I almost died today... =(

SON240sx Automotive
1

Today around 9:40 a.m I was making a left turn at an intersection, I was in the left lane PERFECTLY straight to go to a gas station, and then the light turned yellow then red…then some asswhole in an suv decides to be a hero and attempts to try and make a left turn, the minivan infront of him stopped, so he then swirves around it doing 130+ and drives straight smack dab into me plowing in my drivers side of my car with his drivers side crumpling my car completely, the drivers side of my car had parts of the engine coming in through my dash crushing my leg… the driver of the SUV drove 200 metres before being able to stop because of how fast he was going…I almost died, if he had gone any faster he would have killed me… I got out of the car struggling and began to cry due to whiplash and pain all over… the cop at the scene who was 4 cars behind took me into his car asked me if i was ok… then an ambulance came and they rushed me to the hospital… he then came to my hospital room and gave me a fucking $110 ticket and an accident report with no demerit points for no safe left turn… and leaves…the cop definitely fucked up, 1) he didn’t even take a statement from me about what happiend on my part of the accident before making a judgment, two he refused to take the statement of a tow truck driver who witnessed the whole thing…3) he took the statement from two people who were in the opposite lane of my 5 cars behind. If you still have this S13 id greatly appreciate it if I could purchase it from you…im not sure of whats going to happen, i have to wait for an investigation to take place on Monday…

I took the ticket to court and faught it, I notified my insurance company, i got a witness, but what can i do now?the cop even wrote on the accident report that I was driving at 40km/h and the suv dude was driving at 70 km/h, but how can he know how fast i was going if he 1) didn’t see the accident, 2) didnt EVEN ASK ME for my statement of what happiend in the first place.

Id greatly appreciate any adivce anyone has regarding the above noted matter…

Thanx in advanced…

2

first thing, good to hear your okay. Secondly sorry I can’t help you, I dont know shiz on this subject. Good luck.

3

Holy shit man!?!?!?!? WTF. are you ok!?!?!?!?!!?!!! that is not cool so much for the s13,get another one or get teds s12 :). damn i hope you feel better too. man sorry to hear

4

  1. Be glad that you’re ok, is your leg, arm, lung, kidney worth 110 dollars?

  2. The no safe left turn ticket is PERFECTLY merited. In the eyes of the law if you were turning safely, then you wouldn’t have had been smashed up, being the smasher or the smashee which in the case you were.

  3. Ok maybe I am not smart enough but I don’t understand your story, you said you were making a left turn turning in to a gas station. Following that point you mentioned that the light turned from yellow to red. That gas station is controlled by a set of traffic signals? Fast forward a bit and then some how a minivan stopped in front of an SUV at the said light to not run the red light, to avoid the van + SUV collision the SUV steared out of the way and hit you. So by the above chronological sequence of events that means the SUV ran the red and hit you while you were making a left? BUT heres the kicker; if you were making a left and the SUV was going straight HTF can the SUV hit you from the driver side?

  4. Following up from point #2 you’re making a left and you were hit simple as that. Traffic on-coming can be going in reverse, it can be a horse, it can be doing whatever, it can be a vehicle doing back flips. The logic is that you should’ve seen it coming, if you said “it happened too quick” then the law’s excuse would’ve been “well then you should’ve been going slower than you were”. I know it’s stupid but it’s the way things are when it comes to the law. Buddy’s civic got crunched by a red-light runner. The first officer on scene wrote “no witness” and deemed it 50/50 at fault. “no witness” even though someone; a Sikah came up on scene and gave his info, and the 50/50 part, the cop’s excuse was “I didn’t see him run the red”.

What can you do?

  1. Take DETAILED notes, not I was goin straight, into gas station, he was doing this, then he did this so the other did that, then i had to do that to avoid him from doing this. Here’s a good example.

I was heading NORTH BOUND on Happy Drive. I approach the intersection of Rainbow Ave at the speed of XXX. I slowed down and then stopped to wait for a clear in SOUTH BOUND traffic on Happy Drive to make a left turn leading WEST BOUND into a Petro USA gas station. As I was making my left turn…etc etc…you get the drift

Why detailed notes? Depending on which region wrote you up you can go to their according division and fill out a Professional Mis-Conduct form. That form will ask for DETAILED information of the incident you want to report, in your case being the fact that he didn’t take your statement and such. The key is you have to detaily describe the events that follow up to the officer’s unprofessional conduct.

