#needs to be a drivable distance from me though because I'd never go out without my little doggy

[msburgundy]

oho buddy, planning a backpacking trip with my girls for summer 2024

[auncyen]

Ok car accidents I've been in because it's come up recently lol

my dad was stopped at a red light on a rainy day and a guy coming up from behind tried to brake but hydroplaned, managing to push my dad's car into the car in front as well. Why this was stupid driving: you are always always supposed to adjust your driving to account for weather conditions. Posted speed limits are for GOOD DRIVING CONDITIONS. If it's raining you need to start braking sooner and if it's really coming down you just need to slow down, period (because the alternative is hydroplaning when you hit water). Also my dad might be guilty of not giving the car in front of him enough distance. Since I was a kid in the backseat at the time I can't really critique too much on that.

a town I lived in had angled parking on a main street. I was going down the street when a lady decided no she was going to back out right then, never mind looking behind to see if there were cars (I couldn't easily switch lanes to avoid her because THERE WERE CARS. I did brake hoping she'd realize I was there and stop but uh. no she just didn't look and kept backing up into me. This was the accident that totaled my car at the time--it actually was still drivable, but not worth repairing according to insurance.)

JUST RECENTLY BEGINNING OF APRIL me exiting a parking lot going straight. see a minivan up ahead and to the left come to a stop--there's no stop sign, though, no reason for them to stop, and they stay stopped for several seconds, so I thought maybe there was a parking spot there or maybe they were just stopping to handle something in their vehicle since it wasn't too crowded in that part of the parking lot. I'm still just going straight and since they've been stopped this whole time I'm not expecting them to step on the gas RIGHT WHILE I'M PASSING IN FRONT OF THEM. Luckily I'd already mostly passed them so they hit the rear passenger door for only cosmetic damage to the car and not, say, the driver's door, which probably would have still just been cosmetic damage for the car but might've been a little more upsetting for me. This one is still just. Did she step on the gas without even looking up??? What was she doing? Like #2, the car that hit me was much bigger than my vehicle and once again was barely dented in comparison to how my car looked after.

I was not actually in the vehicle for this one, THANKFULLY, but my first car got utterly destroyed one night because I had to park it in the street and some drunk came through, jumped the curb to leave tire marks on the grass behind where my car was parked, and then smashed into my car and pushed it quite a distance into the street, shattering windows and doing pretty bad damage to the rear. Person never was caught and I just had to eat the loss on this one, which sucked a lot at the time, but at least I wasn't in the car for that one because that one probably would have hurt. Stupid driving because. Yeah given the path they left on the grass the consensus was "clearly intoxicated driver".

Like here's the thing as someone who started as a nervous driver: a lot of the difficulty of driving is just getting used to the motions and learning how to coordinate, say, looking for a street sign because you're in a new area while still paying attention to cars around you. After a certain amount of practice though that gets easy. Then the tricky part is that it's so easy because you do it so often that people just drive without thinking and certainly not thinking about "hey these are bad weather conditions, I'm going to need more distance if I have to brake suddenly" "I've had a bit to drink so maybe I shouldn't drive" "I need to remember to always look where I am going because I am driving a vehicle that weighs thousands of pounds." Why would they think about it??? Driving is easy!

And that's when stupid accidents happen.