<p>Today, I came very close to being rear-ended. I slowed and was stopping my car as I approached the intersection on a yellow light and heard a screech from behind and saw the car behind me rapidly approaching–could tell it would never stop in time to avoid smacking the rear of my van. I looked carefully and ran the red light. The car that was behind me was 2/3 to 3/4 beyond the stop line where my car had just been resting! When I got home & shared with hubby, H was surprised I had the presence of mind to look in my rear-view mirror and says the angels were working overtime to protect me and I believe him! I am just very grateful that I wasn’t hit–the driver of the other car (I saw him as he passed me in the far right lane later) was a 30-40 year old male & showed no indication of any upset or realizing that he had nearly hit me and possibly killed himself!</p>
<p>Sheesh! It gets harder and harder to drive when you have to avoid these idiots in a rush to kill themselves and everyone else in their way!</p>
<p>He probably thought that you were going to go through the light on yellow and he sped up to also go through the light on orange. Imagine his shock when you stopped for the light!</p>
<p>He would definitely have needed an ambulance if I didn’t make space for him–his car was no match for the back of my van and at the speed he was going, I would probably also have needed an ambulance. We have a LOT of awful drivers who are always trying to run solid red lights. It really bothered me that I had to do so in order to avoid being smacked by the idiot behind me! I did tap my brakes but he paid no heed!</p>
<p>Every accident I’ve been involved in (except one), I have been rear-ended while sitting in traffic or at a red light. The one that I wasn’t idling, I was hit from behind by a drunk-driver, for a hit-and-run (second hit-and-run from behind in my life). Fortunately for me and my insurance (but not for her), her front license plate fell off in the middle of the road, so the cops had no problem finding her within 5-10 minutes.</p>
<p>The last one (almost four years ago) I was rear-ended by a semi-truck, three days after returning from my 25-year old nephew’s funeral (he died in a car wreck - wasn’t wearing a seatbelt). Thankfully in my case, it was just the truck cab and he wasn’t carrying a load. But because I’ve been rear ended so many times, it’s just automatic habit to look in my rearview mirror often, especially when I’m stopped. So I saw this truck coming and at the time did not know there wasn’t a trailer on it. I seriously thought my daughter and I were goners. We were in Friday afternoon traffic, stopped on an interstate and there was no room to go. I ended up plowing into the guy in front of me, who thankfully, was an attorney who dealt with personal injury litigation. While I was in shock, he knew everything to do, for which I was very grateful.</p>
<p>Hubby has also been rear-ended three times while stopped in traffic with nowhere to go. I was rear-ended once when I was driving my two and the neighbor’s two kids to preschool–we were stopped in traffic and the car pushed me into the car in front of me who was pushed into the car in front of her. I was driving a heavy car & the middle car was a light sportscar which was crumpled when it was sandwiched between my heavy car & the front car which was also heavy. The car that started it all had barely a scratch; my car had no visible damage either. The kids were fine & calm & none in our car sustained any injury.</p>
<p>The only bad wreck I have been in I was rear ended. I was stopped waiting for a car coming the other way to pass so I could turn into the road leading to my neighborhood. A pick up truck driver didn’t see me because “he was admiring the SUV over there” (his words - it was a Cadillac SUV - new at the time - waiting to come out of the road I was turning into) and crashed into the back of me at a pretty high speed. it was strange as I thought it was just a fender bender, got out and looked at him in annoyed amazement, then turned and looked at my car and just about passed out. The back was completely crushed right up to the back seat where my then 10 year old daughter was