What does this signal mean?

ScottM

ScottM

Taxi to Parking
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iBazinga!
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If you said stop you may be wrong.

For the fourth time in 8 years we were rear ended last night while at a stop light.

What is it with people, can't they see that the light is red, that no traffic is moving and that ramming me is not going to get you through any faster??

:mad3::mad3::mad3::mad3:

At least it was not the new car. But the rear end is smashed and both front seats were ruined. The person who hit us was, WAIT FOR IT, talking on her cell phone and was in a fight with her husband!!

Wanna bet that fight intensified when she got home??

So the car is at the shop this morning and I'll get a call later today or tomorrow with what they are going to do.

Underneath I can see the fiberglass bumper is smashed, the plastic covering is torn, the rear hatch is bent, but it looks like everything else is ok at least nothing overt.
 
That stinks. Hope you and your passenger are OK, sometimes it takes a couple of days for symptoms to show up.

Last time I got rear-ended I felt OK until the insurance adjustor tried to weasel out of paying for replacing some expensive exhaust system components. Coincidence, I guess.


Trapper John
 
The strobe lights embedded in the red light may or may not help, but my big accident was about the same thing, except instead of talking on the phone, the driver was a 15 year old and had her head turned 90 degrees talking to her passenger. Ran the light and slammed into my front quarter panel. Luckily I noticed it and stopped otherwise she would've hit my driver door.

What really irked me was after I got all of her information and got back to the hotel I was staying at, I called up my insurance, they called her insurance, and her father (who wasn't in the car) told them that I ran the red light (despite the fact that she never once asked for my information). Ugh. Luckily a gentleman had given me his card before I left the scene and with him as a witness the other insurance company agreed to pay repairs. I just wish that crap like that would be cut out by making statements made for insurance purposes the equivalent of affidavits. :mad3:
 
wbarnhill said:
The strobe lights embedded in the red light may or may not help, but my big accident was about the same thing, except instead of talking on the phone, the driver was a 15 year old and had her head turned 90 degrees talking to her passenger. Ran the light and slammed into my front quarter panel. Luckily I noticed it and stopped otherwise she would've hit my driver door.

What really irked me was after I got all of her information and got back to the hotel I was staying at, I called up my insurance, they called her insurance, and her father (who wasn't in the car) told them that I ran the red light (despite the fact that she never once asked for my information). Ugh. Luckily a gentleman had given me his card before I left the scene and with him as a witness the other insurance company agreed to pay repairs. I just wish that crap like that would be cut out by making statements made for insurance purposes the equivalent of affidavits. :mad3:
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Lucky. Well in this case she got a ticket so no problem there.

I did witness an accident once where a cab ran a red light and broadsided a car. This was in Vancouver BC. I stayed to make sure no one was injured, called 911 and then gave my info to the police and the driver who was hit.

A few weeks later I got a call from his insurance company asking me to repeat my story. Which I did, in fact I had gone to the hotel that night and wrote it down. The insurance company asked me about a second cab. I asked there was none. According to the cab that ran the red light it was not he who was wrong but the other car and he produced a witness in another cab to prove he was right.

I was there, it was after midnight, I was walking and there was no cab other than the guy who ran the red light, I was walking across the street with the green and knew it. The cabbie had gotten a friend to lie for him.
 
Scott-
Glad you and your pax or Ok. Sorry for the hassle you have to go through now.
 
Everyone in your car ok?

That signal means do whatever you want...just like all other traffic signs and signals.


You want crazy? About 8 years ago I was doing a left turn on an arrow. The opposite direction 3 lanes had lots of stopped cars backed up quite a few deep, the opposite direction turn lane was stopped and backed up just like the 3 straight lanes. Between those 3 stopped lanes and the left turn lane was a space wide enough for a vehicle but was not an actual lane. A nutcase came through that empty space between all those stopped cars and rammed my side just in front of the passenger door hard enough to break the engine and transmission apart on an old 1986 grand cherokee. Impact speed was officially 3mph however I estimated impact was right around 50mph probably 1/10th of a second before the blamo sound. I paid through the nose for that crash however walked away totally unharmed. That guy, once he regained conciousness lied like crazy about what happened - at least kharma put him in the hospital for a month for being despicable.


