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First one. My fault. Was on the airport road (for those aussies who know sydney), before the bit that goes underneath the runway next to the control tower, and then too late I realize the fuckers have made a thrown together aritifical lane (with rubber) that if I stay on it will seperate me from the lanes that go towards the city. I have two seconds to change lanes. I go for it. Thump. Hit a guy's car going past, where his back door meets the rear area of his car. My car completely untouched (thank you, big steel bullbar).

Bugger.

Stop, guy pretty amiable, details exchanged- off to my fucking tax exam, which is why I was so desperate to change lanes. It was ok. I'll pass, won't do much better. Got a form for special exemption due to misadventure- I couldn't think of anything but the accident- but it seems as though I won't be able to get any documentary proof.

And I'm sorry, but closed book law exams? What the fuck? I'm not the fucking Rain Man of tax law, for fuck's sake. I can't remember what the fuck the principle of Amalgamated Zinc v FCT was, jesus, let us take in our notes, you draconian bastards.

Vympel wrote:
And I'm sorry, but closed book law exams? What the fuck? I'm not the fucking Rain Man of tax law, for fuck's sake. I can't remember what the fuck the principle of Amalgamated Zinc v FCT was, jesus, let us take in our notes, you draconian bastards.

Reminds me of whinges regarding History and Classics exams - when are you going to be stuck in your office writing a paper on something and going - now, what year was it again when the Pelopennesian war ended, forget looking in my thousands of books and documents, I'm going to try and remember off the top of my head.

weemadando wrote: Reminds me of whinges regarding History and Classics exams - when are you going to be stuck in your office writing a paper on something and going - now, what year was it again when the Pelopennesian war ended, forget looking in my thousands of books and documents, I'm going to try and remember off the top of my head.

I know what you mean. I was taking two Classics classes at the same time in which each professor had a different approximate date for the Trojan War so of course it makes sense to know all history dates off of the top of your head. The dates are only mainly important for context anyway.

There is something to be said about memorization and the discipline sometimes required to do it but anymore, in many occupations, it's becoming more about knowing how and where to find the correct information than it is to know everything outright.

Reminds me of whinges regarding History and Classics exams - when are you going to be stuck in your office writing a paper on something and going - now, what year was it again when the Pelopennesian war ended, forget looking in my thousands of books and documents, I'm going to try and remember off the top of my head

Either 404 or 405.

Vympel wrote:First one. My fault. Was on the airport road (for those aussies who know sydney), before the bit that goes underneath the runway next to the control tower, and then too late I realize the fuckers have made a thrown together aritifical lane (with rubber) that if I stay on it will seperate me from the lanes that go towards the city. I have two seconds to change lanes. I go for it. Thump. Hit a guy's car going past, where his back door meets the rear area of his car. My car completely untouched (thank you, big steel bullbar).

Sorry to hear that, buddy. My first (and so far, only) accident was in heavy traffic on a rainy day more than 10 years ago. Somebody pulled abruptly out of a driveway and cut off a car a couple of spots ahead of me, thus causing a four-car chain reaction when a lot of cars (all too close together, as is typical for bumper-to-bumper traffic) met bumpers end to end. The rain-slicked road certainly didn't help, and I was #3 out of 4 cars. Legally, it was my fault that I didn't keep more space between me and the guy in front of me. While there were extenuating circumstances, the fact remains that I should have kept more distance ahead of me. Oh well, live and learn.

Bugger.

Stop, guy pretty amiable, details exchanged- off to my fucking tax exam, which is why I was so desperate to change lanes. It was ok. I'll pass, won't do much better. Got a form for special exemption due to misadventure- I couldn't think of anything but the accident- but it seems as though I won't be able to get any documentary proof.

And I'm sorry, but closed book law exams? What the fuck? I'm not the fucking Rain Man of tax law, for fuck's sake. I can't remember what the fuck the principle of Amalgamated Zinc v FCT was, jesus, let us take in our notes, you draconian bastards.

Closed-book exams are an excellent cover for profs who can't write a decent exam to save their lives. It allows them to make a stupid exam difficult, by testing the students' memory retention instead of their ability.

Glad to hear you're OK.

Darth Wong wrote: Closed-book exams are an excellent cover for profs who can't write a decent exam to save their lives. It allows them to make a stupid exam difficult, by testing the students' memory retention instead of their ability.

I hear that. If I had the work I had done to prepare for this exam with me in the exam, the questions would've been incredibly easy. Open book law exams tend to have nuanced, complex questions where you have to work hard to draw out the relevant issues, whereas this was just an obnoxious exercise in "see if you can remember which case deals with frequent flier points as income"

Argh.

