So I was in a car accident ... don't be like me

Foxhound5366

Foxhound5366

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I've been in two car accidents before: one distracted driver turned into my car at low speed, and another drove into the back of my car in a traffic jam. Neither was fun, but there were no injuries and only required insurance claims and a visit to the panelbeaters.

Last week Friday night was different. I was driving with my family in the car, going to a night market. Literally a corner away from our home I turned into a main road, went through a traffic light, dodged one pedestrian crossing the road ... hooted at the second distracted pedestrian on her phone crossing the road and started braking ... and she didn't do what I expected. She didn't stop. She dove forward in a split second, and my windscreen shattered but held. The pedestrian rolled off the car and was lying very still on the road next to my car. I put on my emergency lights, my family got out to put up an emergency triangle behind our car, and ... what now???

I tried phoning 112. They put me through to the ambulance service, which never answered. I then phoned 082911, who answered but said they can't dispatch an ambulance for anyone who doesn't have medical aid. I asked the despatcher if she could at least notify the state ambulance service of the accident, and she said she can't. At that point, JMPD arrived. And thank God for them: the female officers were friendly and professional, they called the ambulance service and controlled traffic ... and did their job basically.

I got "lucky" in that the ambulance service arrived and evaluated the pedestrian, who was talking and moving around at this stage. They declared it a minor injury: so minor they released her at the scene without hospitalisation, and JMPD said I could leave.

Aah man, you know why I'm sharing this? For one reason only: please people, I thought I was a safe driver and maybe because I was, that pedestrian was so lightly injured. But if I had been even safer, I would have come to a complete stop before her, or swerved around her. But she did the one thing I just didn't expect at all in that moment. I have kicked myself over this ever since.

Yes I had a dashcam and downloaded the video right at the accident scene. Yes my family wasn't injured (my car's airbags didn't even go off). The accident damage to my car is literally only a windscreen replacement. BUT .. this is still a punch to the gut because it could have been so much worse, even should have been.

I hope I remember this lesson. And I hope you learn it from me, without having to go through it. We all know pedestrians weave through traffic and we get desensitised to them running past our vehicles. But we shouldn't. Even if it is their fault, any incident has so many ramifications which could have been avoided with only a few extra seconds.

I'm going to try buy myself those seconds going forward. I hope you do too.
 
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Foxhound5366 said:
I've been in two car accidents before: one distracted driver turned into my car at low speed, and another drove into the back of my car in a traffic jam. Neither was fun, but there were no injuries and only required insurance claims and a visit to the panelbeaters.

Last week Friday night was different. I was driving with my family in the car, going to a night market. Literally a corner away from our home I turned into a main road, went through a red light, dodged one pedestrian crossing the road ... hooted at the second distracted pedestrian on her phone crossing the road and started braking ... and she didn't do what I expected. She didn't stop. She dove forward in a split second, and my windscreen shattered but held. The pedestrian rolled off the car and was lying very still on the road next to my car. I put on my emergency lights, my family got out to put up an emergency triangle behind our car, and ... what now???

I tried phoning 112. They put me through to the ambulance service, which never answered. I then phoned 082911, who answered but said they can't dispatch an ambulance for anyone who doesn't have medical aid. I asked the despatcher if she could at least notify the state ambulance service of the accident, and she said she can't. At that point, JMPD arrived. And thank God for them: the female officers were friendly and professional, they called the ambulance service and controlled traffic ... and did their job basically.

I got "lucky" in that the ambulance service arrived and evaluated the pedestrian, who was talking and moving around at this stage. They declared it a minor injury: so minor they released her at the scene without hospitalisation, and JMPD said I could leave.

Aah man, you know why I'm sharing this? For one reason only: please people, I thought I was a safe driver and maybe because I was, that pedestrian was so lightly injured. But i had been safer, I would have come to a complete stop before her, or swerved around her. But she did the one thing I just didn't expect at all in that moment. I have kicked myself over this ever since.

Yes I had a dashcam and downloaded the video right at the accident scene. Yes my family wasn't injured (my car's airbags didn't even go off). The accident damage to my car is literally only a windscreen replacement. BUT .. this is still a punch to the gut because it could have been so much worse, even should have been.

I hope I remember this lesson. And I hope you learn it from me, without having to go through it. We all know pedestrians weave through traffic and we get desensitised to them running past our vehicles. But we shouldn't. Even if it is their fault, any incident has so many ramifications which could have been avoided with only a few extra seconds.

