sees it and asks me why I ran through the booth…that question caught me off guard as I hadn't really thought all that much about it and I suppose it was just conditioning and instinct.

I think it over and answer him. He just looks at me kind of stunned.  I kind of nicely told him that he should start thinking like that….officer survival and all that jazz.

Afterwards I sort of realized that the shit was catching up with me and I was spending way too much time down range. Oh well.

With unscrupulous insurance companies, a sue-happy society, and corrupt lawyers, this is shrewd advice. Even if the report is a nothing burger, it's best to have as many details as you can to protect yourself, even if there was a "no fault" determination.

ROCK6

It’s going to sound like a weird stereotype, but I swear illegals have always been the shittiest drivers and I’ve noticed this ever since I was a kid.  Even the guys I used to work concrete with never could drive worth a shit and were never allowed to drive company trucks.   Maybe they buy their first car when they get to the states, and never learn to drive growing up.

You were driving too fast and too close to look away from the road. It's not only technically your fault, it's 100% your fault.

Sorry dude but in other words you're saying you were tailgating.  At 35 MPH 1.5-2 car lengths is not enough distance.  That's why when you glanced down for your bottle and looked back up she was right there with no time for you to react.  



Not sure where that overcomplicated following distance crap came.  At slower speeds I'm sure it's OK, but faster speeds how are you supposed to quickly judge 7 or so car lengths???  That's dumb.  I've always heard two seconds.  When the car ahead of you passes some fixed object, you need to be able to count two seconds before you pass it.  Yes I'm explaining it remedially, but it sounds like you needs it.  

It's a hard habit to break. I drive a little too offensively at times, not an asshole, but if at a four way stop and we all arrive at the same time and there's that awkward pause, I gun it first

I don't like hesitation or indecisiveness...that shit would have got you killed. I don't drive dangerously, but I'll be the one making the decisions for the other drivers if they're not decisive.

ROCK6

You have Allstate, your rates are already as high as they can go, and for no reason.  You will just be cancelled.

FAI

FPNI.  Nothing else matters OP. “Reached down for a second” or “she’s a Karen” who wanted cops involved matters.  You didn’t see her signal because you took your eyes off the road to get a water bottle.  That’s called an admission of guilt.  

Now you know how to prevent vehicular sodomy.  Cherish your new found wisdom.  Your increased premiums will make sure you remember.

Threads like this are why I keep coming back to GD.  Comedy gold.

bullshit

I can think a few things to not make it my fault resending some one

For example a person meeting in front of me with no signal and then breaking hard when there wasn’t enough room for a safe merge.

OP is trying to mitigate / absolve his actions which directly led to the accident by blaming a “slow driving Karen who is married to a cop”. Even the women hating ACAB guys won’t come to his defense. LOL

As I understand it, the law is that if you hit the rear of their vehicle and not the side, it will be considered your fault.

I have even heard of people rolling back on a hill because they don’t know how to use a clutch, and the person behind getting blamed because they were “pulled up too close”.

A guy on one of my car forums years ago got rear-ended in his classic stepside. The lady that hit him said "I didn't see his tiny brake lights," to which the cop replied, "what about the big red truck?"

That sucks OP, drive more defensively, 1-2 car lengths is nothing, I stay back 3-4 at least when I'm behind someone because people are stupid and stop to turn, they brake for squirrels, they see a free couch on the side of the road and stop... etc. and they have no consideration for someone behind them or what's going on around them. Heck I had to suddenly pull over and stop recently because my wife had to puke on a major roadway, luckily there was a parking lane.

This.

Again, you would be at fault for not leaving enough following distance.  Emergency braking by the person in front of you is part of the equation.  If you can’t figure that out, then perhaps you shouldn’t be driving.

OP, 1-2sec of following distance? That's not nearly enough. Average driver reaction time (to process, decide, react) is closer to 1.5sec. 3sec is the minimum recommendation and that's for the most favorable driving conditions. You add a second for unfavorable light, another for weather, another for traffic, road conditions (construction, unfamiliar with area), another second added for larger vehicle size, etc. And all of this is for speeds below 30mph...