sitting. How she survived unhurt other than some scratches from the shattered rear window was a miracle that everyone who saw the car (from the police, to ambulance that was called by onlookers, to the garage the car was towed to) commented on. My one year old car was totaled (my favorite car that I ever had). It was strange to one moment have a car then the next for a tow truck driver to be sweeping parts of it up off the road and throwing them into the back seat before towing it off never to be seen again (except for a trip to the garage to retrieve what we could from the crushed trunk and my favorite CD - Savage Garden - which was scratched). The car being destroyed paled into insignificance when we realized how close we were to losing her. She was reading Harry Potter and when we were first hit she saw what she though was ice from her soda all over the back of the car and though I would be mad - it was actually the back window. It was probably lucky I had not started turning as we would have gone spinning instead of being shoved up the road several feet. We both ended up with whiplash and she had glass all over her and a couple of scratches. Other than that we were both fine.</p>
<p>The other driver really annoyed me when he lied to the police and said I did not have my signals on. Luckily the witnesses in the Cadillac SUV he was admiring when he hit us confirmed to the police that I did. </p>
<p>I was really nervous for ages afterward when slowing or stopping. When I turn into my neighborhood I often still flash back to that accident and it was 11-12 years ago.</p>
<p>I glanced back in shocked amazement when I saw that the car I heard behind me hit the brakes and so far beyond the stop line, further forward than my car had recently been resting before I figured I had to get out of his way to avoid a bad accident. Not sure how much of either or both cars would have been crushed and am grateful not to have found out!</p>
<p>When hubby was driving a car that ended up being totaled (rear-ended in heavy traffic), it didn’t LOOK all that bad but because it was old, the insurer decided it was cheaper to pay us the bluebook value than repair. We sure didn’t get much out of it.</p>
<p>So glad the folks who have posted didn’t get badly hurt.</p>
<p>I was once creamed when making a left turn. My car was completely stopped while trying to make the turn and the car didn’t see me at all & kept going, never hitting the brake at all. Since I was turning & she was going straight, it was my fault. Her car was badly damaged but I was not harmed at all; the car didn’t even budge (it was a heavy Caddie). People weheo saw the car assumed I was badly hurt.</p>
<p>You wonder whether the people who cause these accidents (or even near collisions) ever have flashbacks as well or whether they blithely go on their way & wipe it from their memory. I would also be pretty upset to know that I nearly lost a loved one because of a stupid driver’s inattention or carelessness.</p>
<p>I’m glad you’re okay HImom and that was a case where these observations we make thousands of times when operating a car that we normally don’t even think about saved you.</p>
<p>Something similar happened to me once. I was stopped a few cars back at a light when I noticed in the rear view mirror a car bearing down on me in my lane that clearly wasn’t planning to stop. I put my car in gear and moved to the left into the center 2 way turn lane (when stopped I always leave enough room between me and the car in front to be able to do this). The other driver slammed on his brakes because I think he noticed my movement and skidded to a stop about 3/4 through what would have been my car. It would have been a bad accident.</p>
<p>I will try to remember to try your strategy of leaving enough room between me and the car in front of me to be able to get out of the way (when possible–tougher when you’re in the middle lane), as you do, uc__dad. Glad we are all able to do some defensive driving to save our own & others skins. Sheesh!</p>
<p>Glad you’re ok HiMom – you have excellent reflexes and driving skills!
I just got “tapped” yesterday by some lady who wouldn’t even back up her car so I could check the damage.
