rain and traffic just dont mix

[BA55UP]

now i know that in the rain you should always go slower and be more alert on the road but i dont think it wouldve made a difference for what happened yesterday :(

i was driving along pittwater road in dee why. the person in front of me is driving normal and then an organge lights comes up, he decides "ok i will go through", so then i decide "cool i will follow him" next thing i know he slams on the brakes and stops at the red. now i had just hit my accelerator to drop the gear and next thing i know i am slming on the brakes.

i start skidding and think "ok i cant go right, medium strip and then more cars, i have to go left" mind you it was a merc in front of me so i would much rather hit any other car then that one

so i slide to the left and knock a toyota avalon on his rear right corner bumper
so we stop on a side street and exhange information and he asured me not to worry and that he got the other drivers number plates and the make of the car etc... but then he says (which i guess is fair enough) if he doesnt pay up, im sorry but someone has to, and its not going to be me, i mean i didnt just hit someone up the rear so it was intirerly my fault weather i like it or not

anyways though i would share the damages with you guys, and i had just fixed up the car from the scratches and bumps with the trolleys :(
http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/7310/crash1gj.jpg





http://img321.imageshack.us/img321/6756/front5vw.th.jpg (http://img321.imageshack.us/my.php?image=front5vw.jpg) http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/1452/profile1bf.th.jpg (http://img143.imageshack.us/my.php?image=profile1bf.jpg) http://img429.imageshack.us/img429/4109/cliptear9gg.th.jpg (http://img429.imageshack.us/my.php?image=cliptear9gg.jpg)

thank god i am getting a new bumper next week, shame about my light though, i will need to get a new one... :( everything needs to go on hold now though because i have to pay to get it srpayed and then gotta pay to get my light fixed and by the looks of it i might even have to pay for the damages to the other guy :(:( not a good day for me yesterday

[DirtyHarry]

whichever way you look at it mate, youll be in the wrong with this accident. Even if the guy in front of you slammed on the brakes, you always have to leave enough room between you and him to have enough time to stop.
In most cases if you run into someones ass, youll always be liable for it.
Hope you had insurance mate.

[Charlatan]

You've mislabelled the idiot in that picture. You were obviously 1. not paying close enough attention, 2. travelling to close, 3. trying to go through a light that had changed too long ago and 4. not driving to the conditions.

Driving further back in the rain would have helped. You'll be paying for the damages I'm afraid. The 'idiot' in the picture wont have any involvement in the transaction as he wasnt involved.

Damage doesnt look too bad, and no one was hurt. Its an easy error for a young driver. Learn from it and it isnt all bad.

[180HOA]

Have to agree with Charlatan, to an extent. Just chalk it up to experience.

But I will say, if you were worried about not hitting the car in front cos it was a Merc, it probably had better braking ability than the Astra, so the driver of the Merc can pull off driving a bit more aggressively in the wet that you can. One thing that really gets up my nose is owning a car with decent brakes and tyres and being followed too closely by cars with lesser stopping power.

[MK]

Sorry to hear this... don't worry mate, no one got hurt.

I have the same issue when i drive on public road, absolutely fed up with the fact that more and more i have to "think" for other drivers as well. Fed up with drivers who are undecided, erratic and overall oblivious what is happening on the road... i had many situations like yours.

Driving on M4 in the fast line, approaching the Speed cameras (Cumberland Hwy overpass) BMW in front of me so far doind the speed limit (90MK\H) i have the 3 car space as normal... suddenly the BMS driver slows down to 70KM\H and merging left (YES! he slowed down first before merging left! Who does that?!)

Another time, driving through M4 Automatic Toll gates (E pass - you can keep travelling at the specified speed, in this case late afternoon travelling to city it was 70Km\H, and it will still read the tag and you will get billed - it says so in the booklet when you receive the tag in mail) i have a WRX in front of me slamming on the brakes and slowing down to 60Mk\H!!! and then right after the tolls he speeds up to speeds of up to 100Km\H anyway! the worst thing in this instance i had a Truck (SemiTrailer - is that how you spell that?) which went through the E Pass at speeds of more than 90KM\H... where is the logic?? In this case i wish i was following the Truck not the WRX.

More and more drivers are less aware what is going on around them (to their left, right and rear) they just care what's in front of them... like horses, driving with blankers on their eyes! they are just oblivious to the WHOLE sitiuation on the road...

Unfortunately BassUp under the law you have to bare the brunt and pay for the damages... sorry to see the pics, i believe i know how you feel.

The Mercedes driver is very lucky he\she did not have a truck behind... they would definiately have it parked in their cars boot right now :)

[Bernard Siong]

hey man sorry to hear about it
accidents are never a good thing but at least no one got hurt.

and yes man take it as a learning experience even if its not the best one.

i think 'mikts' forgot the nick on this forum, but he was selling headlights for like $75

[BA55UP]

really if i wasnt paying enough attention i wouldve hit the mercade's square in the ass. yes i will admit i was following to closely but only becuase of the rain, we were doing about 60 i would say, its days like this that i thank god my father opted for the ABS option...

but that merc stopped on a dime, it was crazy. and i did have enough time to think to swerve left so i think i had enough of a gap, i just didnt slow quick enough, i dont see what i did wrong.

all though i see exactly where you are coming from charlatan, i know that i will have to pay up, so i am preparing for the worst :(

[ultim8DTM5]

Sorry to hear Alex.

Thank God for insurance.

[Red AH SRI T]

arggghh, thats not good

sorry to hear about it

same thing happened to me in the rain once

i now slow right down in rain in heavy traffic

[btm]

a very similar thing happened to me also about 5 years ago. (in parents 3 day old echo)

except it was a guy that quickly changed into my lane (without indicating) just before an orange light intersection that i was going through.

i slammed on the brakes (from 70km/h and slammed up the ar$e of his stationary camry about 1/2 second later.... not a pretty sight for poor little echo which was a total write off...

anyway - no one was hurt (well actually i lie... i dislocated my shoulder, but that doesnt count cause it always pops out... old footy injury) and thats the main thing

i had two other cars that witnessed the accident and they both proved my point that he didnt indicate when changed lanes, so the other driver was charged ned driving resulting in an accident (i think) and his insurance had to pay for my parents new car.

sorry to hear about your accident - i'm glad no one was hurt

and as everyone has said above - put it all down to a lesson learnt the hard way :)