I was a witness to an accident on Saturday morning, on my way to work. As I was driving along at a reasonable clip for the weather, (raining) some moron in a minivan with her husband in the passenger seat and their (presumably 8 year old) kid in the back decided I was driving way too slow. So on goes her signal, and then she passes me. I'm not going to say how fast I was driving, but I estimate her speed as about 100 km/h. Fair enough, she's way past me, and out of my way, I don't have to worry about her any more. Right? Wrong.

She again turns on her signal, still doing about 100km/h, about the distance one would normally signal to intend a left TURN. I'm thinking "hey, I turn there, and she's not going to make it at that speed". Turns out, she's trying to pass someone (A great guy in a purpley brown 1940 Ford). Well, she failed to see HIS intent to turn, and well, I'm about 100 meters behind at this point, and I see the whole thing unfold in front of me. Brake lights, crunch. Then I see the minivan hit a street sign, fire hydrant, and fly over a ditch. The minivan came to rest about 40' from the intersection, 60' past the scene of the accident. I made my turn, then pulled over to see if everyone was ok. Someone else stopped, and I saw that he had his cell phone out. He checked the minivan, I checked the old guy in the Ford. Since I was already late for work, and I saw everyone was out and walking, I passed my contact information to the old guy.

Minivan had a lot of front end damage, front wheels pointing in opposite directions. 1940 Ford had left fender damage, bent rim, flat tire.

I got a call from the insurance company, and today I called back to give them my statement. Turns out, all parties have settled, and found the idiot in the minivan at 100% fault. And nobody was seriously hurt, other than pride.

 

Bigrig, KUDOS! I say this, because I worked a lot of accidents where fault wasn't necessarily obvious (intersections, etc.....where both drivers claim their light was "green"....obviously one of them is lying).........and where numerous witnesses would be expected, but no one stopped or told the officer what happened.......I wish more guys like you would stop and at least leave their information......Hell, if everyone is OK, you ain't even gotta stay there, just be available by phone to tell the officer (or trooper) what happened.....

GREAT job, dude.....

 

Nice job their Big! I wholeheartedly agree with cmpd. At least everyone was ok. I'm never sure what people, especially when I see parents do it, are thinking when they drive like complete morons. I mean you have precious lives in the vehicle with you. . .why can't they understand that? Keep up the good work Bigrig.

 

This wouldn't be the first time I stopped for someone.

Christmas Eve 2005, I was on my way home from work, I had the red. Green for the cross traffic. Well, a red Civic was crossing, and half way through, she got t-boned. I remember thinking "okay, stop now so she doesn't spin into me". I was still rolling to a stop, if that makes sense. She ultimately hopped the curb, and came to rest in a fence backed by cedar hedging. Anyway, I parked where I stopped, put my 4 ways on, and got out to check on the Civic. Someone else was checking on the Taurus that ran the red. His horn was stuck on. Anyway, I called 911, along with about 3 other people. I did stay until the fire trucks showed up, at that time I moved my truck out of the way. I left it there on purpose, to keep traffic out of the way, if some Mountie wants to give me a ticket for that, well, he can get his head out of his butt. Anyway, when the RCMP finally showed up, I gave a statement then.

Every time I go past that intersection, I notice the fence is still not fixed.

A few days later, I got a call from an insurance adjuster, to go over the statement I gave to the officer. That was a "good" ending as well, the red light runner was found 100% liable, the girl in the Civic, while banged up pretty good, just had some bruising. She was in some pretty good shock though, as her car took it right in the driver's side door.

So, cmpd, is it a big problem with witnesses just cruising on through? It never occurred to me to just keep on going.

 

Even though it is the law to stop and report what you saw (in Michigan) people just fly by - even if they saw the whole thing unfold in front of them.

 

I was in a wreck simular to that one a couple of years ago. The lady tried passing me in a No Passing Zone. I had my left turn signal on and when I turned she hit me and roller her Land Rover over on its side by over correcting. I helped this lady out
(maybe 35 years old) and she is cussing me like a sailor. When I told her the accident was her fault that really made her blow up. It was great watching the police write her 2 citations. Thank god it was a company car.

 

Yeah people don't usually stop for accidents. When I had my accident at a busy intersection (single car, dont ask its really dumb), people just kept on rolling by, I had one lady drive by slowly and ask if I was ok, when I said yes, she sped away! The other accident I was involved in (got rear-ended by a garbage truck at a light) nobody stopped either. People either don't have enough courtesy to stop or don't realize they are supposed to stop and report it.

 

People also will flip you off, scream at you, and be as nasty as they can be to you for throwing their plans for the day off. It happened to my g/f and it's a good thing I wasn't there or there might have been more accidents Ya' just can't fix stupid

 

I don't want to say that "everyone does it"......But in cases where it's obvious that no one's seriously hurt.....well.....let's just say a lot of people have more important things to do than stop at an accident scene as a witness.......

And I woulda been surprised as hell if a mountie gave you grief for blocking a lane behind the accident with your hazards on........That's just good, common sense and is acceptable.......Believe me, we understand.......

Helping the injured and doing what you can to "secure" the roadway so another accident doesn't occur are the most important things......

 

A guy did that for me once and the person who hit me thought the guy was friend of mine..or so his insurance company said.

Why ? ...because his name was used at the scene.
The guy gave his business card to Michele right after the collision and he was late for work at lunch time.

I appreciate it when people stop and offer their testimony to the police.

I do it all the time.

Way to Go Joe !

 

As do I. Especially since we have about 25% of our drivers unlicensed and uninsured here in Texas.