At 45mph you're traveling 66fps. If it takes you 1.5sec to react, you've already covered 99ft. This is before you factor-in how long the brakes will take to stop the car. It's estimated you'll need ~265ft to: process, decide, react, wait for vehicle to come to a complete stop. At 45mph (66fps) that requires a bare minimum of 4sec, and leaves absolutely zero margin for error, like taking your eyes of the road (albeit for just a sec), which brings your following distance now to 5sec.


In most every state, you yield to all traffic once your intention to turn is announced (which should be a min of 100ft before the turn and not before your brakes engage). Also, you're required, during this yield, to approach the turn as close to the centerline or right edge of roadway as possible (this is you yielding). Most drivers hit the brakes, maybe indicate, and turn their wheels towards the centerline, while remaining in the middle of the lane.
Not saying this releases OP of any wrong-doing.

In KS a police report is required for accidents involving more than $1000 in damage.  Which is virtually all accidents with the cost of body work these days.

Did you shoulder check to the left before you swerved ?

You are 100% to blame for the accident OP, may as well admit it and own it.

That sux.  Hate to be that guy, but leave yourself more room and watch the road better.  You alone are in violation here.

All that said, fuck no the cops dont need to be involved.

The old “let’s just swap info and not wait for the cops to do a report” thing has bitten more than a few people I know in the ass.

I myself was one, many years ago when I was 17. Fortunately, the car that rear ended me, I saw the house he backed out of, prior to him hitting me. After the asshole tried to stiff me and blow me off (insurance he gave me was cancelled and the phone number was fake or he just didn’t answer), I made a point to go back and find that house and car. I then got the cops involved and took them to the house. Fucker had no insurance and a suspended license. No wonder he begged me to not call the cops. Never again, lesson learned.

LOL…this. This right here.

I’ll take a slow driver over some idiot that is not looking at the road and is distracted looking at their phone, the floor of the car, looking for something they dropped etc etc.

You can easily exchange info while on-scene.
Then, file a report at your earliest convenience.

That’s not going to fly here.   We need both parties unless it’s a hit and run

That is incorrect. They are called “collisions”.

In a plot twist that absolutely nobody could have foreseen, OP is actually the Karen.

I believe he said 1-2 CAR LENGTHS lol, it's even worse than you think.

I came here to post something similar. Even at 30 mph (with an average "car length" of 15 feet) you've given yourself less than a second of following distance. The rule of thumb is typically 4 seconds at minimum.

OK, terrific.  Don't expect other people to do things the same way you do, even if the way you're doing things is objectively better.


I bolded your actual problem; turn signals are completely irrelevant.  Don't expect other people to do things in a way that is beneficial to you, even if it would benefit both of you.

I just read your state law and that's not a blanket requirement. Only if it's a "reportable accident", which by state law is

Yes, that is too close and tailgating.  I hope this helps.

We thought you liked your bumper tapped.  

Seems to be pretty common. We’ve had a number of threads here saying folks rates have jumped.

Gotta pay for all those illegals swarming in here, driving around uninsured, and smashing into shit…all on top of our homegrown trash methbillies and hoodrats doing the same.

If you weren’t tailgating you would have had time to avoid the accident - even with you not looking at the road and Karen stopping.    You had roughly half the distance than you should have.  

The He-Man Woman’s hater club won’t be out of the basement for 3-4 hours.   I’m sure a few will pipe in.

Attached File


There's three car lengths at zero mph.  Average car length is about 15 feet, so by your own admission you were at 25-30 feet. Too close.

My average following distance for the month (4010 minutes analyzed by our in-cab AI cameras) is 3.9 seconds.  Count that out next time you are on the highway.

You weren't looking at the road and it's in any way her fault?

It’s probably because an f150 costs $80k now.

So totalling one these days is the equivalent of burning down a house a few years ago in terms of replacement costs.