I'm going to try buy myself those seconds going forward. I hope you do too.
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i almost hit a school kid who ran out between 2 cars without looking and i had bullbars on the bukky


who fitted your dashcam ?
 
icantchooseone said:
i almost hit a school kid who ran out between 2 cars without looking and i had bullbars on the bukky


who fitted your dashcam ?
Click to expand...
Just ran the power cable up to it from cigarette lighter, tucking cable behind edge of car screen. Never really wanted to have somebody peeling away parts of my car's interior.
 
icantchooseone said:
which model cam ?
Click to expand...
Think it's this one:
DrivePro 250 Dashcam With 32GB MicroSD Memory Card - Black

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Now I want to upgrade to a Viofo 2-channel system.
 
I was driving through an intersection the other night after the light turned green. Guy starts crossing the road. This is a dual lane. So I calculate at our current speeds, we'll be fine....only for the dude to suddenly decide to turn and RUN back into my lane! Car auto braked before I could react.
 
shooter_za said:
I was driving through an intersection the other night after the light turned green. Guy starts crossing the road. This is a dual lane. So I calculate at our current speeds, we'll be fine....only for the dude to suddenly decide to turn and RUN back into my lane! Car auto braked before I could react.
Click to expand...
Yeah thank goodness. I've also got city safety in my car ... I honestly can't tell you if it triggered or not. It might have actually, at least supporting my braking. Then again I figure it might also have missed it because the pedestrian approached from right angles directly across the road, and never got directly in front of my car (just as well - if she had she'd have been run over and dragged).
 
purrr said:
Suicide by car?
Click to expand...
Yeah maybe, although I was already braking when I saw her ... I think she just had the wrong fight or flight response. As the other story above shows, pedestrians will respond in completely unpredictable ways sometimes.
 
I'd think suicide by car would work better on the highway, but if you are suicidal you might not be thinking straight.
 
Ϲhristopher said:
Maybe I'm mistaking you for someone else, but don't you have a BMW 5 Series? Doesn't it have AEB?
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I sold the BMW 5 Series. And yes it had AEB. My current car has it too. Like I say above I can't say whether it triggered or not, I think it might have not because of the angle at which the pedestrian approached the car ... but either way the speed at impact was low and the pedestrian walked away. Which is the second best outcome - the best would have been avoiding it altogether. It's still damn traumatic going through it, I don't want to think about how much worse it is in serious collisions.
 
Foxhound5366 said:
Yeah thank goodness. I've also got city safety in my car ... I honestly can't tell you if it triggered or not. It might have actually, at least supporting my braking. Then again I figure it might also have missed it because the pedestrian approached from right angles directly across the road, and never got directly in front of my car (just as well - if she had she'd have been run over and dragged).
Click to expand...

I've had my car start auto-braking when two runners were not yet in front of me, but it really looked like they were not going to stop and I'd hit them. That time the car and I braked at about the same time. That was in perfect weather in the day. I assume the camera would have a harder time picking up someone in bad lighting.
 
Yeah the only thing you can expect people or animals to do is the unexpected. Always assume they will do the dumbest thing and not that they will keep course.
 
FOR ONLOOKERS: ALWAYS GIVE PEDESTRIANS THE RIGHT OF WAY, especially if they're in the wrong.

It's simply not worth it to knock a pedestrian down. It's OK to knock another car, but people can be injured so easily.
And then it's a big legal issue. And if you hurt someone, your conscience will get to you.

For me the worst is when I need to turn RIGHT and the robot turns green or the green right turn arrow flashes and at that moment, many clown pedestrians want to decide to run across, left to right. You're looking mostly right and then a fool runs across just as the light turns green for you. You have to be so vigilant.

Alternatively they cross slowly. They entered while you had the red, then you get the green arrow and the clowns are still in front of you. That arrow only lasts about 5 seconds. I tend to honk at these idiots.

But pedestrians can be idiots. Often because SA is a poor country, these people have never driven a car and have no idea how limited one's vision is. You can't have a constant 180 field of view especially if the guy to your left is a bakkie or a bus or has moved partly onto the crossing, so obscuring any fool who is crossing left to right.

And I see parents constantly walking their kids through red lights or jaywalking. There is no parental role modeling here.
 
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