Glad to hear you're OK.

Danke. It was kinda unreal- for a split second I thought- you could just drive off now. But I quickly got that out of my head.

Well both aspects of your day sucked. I've been in at least five accidents as a passenger and been hit and knocked over while on my bike, no injury or damage, but I've yet to have one while I was the driver.

I've had three accidents. The first I wound up paying the guy to avoid legal problems (five hundred ). The second time, I didn't hear anything about it after I filed the accident report (dumb bitch sped past on the left as I was pulling out of my spot; I assume she was turning since I didn't see her). Third time was in heavy traffic; I lightly rear-ended a dude. Thought it was my fault, but it turns out that he had to make a short stop because some stupid pedestrian jaywalked right in front of him. He bitched the idiot jaywalker out instead of me

I've never had a real accident. I've taken a right turn too sharp and banged the hell out of my tire rim against a curve, and backed into someone's truck while not paying attention (though my car absorbed 100% of the damage, thanks to his heavy-duty plastic bumper). I was lucky, though, if it had been a different bumper on the car I'd have lost a hefty chunk of change.

I forgot to mention earlier that I actually had one accident since then, but it was never reported because it wasn't my fault and the other driver paid me off on the spot. So as far as the legal record is concerned, I've only been in one accident.

Darth Wong wrote: Sorry to hear that, buddy. My first (and so far, only) accident was in heavy traffic on a rainy day more than 10 years ago. Somebody pulled abruptly out of a driveway and cut off a car a couple of spots ahead of me, thus causing a four-car chain reaction when a lot of cars (all too close together, as is typical for bumper-to-bumper traffic) met bumpers end to end. The rain-slicked road certainly didn't help, and I was #3 out of 4 cars. Legally, it was my fault that I didn't keep more space between me and the guy in front of me. While there were extenuating circumstances, the fact remains that I should have kept more distance ahead of me. Oh well, live and learn.

Of course, then someone would have just cut between you and the car ahead of you.



I've only been in one collision. I was driving home from a LAN party (I was very tired and really shouldn't have been driving), and a car pulled from a parking lot right the fuck in front of me, and I caved in the driver's door. Really wasn't my fault, but I was 16 and panicky. They didn't want to trade info or anything, and that was fine by me. I took off before they could change their minds.

Vympel wrote: Got a form for special exemption due to misadventure- I couldn't think of anything but the accident- but it seems as though I won't be able to get any documentary proof.

Use your insurance claim.

Sorry about all your trouble, Vympel.

As for my one and only pseudoaccident, I was late for school back in senior year of high school, so I come zipping in to the parking lot as everybody is going to class, and I still wasn't completely in tune with the wide turning radius of my pickup, so I slammed into the car next to the parking spot I was going for.
I did what any level-headed person would do: I backed up, corrected, and parked like normal. I then went to class, and yelled something obscene at the underclassmen who were gawking at me on the way.

Second period, I get called into the principal's office. The principal -- correction, vice principal -- was a real dick, and he was trying to sound real important. They called in the guy who's car I slammed into, but as I already knew, the car belonged to one of my best friends. They walked us out to the scene of the crime, we exchanged insurance info, and went back to class. My friend didn't care, and didn't press charges or ask for reparations.

Turns out, a gardener saw the whole thing and he wrote down my plate number and turned me in. I should have put the fear of god into that son of a bitch.

I've been in two accidents in my own car, and another with a friend.

First one my (ex)hubbie was driving interstate witha very busy on-ramp entering from the right, straight into an off-ramp so it's a short merge lane. A car stops in front of us, and we manage to stop.. but the woman merging behind us rams us at 50mph. Our little '87 K-car wagon shoves its tow-hook through the brand-new Caddy's radiator, totalling it but not the wagon. It was one of 8 accidents in 3 minutes... and it took 20 before I said 'hell with it' and walked towards the nearest EMT. When I got there, the EMTs put me on a stretcher and then Dropped Me while putting me in the ambulance.

Second one, I was driving to pick up said (ex)hubbie from work. It was 2am, on a two lane road that ran beside the interstate, seperated by a concrete retainer wall. I round the corner doing 50mph, when I see a car pop up over the hill approx 1/4mile in ahead. I have enough time to think "He's in my lane! Dad's gonna kill me, (Hubbie)'s gonna kill me... Concrete is softer!" as I swerved for the retaining wall. The car still hit me, although I find out later I had made it off the road to the point I scrapped the concrete. The other car careened off and buried itself in the railroad embankment, while I fought to keep mine in my lane, with a dead engine and powersteering. The driver, I find out, was underage, dead drunk, with no insurance, registration, and a stolen liscence plate. He broke a leg, while I escaped with bumps and bruises.

