Number of Accidents/Collisions???

[LocDog]

How many times has your Vibe been involved with another object/structure/car? (bumping into cars while parking doesn't count)-Please list-

[LocDog]

Five here...-left rear passenger door clipped when it was opened without looking, crunched door by handle -slipped down icy hill into intersection, bumped car crossing that stopped infront of me aftering seeing i couldn't stop -slightly rear-ended a old blazer that stopped short-got rear-ended at a light because according to the girl that hit me, she "pushed the wrong pedal"-got the left side of my rear bumper slightly scraped because merging into my car does that!

[JustinVGT]

Two for me. Last winter I slid into a bank of snow and ice in my neighborhood. Damaged the lower front bumper. Insurance replaced it.Second, some lady rearended me. The traffic came to an abrubt stop. I didn't have any problem stopping, but the lady was either following too closely or wasn't paying attention and luckily she just put a small scrape in my bumper. Her insurance gave me a check to get the entire rear bumper replaced, but I decided to just wait since it turned out to be so minor.I've had several people come very close to rearending me with the traffic and drivers around here tailgating all the time.

[drunkenmaxx]

> "I'm an excellent driver"

[Merzbow]

The only thing I came in contact with was the stupidest thing. I thought I'd be crafty and drive over a parking lot median to avoid construction on the way to work. The first side of the curb was only about 3 inches. Then when I dropped off the otehr side the curb was about 7"...I put a teenie dent in the rear of the exhaust tip, and broke both of the rear bumper secure brackets...there isn't any visible damage at all and the bumper is still perfectly stable:) I was lucky, and I've learned my lesson lol.

[cibomatto]

Quote, originally posted by drunkenvibe »> "I'm an excellent driver"LOL.. you may be but the idiot that hits you isn't for me..Luckly no accidents. well My wife did hit a parked car but that doesn't count

[LocDog]

Hmm when i got rear ended, some paint got scratched and there where minor nic's... right after i got out a cop rolled up.He acted like nothing had happened, he wouldnt write a report and told me to not "worry about it because that happens around here"I didnt know it was ok to play bumper cars?????i went to ask the woman for her info just incase there was any damage under the plastic. she then turned to the cop and say "i dont gotta give him my info". He laughed and reminded her that she hit me.I hate people would insurance dismiss something like that?

[JustinVGT]

They shouldn't dismiss something like that. The lady that rearended me, her insurance company gave me a check to replace the entire bumper. My car was dirty at the time of the accident which made it harder to see the actual damage. She put in a small about 4" scratch in the paint and a tiny about 1/8" nick/dent and I had not a single scratch on my bumper beforehand. The appraiser came out and said they will replace it. Well, once I washed my car and saw how minor it was, I decided to just keep the cash for later. Shadow really matches the plastic color well. This also had no affect on my rates. So, definitely call your's and his/her insurance if he/she has not done so yet. If you call your's, you will then have them to back you up in case of any problems. Put in the claim and get your money! It's that person's fault.Later,

[Merzbow]

That would (removed) me off so much if she asked the cop if she had to give me her number and such....It's like she's in elementary school..."aww dad he can't make me give him my info can he?" HAHAHA stupid people.

[Stang2Vibe]

