Joseph M. Kramlinger <kramling@tony.bc.edu> writes:
> I've only had one accident on a road. My ratty '77 300D
> slid into a pristine '83 380SL one day in the rain... it was
> completely unavoidable in a two-ton car riding on a slicked
> road coming to a stoplight.
Actually, based on your description, it sounds as though the
accident *was* avoidable. Driving safely involves allowing
an adequate amount of room between you and the car ahead of
you to allow a safe stop. Taking into account the weather
conditions, the mass of the car, its braking requirements, and
other conditions, it is incumbent upon every driver to give
himself room to stop without hitting the car ahead of him.
Perhaps there were other circumstance you haven't related (e.g.,
the other driver cut in front of you then slammed on his brakes,
without allowing you time to create a proper buffer zone
between cars).
> Cops came to write up accident but didn't give me a ticket because
> they could see I had been driving UNDER (!) the limit and the prick
> I hit admitted the same.
You were fortunate. However, just because the cops didn't cite
doesn't mean the accident was unavoidable.
I don't mean this as a flame, but I had a similar accident at about
the same age, and I engaged in the same sort of rationalization
about it. I realized a few months later that I was just fooling
myself, and that I should have allowed more room between my car and
the car I hit.
--John Hazelton
Los Angeles, CA, USA
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