Because of these wrecks, my left shoulder aches with the weather, or anytime it damn well feels like it.

BoredShirtless wrote:

Vympel wrote: Got a form for special exemption due to misadventure- I couldn't think of anything but the accident- but it seems as though I won't be able to get any documentary proof.

Use your insurance claim.

Problem- they require the form within 4 days.

Sorry to hear bout the accident,

The only car accident I was in happened last year when I was stopped at a traffic lights and some idiot had been speeding and couldn't stop soon enough (speeding on the first day of rain is a very bad idea) so he slammed into the back of me, pushing my car into the one in front of me.

Vympel wrote:

BoredShirtless wrote:

Vympel wrote: Got a form for special exemption due to misadventure- I couldn't think of anything but the accident- but it seems as though I won't be able to get any documentary proof.

Use your insurance claim.

Problem- they require the form within 4 days.

Well that sucks. Sydney Uni was 7. Which Uni you go to?

I've been in one accident and about 2 near-collisions.
The two near-collisions were pretty much my fault--I was still new to driving.
The first one, I don't think I even had my license. I was turning right out of a parking lot onto a moderately-trafficked street that has a suicide lane down the middle of it. Unseen by me, some guy had turned from a parking lot a little further down the street than me, and pulled into the suicide lane. I saw what I thought was a clear spot, and started to pull out, but the guy decided to use the clear spot to pull out of the suicide lane into the lane I was turning onto. The guy must've floored it, too, because he raced by my front bumper.
The second time, I was in the right lane, coming up on a merge from the right. I misjudged speeds, and figured I could get in front of a pickup before he merged over. I was blocked in on my left, so I couldn't change lanes, and the guy merging from the right nearly sideswiped me before he managed to get in front of me. As it would happen, I wound up following behind him for a good 5 minutes before our paths diverged. He had his middle finger up at me the entire way.
Of course, while these are mostly my fault, the other drivers were agressive enough to share blame.

The only accident I was in was pretty much all my fault. I was going to work after school in late January. It had been snowing a bit around home, but down in the valley where the school was, the roads were bare. As I came up towards work, in the hills, there was some snow on the sides of the road, but not much.
I was going about 50 on the highway, and a van in front of me slowed to turn right. I was down to about 30 when he turned. I started to accelerate back up to speed, right where some trees had kept the road in shadow all day. I hit black ice at around 35mph.
My front end slid out to the left, and I made my first mistake--I turned away from the skid. This took me into the left lane, where there was a dump truck about 70 yards away coming at me at 50mph. Second mistake here. I yanked the wheel back to the right to get into my lane, but I still didn't have appropriate traction. I'm a bit fuzzy on what happened here; I can't really envision how my van was spinning. My front wheels hit the dirt at the edge of the shoulder, and I kept spinning, until I was facing the other way. At this point, there was too much traction, but too much momentum. My van tipped. If there wasn't a drainage ditch and a 10-foot embankment on the other side of the ditch, I probably would've wound up on my roof. As it was, I finally stopped moving when my van was laying on the driver's side. Crap from the passenger side rained down on me, causing most of my injuries. I turned off the engine, undid my seatbelt, stood on the door, and tried to open the passenger-side door. I didn't have enough leverage, but some people who pulled over helped me get the door open and climb out. When the state patrol showed up, he almost gave me a ticket for "driving too fast for conditions", but he apparently had another call and gave me a warning before leaving.
I wasn't really hurt (I ached like hell the next day, but my only lasting injuries were a couple cuts on my leg from a falling under-seat drawer), but the damage to the van would've cost more to fix than it was worth, so we took the insurance, and my parents withdrew money from their retirement, and we bought two cars and put wood laminate floors in much of the house (turns out the guy who helped me out of the van was actually the guy who put our floors in, too).
The driver of the dump truck was actually a co-worker's husband, who relayed that my eyes were big as dinner plates when I was in his lane.
On hindsight, turning into the skid might've saved the van, but it also might've put me into a position to get nailed by the dump truck, which would've been much worse.

BoredShirtless wrote:
Well that sucks. Sydney Uni was 7. Which Uni you go to?

