Honda 1-0 Dodge Neon
It has rained on and off all day, and while I don’t like driving in the rain because of the bad drainage on many major roads and the inability of too many people to drive in the rain, I needed to check out the last two stores in town that might have the particular type of mop that my Mother prefers.
So I was stopped at a light and got hit from the back. The young woman who was driving almost avoided the accident. When she realized her car wasn’t going to stop in time she attempted to steer into a parking lot, If she had started just a foot earlier there would have been no accident.
The Honda looked almost undamaged, but the angle of contact was obviously bad for the Neon, as, in addition to the front bumper the hood bent and some of the supports looked out of whack.
I had no injuries of any kind, and the Honda didn’t move at all, as the rear bumper worked as designed and absorbed the force. The amount of force was so slight that no one’s air bags deployed, but the two people in the Neon had some bumps and were really upset.
We pulled into the parking lot to free up the major road we were on, and the wait began.
It turns out that if it had happened on the intersecting road, the Sheriff’s deputy who arrived in minutes could have taken the report, but since it happened on the main road we had to wait an hour for the Florida Highway Patrol. I fail to see the logic.
15 comments
Ohhh yeah! Doncha looooove boundary and assorted Gov agency *territorial* boundaries and the usual disputes??! As you should know very well m8, with your background, logic has absolutely nothing to do with it! 😈
Glad nobody was hurt and damage minimal. When I was driving, I was rear-ended three times, twice in the rain (the other was at the bottom of a steep hill, while I was waiting for train to pass, by a woman doing her makeup!!) AND… I’d only just picked up my car from the body shop after the first rear-ender a couple weeks earlier! I swear! Yeah… I was PLENTY pissed! I think it was the first time I’d ever considered murdering a woman! I won’t mention if it was also the last time! 😉 😛
Speaking of logic… cn yous esplain to me man… Why do people go FASTER when it rains??! Talk about defying logic, common sense, and even self-preservation! The damp air and water must short-circuit some people’s tiny brains!
I had a similar situation a few years ago when I was driving my late Mustang on I-95 in Miami. The car got whacked in the rear by a woman driving an SUV who was distracted while chatting on her cell phone. It took out a taillight and a portion of the bumper. Since it was on the interstate, it fell to FHP to take care of the paperwork. I was told this by two Miami police officers who stopped and said they couldn’t handle the call, even though we were 1/4 mile from the end of the interstate.
It’s all about peeing on the tree, I suppose.
Same thing happened to me here in Cah-lee-foh-nee-ah (as the Governator calls it) when the idiot ran the red light and I t-boned him. It was on a state-funded “expressway”, so the city cop who arrived within minutes could do nothing other than direct traffic until the CHP got there. The witness who pulled over to give her eyewitness account that the guy ran the red light was pissed, but I sure am glad she waited, because otherwise it would have been my word against his and who knows what would have happened.
Glad you weren’t hurt Bryan. Some years back I had a Toyota Corona that was rear ended by a ford Escort. The Corona had the build quality of a Chieftan Tank, you can imagine what the Escort looked like!
Glad you weren’t hurt, too.
Many years ago, I had a 280ZX that was rear-ended by an off-duty police officer no less. At least he had good insurance. This was back when people were doing the scam of stopping in the middle of a busy highway as if their car had broken down and creating accidents. There were about 8 east Indians that piled out of the first car holding their backs and necks and moaning. They were three cars in front of me…I had a stiff neck but was otherwise fine. I think they took all eight of the Indians to the hospital…
Actually, Kryten, I’m used to the New York system which features overlapping jurisdictions, where the State Police can handle anything in the state, the Sheriff can work in the entire county, and the first available car takes the call. The only people who wait are cops, because accidents involving patrol cars have to he handled by a different agency.
When you have the first snow of the year, everybody is on traffic and gets to write accident reports. Taking three or more reports an hour is about normal on those nights and you avoid tickets unless the offense was egregious because they take too much time.
It has to have something to do with funding, MB, because it makes no sense. The FHP office is in the North County by I-10 and there are no troopers assigned to the South County. The guy had to drive 40 miles to respond to the call, and he wasn’t using lights and siren.
You were very lucky, Badtux, because Californians really don’t like waiting as they spend so much time doing that on the freeways. At least in California they direct traffic. That is not generally a feature at accident scenes in Florida.