I can already see where the investigation is going. The other guy ran the red, but couldn’t be proved, and he hit you while you were making a left. You 100%, him non.

Another reason why I want to install a real time hard drive video camera in my cars. Having video evidence doesn’t wash your hands clean from the law of making that unsafe left turn though you’ll still be at fault, but it allows you to SUE the other party for running the red, hitting you, causing you all that pain and suffering, fines, insurance costs, etc etc etc. The best thing about video evidence is w/the evidence you can go after the cops for not writing him a red light ticket and you don’t even need to hire a lawyer because all you need is press the “play” button in front of the Justice of Peace.

5

i’m having some trouble picturing the scenario, make a quick sketch on ms paint of how it went down please

but shit, sounds bad!
glad you are ok!!!

6

I understand exactly what you are trying to say but I DID NOT TURN left, my Car was perfectly straight in preparation for a turn and the SUV hit me while I waited at 0km/km PERFECTLY STRAIGHT i was not making the turn, I was not moving when I was hit by the suv, all the damage on my car is on the drivers side.

If just if i was turning left while the collision occurred, while he was going southbound, wouldn’t my passengers side of my car be destroyed?. the collision was head on which is why his drivers side hit my drivers side of my car.

7

here a quick sketch of the scenario if your having trouble picturing it.

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q213/kickpush_bucket/intersectiion.jpg

all the damage is on my drivers side of my car, deeming it a head on collision, if i had turned left my passengers side would have been raped, but it is completely fine not a single scratch. Ill post pics of my s13 later on today after i come home from therapy.

8

wow that is bull shit!!!
if you got hit on the driver’s side, it means the other guy fucking hit you head on!
it should not be your fault if that is so

this is crazy, i hope you got some witnesses,

9

Dude, it sucks to hear this but just thank God that you are alive. Your life is worth a lot more than a ticket although you might not have deserved that ticket.

10

Another S13 takes a hit…
I feel for you, mine was only just over 3 weeks ago.
Unfortunately that cop was a dick to you, he saw the damage and based his report on that. When i got smacked making my left turn the other car was coming so fast and never pressed hits brakes at all, he hit my passenger side and swung/pushed me around until we stopped side by side. The cop saw the vehicles and damage and gave me a “change lane not in safety” ticket (fighting it based on incorrect charge, i was making a left not changing lanes) and on his report he put that that I wa going 30KM/h and the other driver was going 40KM/h which is completely false, i was going 1-4KM/h tops if that.

Kick Ass Matt is correct in saying that the investigation is just going to prove that your are 100% at fault, they will not be able to prove that the SUV crossed the red unless you have witnesses.
Did you know, if you are approaching an intersection and a cop is approaching the same intersection in the opposite direction, the lights turns yellow and the cop begins to stop but you keep going, now the light turns red and the cop has come to a compete stop but you just entered the intersection and blow the red before the the other cars begin to move. Now the cop is watching you cross the intersection and drive right by him, he technically can not give you a ticket for blowing a red as he was at the opposite side of the intersection and could not see the same lights you could above him. He has no proof you blew the red, for all he knows the light was still green for you or there was a light malfunction.
The point is that they will use this in the investigation, they will say that neither the cop nor you were able to see the same lights as the SUV driver and you were making a left so no proof the light was red for the SUV driver and will say you were probably too far head or already crossed into the UV drivers path.

Check out this link, is gives you different scenarios, accidents, and how the insurance companies determine who is at fault:

It helped m find out that no matter what I said I would be 100% in everyone elses eyes because I was making a left, it basicly is the sorts section, left turn equals 100% lol

11

damn ken after all the work we did to your car :frowning: that sucks man atleast ur still ok

12

ya man, it’s good to know a fellow driver is safe…

honestly there’s too many stupid SUV drivers out there, and these cops just look @ our S13/S14 cars, or any sporty car for that manner and give us a bad eye, maybe not all the time but it’s seems like it in this matter…

If you could fight it, do so, if it’s demerit points that your losing u should save them, otherwise if u can just save your demerits and still have to pay something, I say just pay it, but everyone is glad your alive and no innocent life is lost.