The stories I could tell from this year alone...sheesh.
 
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It's funny how you usually pick out those folks who pick up the cell phone while whizzing along the interstate. You usually see their speed drop by about 10 mph.

Glad everyone's okay Scott.
 
Glad you are ok. It's amazing how litte attention people pay while driving. When I got my car wrecked it was the second guy coming out of an intersection onto the highway that got me. At least I got the attention of the first minivan. Plus that driver gave a pretty good statement to the cops. Didn't help that the other guy was drinking though...
 
smigaldi said:
I did witness an accident once where a cab ran a red light and broadsided a car. This was in Vancouver BC. I stayed to make sure no one was injured, called 911 and then gave my info to the police and the driver who was hit.

A few weeks later I got a call from his insurance company asking me to repeat my story. Which I did, in fact I had gone to the hotel that night and wrote it down. The insurance company asked me about a second cab. I asked there was none. According to the cab that ran the red light it was not he who was wrong but the other car and he produced a witness in another cab to prove he was right.

I was there, it was after midnight, I was walking and there was no cab other than the guy who ran the red light, I was walking across the street with the green and knew it. The cabbie had gotten a friend to lie for him.
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Glad you're OK, Scott. Some folks (like the other driver here) shouldn't be driving.... (Gratitutious political comment deleted).

Taxis: The NYC cabs are that bad and worse. They'll file a lawsuit before you can even call your insurance company. Lies? Pffft. Anything for money, made worse by the Medallion system. There was more than one incident in NYC where a nice (read: expensive) car would be stopped at a light behind a cabbie. Cab driver would put car in reverse and smash into nice car. Cabbie would claim to be rear-ended and try to soak expensive car owner for damages including loss of use. There's a reason I won't drive a nice car in NYC.
 
Last week I rode the bike to the airport. Stopped at the light on Route 51 north before the I-70 overpass.

I was in the left lane (I'm always in the left lane on the bike). Light was red before I got there. I saw traffic on the right waiting to turn on to 51 north.

Hmmm..that's strange..she has the green...

Then I looked right, and heard a whoosh, as a Red Escape blasted through the intersection in the right lane. I took off when the light turned green, caught here...

Sure enough, she had the cell phone up to the left ear.

I pulled back the charging handle on the .50 cal, squeezed the butterfly, and let loose. Tracers ran up the back end and split the vehicle in half in the first burst....

I rode through the scattered fragments of the vehicle...

Sorry -- that last part didn't really happen.
 
Glad everyone is OK.
My wifes last car got rear ended 3 - 4 times sitting at red lights. After she got a new car she has not be rear ended once. Not sure about the last car why it kept happening but it was funning it stopped after she got the new car.

My daughter just got accused of hitting a car in the parking lot. The person she was accused of hit had witnesses too. There was even silver paint transfer on the car off our car. It all got dropped when they inspect our car. The car is GOLD not silver.
 
EppyGA said:
It's funny how you usually pick out those folks who pick up the cell phone while whizzing along the interstate. You usually see their speed drop by about 10 mph.

Glad everyone's okay Scott.
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The ier spped drops and goes up in a 20 mph range after they blithely steered left 6 feet in front of your front bumper and then if you indiacte in any way give you the one finger salute because HOW RUDE! I'M ON THE PHONE!!!!

I'll admit I've taken to opportunity to pull teh same maneuver on them in which case they have no idea whatsoever why you're being a maniac but HOW RUDE! I'M ON THE PHONE!!!!


Scott, I refuse to believe you found another driver in Illinois who has auto insurance. Besides the law has always been that the rear ender is always at fault - never the rear endeee. That's why the scammers cut people off.
 