I get what you’re saying but cmon man, you’ve got to ally admit slow turners are annoying. I’m talking absolutely no reason to be but I’m going to go extra slow anyway turners.

pics of Karen?

Accidents happen. Nobody was hurt, you get a bit of inconvenience. Learn the lesson and move on.

Thats what the lady said to me and the cops,  she was grabbing her water bottle.

Usaa totaled my truck.  She didnt dodge good enough in her dodge.  She swerved and jammed on brakes but connected with right rear, exhaust, rr fender.

Following distance is a thing.    Something i cant get my wife to understand.  

Does your husband yell at you?

I'm just going to note why I always call the police for all accidents no matter the damage. "People are a-holes and lie!"

Personal examples.

1. Guy with no insurance hits me on the rear quarter panel after a I parked, he does not want the cops called because he would get ticked for no insurance.

2. A lady backs into my wife at the drive through, gets out yelling at my wife your going to pay big, my son points at the dash cam and says hope you enjoy explaining to the cops why your story does not match up to the video evidence. They flip both my wife and son off and drive away. I asked my wife if she reported a hit and run, but no she did not because se said she was to shaken up.

3. I was at stop light a lady slams into me. She admits she fell asleep, I had no visible damage to my car, but her cars front end was completely gone.

4. I was turning at a light and had to stop for traffic, the person behind was to close and did not stop, tried to say I backed into them, I mentioned I had a camera, they then agreed because no visible damage to just leave it alone, a few days later I get a call from my insurance company about a filing the other person did. I explain what happened and if they want the video, they declined, but I also never head about the results again, so I guess it was dropped.

5. I was stopped at a light, it just turned green, and was hit from behind, no visible damage to either vehicle, I was a bit shaken and my neck was sore, but I was felling ok, my vehicle looks like shit anyway and has almost 300000 miles on it, the old guy  sad that he had thought the light had turned green (Well it had, but I had not started to move yet, as the person in front of me had not moved yet) and was worried about his CDL and offered me $100, I refused and let it just be. Probably should have reported this one, because now my catalytic converter is f'ed up throwing computer codes.

6. For this one the insurance companies f'ed me. My son was hit from behind three times at at stop lights within two months, two within the same month. The first one we had the damage fixed because it messed up the the tail gate. The second one did damage to the rear passenger light, and the third f'ed up the tail gate again. Well because the second accident had not been settled yet, the insurance companies both sad they can't determine what damage was caused buy which accident, and only covered my sons medical. My insurance company said I could file with them, but then it would raise my insurance and I would have to pay my $500 deductible, so now I have a f'ed up tail gate and cracked tail light.

Op full on takes his eyes off the road and try’s to gain pitty here. Lmfao. What a wonderful place

As much as I hate working traffic crashes people are dishonest.  Exchanging information is great until after the exchange and one party leaves the other party calls in a hit and run and is now requesting EMS for trasport to the hospital.  Setting up the lawsuit

Op has hit rockbottom GD and is still digging.  

Some dipshit hit the rear of my brand new truck last November.  I still don't have a check.  USAA are fucking cunts.  They are trying to lowball me for 1/3 of the estimate. The handling of the claim has caused me much more anguish than the collision.  BRAND FUCKING NEW TRUCK.


Pay attention and stop driving like a fucking cunt.


I particularly loath the assholes who try to blame the victim.  I was stopped in traffic at a red light, two car lengths from the car in front of me.  I was stopped for a while.  Lane surfing cunt miscalculated and hit me.  Yeah, this is on camera.  Insurance already admitted fault.  Your shit box just hit an $80000 truck because you were driving like a cunt.

Don't hit people from behind. Problem solved.

Reaching down to the passenger side floor boards?  

2 car lengths at 35mph,  the math is nit working out for your “reaching down with your eye holes to get water”.   Try at the red light next time.

 I hope i dont screw up that bad.  

Get that traffic camera!  You can show YouTube and eveyone else the turn signal car killers.   Expose them and expunge your almost spotless record.

"At 35mph, 3 seconds following distance means:
154 feet between vehicles (9.8 car lengths)."

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