My car -- yes, the MM RX CCC -- got hit yesterday morning, returning from the Mom meeting. Oh, it wasn't much, a low speed. low relative speed hit approaching a roundabout on a 4-lane road: I was in the right-hand lane, the other driver was in the left one, and suddenly realized she needed to be in my lane. Alas, she apparently did not notice my SUV-sized vehicle. She drifted over and tapped my ride behind the left rear wheel, creasing the sheet metal, scraping off a little side light and uglying the side of the rear bumper. Her Jeep Compass came off much the worse, losing the outer light housing on the right front, with well-creased sheet metal behind it.
She insisted on calling the police and I didn't object. Things took a turn for the surly after an officer was on the scene and the Compass driver was unable to produce any insurance information or registration for the car, which turned out to belong to "a friend." Her driver's license was out-of-state. And of course, in her telling, I "came out of nowhere." Um-hm. Along a busy 40 mph 4-lane street in a town well known for strict and humorless enforcement of speed limits, approaching a roundabout with a recommended speed of 15 mph (which most drivers take at 20 to 25). Nope.
It was one of those mornings. Inevitably, if I get hit, I get hit by someone with no insurance and little prospect of repaying. I filed a claim with my insurance (no choice -- in Indiana, you have to carry uninsured motorist coverage and any accident reported to the police requires filing a fresh Proof of Insurance form) but this may be under the deductible.
So far, the car still runs and so do I. Woke up early this morning with a bad calf cramp. Stress? Maybe.
PS: Antis, I was armed to the teeth. And very ticked off, too. Somehow, my gun did not so much as put in an appearance. Gawrsh, who would'a thunk? --Oh, that's right, most normal people are happy to let the police and their insurance carrier "go on the warpath" instead.
BUILDING A 1:1 BALUN
4 years ago
9 comments:
Guess you didn't want to be on the six o'clock news as another "road rage" driver??? :) I'm wondering why the other driver didn't get hauled off - car could have been stolen, you know!
Merle
It comes as no surprise to me that your weapons are very well-behaved. Am I to understand the cop didn't buy her "out of nowhere" story?
Sorry you have to go thru the insurance-filing body shop thing.
My wife had a very similar accident on the 96th and Township Line disaster, er, roundabout. The cop claimed he could have given her a ticket for not properly using the roundabout. Our insurance agent said the cop was full of it, there is nothing in any applicable statute or municipal code that explains how to use a roundabout.
And I'm sorry, but the signed method of how you utilize one of those damn things is a prescription for accident after accident after accident. The city of Carmel needs to be class-action sued to replace every damn one of them with a traffic light.
Hey Fuzzy,
Check into the officile Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices at the following website.
http://mutcd.fhwa.dot.gov
The MUTCD is quite useful in busting red light camera scams where the city adjusts the yellow light interval to improve income. It wouldn't surprise me to find that the city of Carmel overlooked something in the siting & signage on their roundabouts.
Hey Roberta: It must be something going around. My wife was rear-ended the same day.
Jay
This was going into the roundabout rather than actually in it. I think the signed method is pretty clear, along with the convention that cars in the roundabout have right of way over cars approaching it. It's the nitwits who aren't looking that worries me. The thing roundabouts do is to turn T-bone wrecks into glancing impacts; unable to fix foolish or inattentive drivers, Carmel chose to try changing their vector.
I firmly believe bright sunlight makes people less interested in the world: their pupils get very small and this is a signal that something ain't of interest. Want to drive better in the summer? Get darker sunglasses. And sideshields or wraparound.
IME triggering person for car accident have history of such, unless they normally live & drive in places with very little traffic, so they often have no insurance because the insurance companies expect them to keep hitting people.
~Glamdring
In Indiana, no insurance means no license plates. Get caught at it and it can mean worse.
I'll take a roundabout over traffic signals any day of the week, and twice on Sundays.
When there is no traffic on the crossing street, I rarely need to do more than slow down a little at a roundabout.
However, with a timed-sequence, light-controlled intersection, there's a good chance that I will have to stop at a red for a while, even if mine is the only car on the road.
Perhaps if the local traffic Gestapo implemented an "all ambers flashing when lights not required" policy, it might be a little better, but there is little on the roads that is more annoying than sitting at a red light for five minutes with not a single other car in sight.
In MI, no insurance, no license plate. No proof of insurance in vehicle, automatic ticket.
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