Rear-ended while stopped at red light...

I just settled a accident with a insurance company. I was loaded for bear and knew the value of my car, I was not going to take anything less. The adjuster called me and I was ready to go to war, he offered me 20% more then I thought. I would let it play out and see what they are going to offer. Get your rental car as soon as you can.
 
This was my greatest fear when I used to ride a motocycle. I used to hate sitting at red lights for any length of time.

Know the feeling. When I ride my cycle I feel like I have a bullseye on my back when I'm stopped at a light. Always look in rear mirrors. A colleague of mine was killed about 5 weeks ago on his way to Sturgis. I had a car totaled in 2003 when a person with a bad driving record went through a light. Hired a lawyer. I still got hit with 1% liability.
 
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One of my friends is in the same place right now with an accident involving someone with the same insurance company. Basically what they do is assign 2 different people to handle it from both sides, one working for you, one working for the other driver. In his case the other guy ran a red light and nearly killed him, yet they are still trying to say the other guy is only 70% at fault because my friend didn't stop at a green light so that the guy could make an illegal left turn without killing anyone :rolleyes:

Yes, get a lawyer.
 
I haven't been rear-ended. Don't plan to be. Ever.
I've been rear ended several times, didn't plan on any of them. In two cases I'd been stopped for a couple minutes prior to the crash, in another I saw it coming but couldn't do anything to prevent it. AFaIK the only way to avoid this is to not drive on public roads, or if you must then just don't ever stop (which may have other undesirable consequences).
 
One of my friends is in the same place right now with an accident involving someone with the same insurance company. Basically what they do is assign 2 different people to handle it from both sides, one working for you, one working for the other driver. In his case the other guy ran a red light and nearly killed him, yet they are still trying to say the other guy is only 70% at fault because my friend didn't stop at a green light so that the guy could make an illegal left turn without killing anyone :rolleyes:

Yes, get a lawyer.
I had just the opposite experience (State Farm). While stopped waiting to turn into my driveway I was tapped from behind by a Suburban. The only damage was a deep gouge in my bumper cover caused by the head of a screw holding the Suburban's front license plate. A complication was that there was some minor damage to the same bumper cover (parking lot rash) which I wanted to get fixed at the same time. The Suburban had the same insurer as me but the two areas of damage were essentially two separate claims, one having a deductible and one not plus the Suburban induced gouge could be repaired and qualified for rental car coverage but the prior damage did not and required replacing the cover rather than a repair.

The adjuster concluded that it would be simpler all around to just cover all of it with one claim with rental coverage and no deductible. I would have been happy with paying the deductible and splitting the rental cost but was obviously quite pleased with the outcome.
 
Back when I was in the fire department I got a call to come to the intersection adjacent to the firehouse. What I found was a motorcycle, still upright jammed in the front of a small car. The windshield was cracked and the driver's window was smashed. Apparently the biker ended up on the hood of the car (against the windshield) but otherwise wasn't injured. He hopped down, smashed the driver's window and yanked the drunk out by his hair. Normally, I'd wait for the cops in this kind of situation, but I was able to convince the biker to drop the drunk and come let me check him out in the back of the ambulance (leaving my partner to deal with the remains of the drunk).

Turns out neither was particularly injured. The police came and took the cager away for DUI.
 
I've been rear ended several times, didn't plan on any of them. In two cases I'd been stopped for a couple minutes prior to the crash, in another I saw it coming but couldn't do anything to prevent it. AFaIK the only way to avoid this is to not drive on public roads, or if you must then just don't ever stop (which may have other undesirable consequences).

I was rear-ended a few times when I was a young man and eventually learned ways to mitigate both the risk of being hit and the risk of hitting another vehicle as a result of being hit. For example:


  • Maintain adequate following distance to avoid having to stop abruptly if the car in front of me does. This gives the guy behind me more time to stop.
  • Add an extra second or two of following distance when following a truck, bus, farmer pulling a load of hay, or anything else that obstructs my forward vision.
  • Also add a second or two when the vehicle behind me is a truck or bus to compensate for that vehicle's longer stopping distance if I have to stop.
  • Add a second or two of following distance when following a motorcycle or very light car that presumably has a shorter braking distance.
  • Signal turns and lane changes early, and always signal before slowing down. People who start to slow down first and then signal (especially if they don't flash the brake lights) are practically asking to be hit.
  • I generally don't brake to slow down to go through a village, but I still flash the brake lights to let following drivers know that I'm slowing down. The following driver may not have noticed the "Speed Zone Ahead" sign.
  • When stopped at a light as the first vehicle, I maintain firm pressure on the brakes and leave some room between me and the crosswalk or intersection. That reduces the risk of my being propelled into the intersection or a pedestrian.
  • When stopped at a light and not the first vehicle, I maintain firm pressure on the brakes and leave enough forward distance to see where the tires of the vehicle in front of me touch the pavement. That reduces the chance of my being propelled into the vehicle in front of me if I am hit.
  • I've also learned to mellow out and move over to allow tailgaters to pass me. The only time this is a problem around here is during the spring fishing season, the summer, and the hunting season, when a lot of "downstaters" are on the roads. The locals don't tailgate. I think it's because of the deer. Having to slow down because the car in front is trying to avoid hitting a suicidal deer is a common situation up here, but one that doesn't happen downstate.