It’s scary – and it’s not necessarily the teens on cell phones – these are grown up drivers should should know better.</p>
<p>Just last weekend I was approaching the 4-way intersection in my (very) small town, and I was behind a horse and buggy. The buggy had it’s left turn signal on, but the horse decided to go right…the driver corrected him, but then the horse started backing up! I couldn’t go back, there was a car behind me, and the buggy driver took a quick look back at me to see how much room there was, and then smacked the horse forward and off they went. Did not touch my car, but came within inches!</p>
<p>I was backing out of my driveway (we live on a main road) when I shifted into drive to go forward, I was slammed from behind by a car that had not even been visible on the road when I checked traffic to pull out! He had to have been going 50 to cover that much ground in a few seconds. No break sounds, screeching, anything, just BAM. The back of my car was up to the front seat. When the police came they couldn’t believe that my D and I were not badly injured. Nor was the stupid driver of the other car. My car has a trailer hitch attached to the back and they think that it directed the impact around the frame of the car, saving us and the vehicle. In fact, the car looked totaled but they were able to reconstruct it and I haven’t had any problem with it as a result. Love my RAV 4.</p>
<p>For a long time I had flashbacks of the impact. Very unpleasant. Now I look in the rear view mirror more often.</p>
<p>The police cited the other driver but never told me what the heck was going on with him that he failed to see my bright red car in the middle of the road. My guess is that he was texting.</p>
<p>We were rear ended while sitting in the left turn lane waiting for the signal by an 18 wheeler that veered out of control (probably was watching another fender bender that had occurred a few blocks before us). The truck hit the last car in line and it was like dominoes - all the cars smashed one by one into the one in front after being smashed behind. I was fine for a few months and then experienced PTSD for a couple/few years - always looking in the rear view mirror and having moderate anxiety in any possible rear ending situation. I will admit that 20 years earlier I had been the culprit in a rear ender when waiting behind a car to pull into a fast road from a yield position. I looked ahead and behind; there was a ton of room and being a youngish driver I assumed the person in front of me was pulling into the fast road so I sped up to enter and kaboom - the person in front of me had not in fact taken the opening and was still idling there in the yield spot waiting to go. No injuries, no damage to either car, ruffled feathers smoothed and we continued on. Needless to say I always look both ways repeatedly before entering traffic from a yield now.</p>
<p>Awkward to say I’m happy for a near-miss, but I hope my meaning is clear- I’m glad it was a miss, there was no accident. I suspect the driver behind may not have appeared upset not because he’s callous, but because of his bad driving habits. He may have wrongfully thought that you were going on through the light and that he’d follow you. From his perspective, you slowed, yet went on through the light. He prob thinks you’re the careless driver for slowing down so, but then proceeding through. He prob wonders why you didn’t just go right on. He might even think that if you hadn’t slowed, you’d have both gone thru safely and there wouldn’t have been a near miss.
Please don’t misunderstand. I’m NOT saying you were wrong- I’m only guessing why he didn’t appear upset or apologetic. He may feel it was you in the wrong.</p>
<p>I get it. Yellow lights don’t mean - hurry up. He was in too big of a hurry.</p>
<p>We have the same problem in upstate NY of people running red lights. It’s common to see 3 or 4 cars go though, and I’ve seen as many as 6. I am always looking in my rearview mirror to see if it is safe for me to stop when the light is turning yellow, or if it is safer to just go through. I hate it.</p>
<p>Of course, we also have another problem - icy roads. My solution there is to start braking WAY before the light not only so that I have lots room to stop, but so that the driver behind me will be forced to start braking early too.</p>
Me too. And I do. Doesn’t really help when you are already stopped and someone comes flying at you. The twice I have been rear ended I was had already been stopped for several seconds before being hit. Once I had already been stopped for a few seconds waiting for a car to pass coming the other way so I could turn and the truck that hit me was not even in my rear view mirror when I stopped. He was going very fast on a 45mph road and was not looking at the road. Even if I had floored it to try and get out of his way there was no way I could have got up enough speed to avoid being creamed. The other time I was already stopped at red lights with nowhere to go as the other traffic was already moving. She said “oh I didn’t realize you were stopped”. Another time I was stopped at red lights at a very busy intersection with a ton of traffic in the road that had the green light, I saw a car in my mirror just barreling toward me. I literally had nowhere to go and it was terrifying. Luckily the idiot woke up before he hit me and came screeching to a halt within inches of my bumper.</p>
<p>I always wait when the light turns green and check carefully for folks to go flying through the red in the other direction before entering the intersection. I’m sure the other driver feels I’m at fault for not allowing him to proceed through the intersection and doesn’t realize that he nearly caused a very bad accident. It probably usually works for him to floor the accelerator on yellow lights, but it could be deadly for folks who try to stop or someone who tries to go through in the other direction as soon as the light turns green. Driving is a scary business with so many distracted drivers and increasingly crowded streets. There are MANY very older and very young drivers on our roads, as well as folks illegally chatting & texting on their electronic devices, distracted parents with fighting kids, you name it. Still, I count my blessings and do check my rear view mirror when I plan to stop, slow down, change lanes, etc. Scary!</p>
We sure didn’t get much out of it.</p>