Question Of The Day: Have You Ever Been In An Accident That Was… Your Fault?
Picture courtesy of Autoevolution.com
I was all of 22 years. College graduate. A young guy seeking nothing more than a nice Sunday drive with his girlfriend.
The entrance ramp to Route 17 was a one lane affair with an old Buick that seemed to be all too hesitant. Five seconds. Ten Seconds. An eternity of 20 seconds came and went before the vehicle started to creep forward and seemed ready for forward motion.
I had thought the vehicle was long gone when, a few seconds later, I pressed the accelerator and…
“Boom!” A nasty fender bender had taken place.
The Buick’s old style aluminum fender had been bent while my old Toyota’s bumper seemed fine. At least from the driver’s seat.
I inhaled a few seconds of stunned silence. Got out a little shaky, and went to the other car.
“Are you okay?” It was a lady in her 60’s.
“Yes young man, thank God. Are you?”
“I’m okay but I think I got your fender pretty good.”
The lady took a look at me, my car, and then said words to the effect of, “Well, my house is only a couple of miles away from here. Let’s get out of this traffic and follow me.”
Like a Pavlovian lap dog I followed her straight to the house. I was shocked that an older lady, especially in North Jersey, would be willing to do this. But once I saw the mailbox stand in the form of a rifle, and plenty of cars on her driveway, I realized she and her passenger were more comfortable in that familiar place. Besides, there was a heat wave going on and a nice suburban street was a far nicer place to wait for public officials than a traffic laden highway that was near three different malls.
A police officer came by and took the report. No tickets. No drawn out crying or arguments. Just a simple straightforward affair. My fault. I pay. That was that.
Except for one little thing. No insurance company claim, thank God! I offered to simply pay for her repair at a nearby independent shop. It did cost a few hundred dollars but, compared to the four figured rate increase that comes with a blemished driving record in New Jersey, it was cheap. Real cheap.
That was my last at-fault accident. But what about you? Did you ever find yourself in a collision that was entirely of your own making?
More by Steven Lang
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While in college I slammed into the just-opened door of a Chevy 3500 work truck while riding my bicycle on a busy city street. I was wearing a helmet but still passed out for a few minutes after cranking the door back and subsequently slamming into the ground. The driver was kind enough to drag my limp, bleeding body onto the sidewalk where he left me while he went to eat lunch. Luckily, a few concerned passersby called 911 and stayed with me until the authorities arrived. Aside from the cuts, a nasty headache, and a few lingering aches I escaped uninjured. The accident was deemed to be partially my fault for riding too fast in the bike lane even though I was well under the 25 mph speed limit. The unconcerned driver was not cited, not even for leaving the scene of an accident. I hope karma kicks his ass someday.
I have been in three accidents, all of them my fault, as there were actions I could have taken to avoid them. First accident, I was 16, messing with the radio, and rear ended someone at about 5 MPH, this was my only legally at fault accident. The second, a driver turned across traffic into a parking lot just in front of me, and I T-boned him. The parking lot was adjacent to an intersection, the other driver saw a red light for traffic going his way, and assumed that traffic my way was red as well, but his side had a delayed green, and I timed my light, shot through the intersection at speed just as my side turned green. He got the ticket, but still my fault. The final accident, also at an intersection, green light my way, but I heard/saw an ambulance approach, so I stopped, the guy behind me did not. Legally his fault, but I should have looked behind me.