There was one time I was rear-ended that I'm glad I didn't avoid. When I was in college, one of my jalopies was a 1969 AMC Rebel wagon that I bought for $450.00. I was waiting at an intersection to make a left turn when I was rear-ended by a limo. It was just a mildly jarring hit, not a violent one.

The middle-aged passenger in the limo, who owned it but wasn't driving, ran out of the car to make sure I wasn't hurt (I wasn't). He seemed genuinely concerned and offered several times to take me to the nearby hospital. I declined and assured him that I was unhurt. Then we looked at the damage. It was minor. The tailgate was slightly dented and the window wouldn't roll down. His bumper was higher than mine, so my bumper wasn't damaged at all.

He, I, and the driver exchanged the usual information. We didn't call the police because there were no injuries and the damage was minor. The owner also gave me $500.00 in cash to fix the tailgate and told me to call him back if the damage cost more than that to fix.

I fixed the damage to the tailgate myself the next day. I just popped out the dent and re-aligned the crank-type window mechanism inside the door. The dent popped out very nicely, so I decided to leave it at that. Later that day the owner of the limo called to check up on me again. I told him that the damage was fixed, and I assured him once again that I was unhurt.

I thought that was the end of it until I got a call from a lawyer who said he had a $5,000.00 check for me from the limo owner, along with a release to sign stating that I was uninjured and considered the matter settled. I thought I'd hit the Lotto! I drove like a bat out of hell to the lawyer's office, signed the release after barely reading it, and walked away five grand richer than I'd been that morning. Five grand was some pretty decent coin back then.

I didn't replace the Rebel, though. I banked the money and kept driving the Rebel until the brake master cylinder, the starter, and the muffler went bad -- all on the same day. It had 225,000 miles on it by then.

I thought it was an act of kindness on the Rebel's part that all three parts failed on the same day. Had any one of them failed, I probably would have fixed it. But because all three failed the same day, I sold it to a junkie automobile recycler for $35.00. Then I bought a used, then late-model Plymouth for $1,300.00 cash, which I drove for a couple more years before buying my first new car.

Rich
 
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:yeahthat:

If more people would do these things, there would be a lot fewer collisions, a lot fewer injuries, insurance rates would go down ... and I could retire sooner and go flying. :)
 
The times I've been rear ended I was stopped (once at a red light and once at a toll booth). Go figure.

My cousin, an over-the-road truck driver got recently rear-ended while travelling at a constant 55MPH. Someone wasn't paying attention.
 
I was rear-ended a few times when I was a young man and eventually learned ways to mitigate both the risk of being hit and the risk of hitting another vehicle as a result of being hit.
I don't disagree that your tips will help prevent accidents but I don't see anything there which would have prevented these:

1) Driving across town on a two lane highway I stop behind a few cars waiting for a bulldozer crossing the road. Two or three minutes later an inattentive driver wakes up too late and parks in my trunk.

2) Stopped at a traffic light on a 4 lane road at night. After a couple minutes sitting there a drunk hits me from behind at about 30 mph without ever touching his brakes. He then tries to drive away but doesn't get far due to the damage to his car. This is especially annoying because my car is only 5 months old at the time. Even more annoying when I learn the drunk has no insurance and got off without any ticket because the cop felt sorry for him.
 
My daughter had two close friends killed when a sleep deprived dump truck driver slammed into their car while they were stopped at the stop line at a red light.


The cop felt sorry for him? I'd certainly make a complaint to the department. Is he going to feel sorry when this irresponsible drunkard kills someone? It's only a matter of time.
 
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I'd be very careful as to how an accident is handled. Traumatic injuries can trigger strange health issues. You could be stung by a wasp, get pregnant, take a blunt trauma one day and end up with debilitating disease where the body is overacting to repair injuries.

Just think, you break an arm and end up with severe heterotopic ossification or something.
 
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