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It really is true that, when driving with the cellphone glued to the ear (and there is a clear difference when holding, vs. when a hands-free device is in use, from my observation), the drivers are usually in what I call "Zombie Mode"- utterly unaware of what is happening around them and unresponsive to basic traffic safety. Left lane on the freeway, blocking traffic, sitting still at the signal when it turns green, failing to proceed when it is their right-of-way. Bad deal.
 
SCCutler said:
It really is true that, when driving with the cellphone glued to the ear (and there is a clear difference when holding, vs. when a hands-free device is in use, from my observation), the drivers are usually in what I call "Zombie Mode"- utterly unaware of what is happening around them and unresponsive to basic traffic safety. Left lane on the freeway, blocking traffic, sitting still at the signal when it turns green, failing to proceed when it is their right-of-way. Bad deal.
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But it's not universal -- not everyone is incapable of driving while communicating.

On the bike I've passed many people reading, applying makeup, consuming 4 course meals, and swatting bugs in the back seat -- among other distractions.
 
Glad you're ok, Scott. I'm guessing this was the BMW?

One shouldn't drive a nice car in NYC or pretty much any major urban area. The fact that most people in those areas are driving beat up old wrecks should give you some indication.

I will, however, ride my motorcycle in NYC. Go figure.
 
mikea said:
Scott, I refuse to believe you found another driver in Illinois who has auto insurance. Besides teh law has always been that the rear ender is always t fault - never the rear endeee. That's why the scammers cut people off.
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She says she has insurance. American home assurance or something like that. I still put the claim in through my insurance and then they go after her insurance. Makes life easier.
 
dmccormack said:
But it's not universal -- not everyone is incapable of driving while communicating.

On the bike I've passed many people reading, applying makeup, consuming 4 course meals, and swatting bugs in the back seat -- among other distractions.
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Very true. I still think that screaming kids in the back seat are a much bigger distraction than cell phones.

Personally, I know how to Drive, Navigate, Communicate. And I wouldn't be doing that last while navigating busy city streets. Tooling along in the left lane of the expressway (where I'm not going to have merging traffic), it's quite doable. But note that I'm not generally involved in discussions that take a whole lot of concentration, either.

I've seen people with the distractions you mention do some pretty stupid things. Of course, I've also seen people without those do some pretty stupid things, too!:yikes:
 
dmccormack said:
But it's not universal -- not everyone is incapable of driving while communicating.

On the bike I've passed many people reading, applying makeup, consuming 4 course meals, and swatting bugs in the back seat -- among other distractions.
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There was this time in Houston- driver was reading her Bible (King James version, IIRC) while driving. Something especially funny about that.
 
In re: the original question.

Green = Go.

Yellow = go faster.

Red = Floor it!

Had someone try to tell me that one day.
 
Another bad situation- turn signals.

People are stopped for red light- the left turn signal goes on and people in the turn lane start moving. Someone heading the opposite direction but not turning sees the cars move and goes through their red light. The first car making the left turn stops and get rear-ended by the second one who only sees the turn arrow. The proximate cause of the accident drives off-never realizing they ran a light and caused an accident. I've seen it happen three times.

In Lincoln, NE there's a sizable minority that think the red light only takes effect if the green-light traffic is in the intersection. It's these idiots that make the best case for installing traffic cameras (I don't like them but I understand why people would want them).
 
Before cellphones, people were getting into "accidents", running red lights (or trying to), etc etc. It's interesting that during the time that the use of cellphones exploded the national accident rate was roughly flat (slight decline). (source of data is the National Highway Safety Transportaion Agency or whatever it's called).

A bad driver is a bad driver is a bad driver.
 
wsuffa said:
In re: the original question.

Green = Go.

Yellow = go faster.

Red = Floor it!

Had someone try to tell me that one day.
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Those rules seem to apply in Denver. I think the only other rule is that liability insurance is optional.:rolleyes:
 
smigaldi said:
Nope, 1997 Honda Accord. I would still be in tears if it was the VW or the BMW
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Whew, at least it was the beater.

