Well folks, I managed to do it. I got in an accident with the FD and now I've lost it. I was coming down the garage with my friend alittle bit in front of me and he goes around one of the turns and im about to follow when some dude in a 70s POS! backs out with out lookin. So I have to slam on the brakes and swerve as much as I could. I took his bumper straight off (perfectly clean hit) and my aluminum body was left in ruins. I wanted to take some pictures but I haven't had the time. The front left fender needs to be replaced, as does the the front bumper cuz now its hangin down. The glass in my sideview mirror needs to be replaced and I need to get a new tire. All this being said, its not too bad. The kicker, however, is that I am only 21 and my insurance is already sky-high. And my dad is paying the insurance on it. Sooo, he's comin up to school today to take it back to ATL, fix it, and sell it. Cuz their is no way he or I can pay the insurance on it now. What sucks is that the accident really wasn't evenmy fault..yeah I was goin kinda fast, but dude backed out into me!!!

Anyways, its been an amazing 2 years that I've had with this car, wish there could be more, but I geuss I'll have to wait till I can start makin more money onmy own.
PEace guys!
-Tim

 

Sorry to here that dude,

 

Is the insurance company claiming it's your fault? Or is the other guy? I'd fight it either way. If he was backing up it should be his fault no matter what.

And FDs don't have aluminum bodies.

 

hey Tim, call sung at www.kbodyshop.com

he can fix an FD

 

Sorry to hear about your car. Sounds like it's pretty repairable. How fast were you traveling at the time of the accident, AND what is the posted speed limit on that road/street??

 

well the garage is 10 mph (which is really slow, specially when there are hardly any cars there at 1:30am like in my case), I was goin like 20-25mph

 

He should have see your friends (and yours) headlights reflect and illuminate the area behind him, before the attempt was made to back up. You can win this one.

 

That totally sucks.

There is an important point here. Never speed near parked cars, driveways, parking lots, or neighborhoods. You will need to avoid an accidents sooner or later, and a real good chance it's a pedestrian. Yeah, they usually deserve to get run over for being a dumbass, but if they hire a lawyer it's real bad.

+10mph in a parking lot or neighborhood is much more dangerous than +10 on a 45mph or 65mph road. I only speed on highways and open roads I know well.

Please take it more seriously than 'goin kinda fast'.

Dave

 

Do your parents own their own bussiness? If they do you can put FD under the company as a "company car" and you as an "employee" the FD drops like 200$ a month. No joke either.

 

dude i dont think its your fault.
i hope you didn't admit you were speeding, but from what i know you do not have to give right of way to a parked vechicle.

how did this end up being your fault. who made this acusation?

 

1) You are responsible at all times to not hit something in front of you. Even if it pulls out in your way. Only guaranteed way out is if it hits your side, in which case it wasn't in front' of you.
2) You are speeding, which is an element of negligence.

I imagine if push came to shove, and he didn't admit speeding, it could still be proven because 25mph damage is way more than 10mph.

I say the other guy caused the accident of course, but the moving car is always responsible in the eyes of insurance and law. Just keep that in mind next time you're parked against an SUV and need to back out blind.

 

If he was driving at the posted speed limit, he would have been able to avoid this accident. Speeding through the neighborhood would have been his first offense, because the guy backing out could always argue that he didn't have time to react because of the FD's oncoming speed (whatever it may have been). Right of way only goes so far.

persuasio24,

Sorry to hear about your accident, but at least you are fine.

 

could prove part of the damage was due to the fact you removed his bumper, it got caught under the front of your car and wreaked havoc =)

 

regardless of your speed, you could even be doing 160mph going down the block (thats just another violation on its own but hey who's watching). It's the person's own responsibility to wait til all traffic clears before he can legally pull out of his driveway onto public roads. All his fault. Your insurance should not go up, the 70s POS should. Fight It!

Did you know, when you parallel park on the road, and you get out of your car, if you get hit its your own fault? The legal way to get out of your car is to climb over to the passenger side and use that door to get onto the curb. Yup!

 

According to this link I found, anyone entering a roadway from a private driveway, parking lot, or any other spot that isn't a roadway or alley must stop and yield to the right-of-way to traffic. Obviously he could get cited for speeding if they new, and it wasn't a very good idea to do it in the first place. But the other driver should still have given him the right-of-way.

http://www.golocalnet.net/drive/rofway.htm

 

excellent! fight it!

 

Good luck fighting it. Unless you have a 3rd party witness who independently submits testimony that the other guy entered 'traffic' without yielding, it's your word against his. And you'll deny you were speeding (which means he didn't have chance to properly yield). And it will come back to fundamental right-of-way responsibility - moving car has to find a way to stop, and travel in a manner that they can stop. It sucks, I know, but faulty party != responsible party.

 

Right of way is in regards to who may proceed first. It doesn't have priority nor does it automatically dismiss the poor judgement and "wreckless driving" at any speed through a neighborhood. The first violation here was accelerating beyond the speed limit (which is why its posted), however small the margin.

 

if he was reversing out, its his fault. sue him

 

If speeding (above the 10mph posted speed limit) by the FD Driver can be determined, there will be a comparative negligence issue on the FD Driver.

Investigate from the POI (point of impact) in reverse,:

At 10mph, your traveling 14.6 fps.
At 25mph, your traveling 36.66 fps.

If the Fd Driver would've been traveling 10mph, he would have been at a distance of 22 feet away from the vehicle, at the time the vehicle reversed and pulled into his lane of path. The accident is avoidable, (he had about 6/10 tenths of a second to brake)..unless of course, his reaction time would have been slowed by distraction or driver unattention.

The "reversing" driver also has a duty and responsibility to make sure it is clear, BEFORE an attempt is made, to reverse his vehicle into a lane of traffic. It was obviously not.

 

Amendment to the calculation stated above:

FD Driver would have had 1.5 seconds (22 feet from impact) reaction time to apply the brakes before impact, had he been traveling 10mph (14.6 fps).

 

Repair the FD, dont let it go away without a fight. FDs are extremly hard to find. I myself have been working on my FD for 2yrs now and NOW its just coming together and ready for NY State salavage inspection.

My 94 VR R2 was hit hard in the front. Both airbags deployed radiator support and lights brackets along with the passenger side shroud were crumpled. 2 yrs later and shes aligned nicely and im waiting on parts from Gothamracing to finish and crank her up.

Jay

 

err

 

You should have ******* bounced.

 

Great advice there, champ. Ever heard of "hit and run"?