13

the same thing actually happened to me but i was in my moms neon i managed to swurve out of the way that fukcing lady just decided to drive in front of me then stop like an idiot.

14

Option number two is the one for me Im not at fault the SUV driver is lolz i wasnt moving, and yes i do have a witness a tow truck driver who witnessed the whole thing accross the street from the gas station who happiend to be looking in my direction

thanx alot for the website, like i siad i was positioned 100% straight and not moving when i was hit.

15

Ok NOW I get the picture. You were stopped between the yellow lines AKA emergency lane to wait for SB traffic to clear so that you can turn WB into a said gas station am I correct?

In the process of waiting in the emergency lane a SUV first blows a red light, then clips you. Your point of impact was the front driver side of your vehicle against their front driver side of their vehicle.

If you were in the yellow emergency lane WAITING to make a left and someone clips you, guess what BOTH of you are at fault it’ll be deemed as 50/50 because it’s a lane that you were NOT supposed to be in in the first place. I know it’s stupid but that’s the way things are. Because BOTH of you were at the same spot in the said lane and collided, thus the burden will be laid upon the BOTH of you.

HOWEVER if you were waiting in a DESIGNATED left turn lane, one drawn with WHITE lines and a vehicle clips you. The other vehicle will be at fault because in order to clip you the other vehicle must cross onto on coming traffic, in which case on coming traffic being you doing 0 km/h.

They’ll focus the investigation on the actual event itself, not the sequence that leads to the event in small collisions like this. Red light running part will be ignored because how far back can you go right? I mean you’re gonna write him up for red light, then write his mother up for giving birth to him? You catch my drift.

So focusing on the event of him hitting you while you are stationary, depending on what type of lane you’re in, it could either be 50% you or 0% you at fault.

Tow truck driver. The tow truck driver will most probably NOT be your witness because the local area drivers and local area police have unsaid verbal contracts. Meaning when a TC (traffic collision) occurs at a certain intersection, the police have a certain list of “preferred” tow truck drivers to attend to the scene. Now imagine if that said driver is on the police’s “preferred” list and he rats out the officer on scene for professional mis-conduct, you think he’s still going to be on the guy’s/station’s “preferred” list? I’m sorry to break this to you but towing and police are like left hand washing the right.

If what you said was true in regards to waiting to make a left instead of in the process of making a left and he writes you up for unsafe left turn. You can take the charge to court and with technical evidence such as angle of steering wheel, angle of wheels and such you can PROVE to the judge that you are NOT making a left thus deeming the unsafe left violation in-admissible in court.

I remember the first week I got my brand-new-used-truck and destroyed a guy’s civic while I was going NB on Young and he was making a left from SB Young onto EB Church. It was wet and I was doing 40 or so and the light went from green to amber and I only had 2 car lengths to stop. He thought I can stop my 6700 lb 3/4 ton truck in 2 car lengths on wet pavement. Long story short I destroyed his car. The first thing I did was I jumped out of my truck and started shooting pictures of the whole area on ALL angles while holding up all the traffic, people were honking and shit and I didn’t gave a fuck because I knew those pictures would help. Sure enough when TPS Traffic Services showed up all I had to do was show the guy my pictures and bang I was deemed 50% and so was he. Moral of the story is to keep a cheap digital camera in your cars. You never know when you’ll need it.

16

I do not think he was in the yellow emergency lane or in a designated left turn lane, from his drawing it looks like he was passed the stop line and in an intersection waiting completely straight for his chance to turn left. If this is true it complicates things further because there are no actual “lanes” in the middle of an intersection.

17

damn man, all i can say is that im happy you’re fine. sorry to see yur car go like that, especially after sittin with it till 2am waitin for parts.

18

Thats crazy man, but really tho at least your not injured seroiusly, thats the most important, hopefully you find a clean 240 for a good deal man

19

WOW ken i am glad to hear your all right. i hope you can atleast salavage some parts of the 240. best of luck with the case too.

20

That’s fucked… that cop was a douche, if it really happened the way you say it did, it should be very obvious that it’s all the SUV’s fault. Hope you get better, and good luck with fighting the ticket.