I was driving my Jag through New York City two years ago and some kids were throwing rocks off an overpass at cars. So one about the size of a lawn mower piston (fortunately not a Lycoming piston) hits my hood and my windshield. Fortunately it hit on the passenger side, but glass got all over the passenger seat, and the hood was pretty much worthless and needed to be replaced. $4,000 worth of repair work, good thing I had full coverage.

Now I take either the motorcycle or the truck when I go to New York.
 
One of these days, states are going to smarten up and ban the possession of cell phones and internal rear view mirrors
:)
 
Try getting rear-ended on a bike. Ouch. That's why I split lanes constantly, and if I am at a red light leave the bike in gear and watch my mirrors.
 
Cap'n Jack said:
Another bad situation- turn signals.

People are stopped for red light- the left turn signal goes on and people in the turn lane start moving. Someone heading the opposite direction but not turning sees the cars move and goes through their red light. The first car making the left turn stops and get rear-ended by the second one who only sees the turn arrow. The proximate cause of the accident drives off-never realizing they ran a light and caused an accident. I've seen it happen three times.

In Lincoln, NE there's a sizable minority that think the red light only takes effect if the green-light traffic is in the intersection. It's these idiots that make the best case for installing traffic cameras (I don't like them but I understand why people would want them).
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I still almost never see anyone actually running a red light - as in a light that has been red for a while while a car coming up from far away (or not) goes right through. Push the yellow, yeah. It used to even say in Rules of the Road that cars approaching the intersection can enter on a yellow and clear on the red. I know a guy who might rarely get the timing wrong at cruising speed in a Mustang. He cringes looking back to see if there was a camera there. Not yet. Even in Chicago.

The red light cameras are catching people make left turns clearing the intersection after the red (doh!) and as was just kilt off in Schaumburg, not coming to a full stop for a right turn on red. (I almost always do that and a full stop at stop signs - risking getting rear ended.) When they filliy admitted that they were firing hundreds of cars a car and never, ever, ever had an accident or injury at the intersection, they just removed the camera.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-red-light-cameras-12-jul12,0,7945020.story
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-red-light-camerasjul15,0,7535797.story
 
SCCutler said:
There was this time in Houston- driver was reading her Bible (King James version, IIRC) while driving. Something especially funny about that.
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I had a friend at the church I used to go to say one time "I like the 'Jesus' fish thing on the back of cars, but I could never put one on my car - I speed too much."

Here's your sign....
 
wsuffa said:
In re: the original question.

Green = Go.

Yellow = go faster.

Red = Floor it!

Had someone try to tell me that one day.
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?Red Skeleton?:
"Green means go. Red means stop. Yellow means speed up before you get to Red."
 
CJones said:
I had a friend at the church I used to go to say one time "I like the 'Jesus' fish thing on the back of cars, but I could never put one on my car - I speed too much."

Here's your sign....
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Try driving with a license plate that says TCP IP (not that it means anything as to morality).

In spite of my occasional a*holiness I've never gotten called on it.

(Another guy in the employee garage got TCP 1P. Can't imagine where he got the idea.)
 
mikea said:
Try driving with a license plate that says TCP IP (not that it means anything as to morality).

In spite of my occasional a*holiness I've never gotten called on it.

(Another guy in the employee garage got TCP 1P. Can't imagine where he got the idea.)
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nerds.jpg


NEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!
 
The car may be totaled. The person's who hit us insurance, just called and they want to see the car. Since the seats were damaged it may cost more than the car's book value is. Problem is everything else about the car is fine and will run for many more years.
 
wbarnhill said:
nerds.jpg


NEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!
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Ogre is still living across the street. Maybe I'll ask him to pose next to the plate.
 
Kinda reminds me getting rear end while driving my mom's car, a BMW 525. Sitting at a red in gridlock and an SUV basically charges into me as if the light is green and I'm sitting not 25' ahead. :frown3: Turns out the SUV hit the trunk, not the bumper and crumpled it like a soda can. I was amazed that it was still drivable (sans taillights) and didn't leak fuel or fluids. Even more amazed when my mom said, "You wanna borrow the loaner?":eek:
 
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