UWS (Para campus)

Ugh sounds like you had one bad ugly day.

Glad you're not hurt...but yeah accidents suck.

And Tax Law?!

Urgh...why man?

And yeah closed book blow because the prof is going "Remember Mar 18 when I was blithering for a while?...I revealed a vital piece of info!!!"

Sorry never liked them when I was at the uni.

Hell, my mother got in an accident the other day....in my dad's new dodge ram! (not even a month old yet, and only has nearly 5000 miles on it) My mother was on her way to my brother's house to take some pictures over that she printed out. My dad followed her out since he was on his way to work (works in the FedEx Engine room toolshop). See, our road has a 90 degree left turn at the end, with a hill on the left side so you can't see anyone coming. (why that hill is still there, I'll never know....) This kid driving a POS Ford (Mercury actually, but they're made by Ford anyways.) exited the highway and crossed the northbound lane (4 lane, seperate highway. Those of you that have been through western Tennessee and have been on highway 51 know what I'm talking about.) and onto our road. He dropped something on the floorboard of his car and leaned over to pick it up. He only had about two feet till the turn started. (brilliant design by lazy workers, what do you expect?) My mother saw him coming, and just came to a complete stop. She couldn't turn to the right since our road only has two lanes, and has a 4 foot drop on the right side (yet another brilliant design... ) She couldn't back up because she didn't have time (truck has manual transmission), and she couldn't have goosed it cuz he would've still hit her. By the time the kid looked up, they had just collided. The dipshit wasn't even wearing a seatbelt! He nailed her on the left front quater panel of the truck, only doing superficial damage (which amazingly costs ~$1500 with brand new factory parts ), but his car was totalled. The only thing he got was a bump on his forehead, but my mom's wrist got sprained pretty bad. She was pretty fucked up emotionally afterwards. Took me 45 minutes just to calm her down. Even today, when I took her to the local Sams Club, she was still jumpy about the smallest bump on the road. Anyways, when the police finally showed up, (I was there by this time) the kid admitted to the police that it was his fault. (kinda hard for him to lie about it since he was across the fucking yellow lines!) Needless to say, if he didn't admit to it, I would've jumped in his face and....convinced him otherwise. He got the ticket, and the whole nine yards. The EMT showed up, and took at look at my mom's wrist. He didn't think it was broken, but wanted her to get it x-rayed just incase there was a bone spur loose in there. After I took lots of pictures of both vehicles (just in-case the little shit tries to weasel his way out of it in court. He had to have been 17 - 18 so mom & pop might try to make it look like it was my mom's fault.) Then we got home and talked to the insurance company. Half an hour later, I drove her down to the emergency room to get it looked at. Two hours later, we got home and I popped in a movie to get her mind off of things.

We'll see if he tries to get out of it. His court date is on July 11th, and I fully intend on showing up with printouts of the damage.

Minor damage, hm? My agents have failed me.

Nah. Seriously, good to hear there was no injuries sustained.

I've been in only one accident. "Our" car was broadsided. A friend was driving and I was in the passenger's seat.

We'd actually passed about three accidents on the way over - always in fact doing the rubber-necking thing and once stopping to talk to the cop directing traffic.

So then we get to a wide left turn on a four-lane road. In the right lane are these boys fixing the back tire of a car with girls inside. We snigger over their predicament.

And then, of course, the accident.

So we were on a two-way side-street. Some guy was coming parallel to us and indicated with a turn signal that he'd be making a turn. So my friend thought it okay to run straight across his road and make the wide left. But somewhere in between, the turning guy decides not to turn, switches lanes, and then rams our car at the rear. I watched in slow motion as he broad-sided us, rocked back, and looked around. It was really odd.

Common sense says my friend was right. The old guy in the car messed up. The law says it's my friend's fault. But nobody was hurt, so it was never dealt with legally. My friend and the old guy both drove off looking embaressed and having exchanged information. I hear neither of them ever pursued the matter. There's still a massive dent in my friend's car over eight months later.

I've been in two low-speed shunts. One was Dad hitting Grandad on the way to my uncle's wedding reception

OTOH, my mum and her parents were involved in a serious accident on Christmas Eve a few years ago. They were back home by morning, Grandma on sticks, Mum in a neck brace...

Sorry to hear you've had such a bad day.

Danke. It was kinda unreal- for a split second I thought- you could just drive off now. But I quickly got that out of my head.

Good you didn't do that - once, someone crashed into my car parking before my house. Fucking asshole drove away, luckily the insurance paid.