Unibody construction, Jams, just doesn’t do well in collisions. I prefer to be within a solid frame if I’m going to get hit. It may be the whole concept of front “crumple zones” to protect the front seat, but it seems that damage to the front occurs at a much lower speed than hits to the rear end.
That’s interesting Juanita, because I remember an incident of an individual in a Z-car driving over about 4 road flares to slam into the back of my Ford patrol car that was parked at an accident with the light rack flashing. Knowing that I was already beyond the end of my shift and it would probably take an hour for another agency to respond, I seem to remember walking up to the driver’s window and saying “License, insurance card and registration, Sir. You have the right to remain silent – use it.”
Upstate New York had Turks and Poles doing the same thing, Juanita, only they would pull the really dangerous stunt of slamming on brakes in traffic.
Glad no injuries…but rain? what’s that?
280ZX huh Juanita??! You’ll get on very well with hotfoot LadyMin then! 😆 😉
Yeah… we have certain ethnic groups who try those tricks here also. 😉 And lot’s of “Ambulance Chaser” lawyers willing to help! *sigh*
Glad nobody was hurt all! 😀
Hey, I swear that was NOT me that hit you in Florida! 🙂
Glad to hear that I have company in the hotfoot category. If Lady Min’s around today, hello to my partner in crime…
I was in law enforcement in upstate New York, Juanita, and it was probably a 240Z, as it was a long time ago.
Jill, if I could send it West I would, because I’m tired of it. We have had rain at some point during the day for over a month, and the mosquitoes have been terrible. The mildew is getting mildewed and the wooden doors are all swelling. I can’t get through a day without changing shoes, and socks are a waste of time. I’ve even bought flip-flops to wear to avoid destroying all of my leather shoes, and they are machine washable boat shoes.
I’ve slowed down a bit… still have the hot red car with the spoiler though. So when I do have the need for speed it’s there! Most of my driving these days is to and from the train station or the grocery store. I do miss the old Firebird Formula 400. Now that was a fast car.
It’s been raining here for the past month. Fortunately I live on high ground. People with basements are getting flooded because the infrastructure here can’t handle this much water. My deck is getting mildewy, there are mushrooms popping up all over and green stuff is growing on rocks and fences. And the mosquitoes are big enough to carry me away. And did I mention the heat and humidity? I think we’ve been transported to the south.
That would be the “Old South” because the two weeks of heat indexes above 110° with near calm winds is definitely not what we are used to. Summer was once hot and dry with normal onshore and offshore breezes. The rain went inland, north of I-10, not along the coast. Things are definitely not “normal” this year.
In a box somewhere I have the radar slip for 139mph from an Arkansas State Trooper on my ’70 ‘Cuda. He offered me 84 in a 75 and I took it. I still had tach left when I saw him and pulled over. He gave me a break because I didn’t make him chase me, and he told me he doubted he would have been able to catch me. I had to get rid of that car and it now is in an Orlando museum. I sold it to a Florida state forest ranger and he kept it for 30 years before selling it to the museum.
Actually, I transferred to Germany and was planning to bring back a Porsche, but became so used to not having a car in Europe that I didn’t bother. I was strictly 4-cylinder until I “inherited” the van, which is too expensive to drive anymore.
*sigh* Porsche! I STILL miss my 928 S4! Always will. THAT was a real car. Best car Porsche ever made IMHO (and many others who owned one think so too). 🙂
Oh well… 😉 Those were the days… 😀
Brian, it helped that this was at 8PM in the evening on a fairly-untravelled expressway, so the witness wasn’t in the middle of her commute or anything.
LadyMin, two people from the car that ran the red light claimed they were injured or had chest pains, and were hauled off in ambulances. Unfortunate for them, after hearing from the witness, the CHP wrote it up as them running the redlight and me trying to miss but not being able to — i.e., they’re 100% responsible. So their scam didn’t do anything except cost their own insurance money :twisted:.
Kryten, when the cost of tickets exceeds the cost of insurance, it’s time to take some pictures and let it go. Memories are always better than the realities.
Ah, yes, that would definitely make a difference, Badtux.
Actually, Florida avoids the problem by assigning all injury costs to car in which you were traveling. So, even though the other driver was at fault, if I had been injured, those costs would have gone against my policy, not theirs. You have to sue to get coverage for costs in excess of what your policy allows.