Quote, originally posted by LocDog »would insurance dismiss something like that?Not likely. If there is contact made between two vehicles, an investigation into the incident will be made upon one of the party's request. Procedure will vary from state to state. I'm not sure about NJ, but here in PA, we have 2 different forms that can be filed in traffic cases. First is the Accident Report. This must be filed by police if a traffic accident has caused at least one person to have to go to the hospital as a result or if any vehicle involved is damaged to the point where it must be towed. It is also illegal for people involved in an accident that meets these criteria to leave the scene of the accident without notifying the police. The second type is called an Incident Report. Not many people know about this one. If you are involved in an auto accident (regardless of severity), in PA you have the right to have a police officer come to the scene and file a written report regarding the accident and any damage to any vehicles. Police departments often don't feel like doing this, but if you call and request one, they must show up and make the report. Almost all 911 calls are recorded and therefore you would have evidence that you requested an officer's assistance. My advice to anyone is, if this type of report is available in your state, always use it in any accident where insurance information is exhanged. This saved my a$$ once!!! On my way home from work one afternoon when I was 19, I accidently bumped some lady's car from behind. She was stopped for no reason in the middle of an intersection that had no stop sign or traffic light there. The section of road that this occured at was just paved earlier that week and it had just started to lightly rain a few minutes before, which made the roadway very slippery. As I came down the hill (at the speed limit), I had to round a bend where this dumb lady had stopped just out of my line of sight because of the bend in the road. As soon as I saw her stopped car, I hit the brakes and all 4 wheels instantly locked up. I began sliding, and was able to steer the car toward the curb to my right, rather than sliding into oncoming traffic. I had hoped to jump the curb and go up in the grass of someone's yard to avoid hitting her car, but the curb was about 10 inches high and my wheels just bounced off and I kept sliding on the roadway until I bumped her car. She then pulled over and I parked my car right where it had stopped and refused to move it. She asked if I was ok and then immediately demanded my insurance information. I looked at the back of her car and the front of mine and saw no damage and looked back at her funny. She insisted that since I hit her car she wanted my insurance info. Knowing my rights (and aware that may age would unfairly be working against me) I told her that I would provide the info but that I was calling the police to have a report made. She didn't seem to care, she just insisted on the insurance info because she said her husband would flip out because her car was less than a month old (it was a new Subaru Outback). I called the police and explained the situation and they dispatched an officer who was in the area. The officer showed up and seemed a bit upset that I called him because, as he stated, "there is no damage to either vehicle". I just smiled and told him that I agree with him, but try to convince her of that. She started babbling on about the car being brand new and her husband and all this crap, so the officer just rolled his eyes as he took out his notepad. There was a small indentation in the plastic lower rear bumper of her car the size of a quarter that could easily have been popped out by reaching your hand around behind the bumper and pushing the dent out. She made the biggest deal in the world about that dent, so the officer had us both move our cars into a nearby parking lot so he could make his report. He had us both get into his squad car and exchange our insurance info as he wrote his report. When the lady went back to her car to get something, he told me that he would note in his report that the road was just paved and it just started raining making the road unusually slippery, that nobody was injured, and that he could find no damage to either vehicle. I was happy that he had seen things in my favor and realized that this woman was trying to take advantage of me. We went on our way and that was that. Four days later, an adjuster from my insurance company called me on the phone and got an attitude with me claiming that I was involved in an accident and didn't report it to them. I told them that I had no claim to make and that I was not involved in what could be called an accident. She told me that the other party was filing a claim and they needed to know my side of the story. I told them what happened and they insisted that I should have called them (which I still disagree with). They said that I hit this lady's car and damaged it. I laughed and told them I did no such thing and I have a police report to prove it. Then the adjuster's tone changed completely as she asked for the report number. I gave her the number and she quickly ended the conversation telling me that it was great that I got an officer to make a report. She hung up and I never heard from anyone regarding the incident again. I guess that they got a copy of the officer's report, saw that he reported that there was no damage, and denied the claim. Had I not had that report made, I would have probably had my insurance cancelled. That goofy woman could have made up any kind of story and screwed me over big time. Sorry if the story is long, but it perfectly illustrates why it is so important to protect yourself even if the accident is so very minor. That woman could have gone home and cooked up some story with her husband, had him drive her to the hospital, claimed whiplash and all kinds of stuff and then gone after my insurance company for thousands of dollars. One simple, short report was all I needed to completely defend myself. Also I should say that you must have the report made immediately! You can't go home and change your mind and then call the police and have a report made. It must be done before you leave the scene or the police can't help you. So if the you or the other person exchange insurance info, always insist on having the police make a report or you might really get screwed.

[LocDog]

Thank you for taking the time to type all that... In the case of the girl rear ending me and the nearby cop pulling up, i should have asked for a report but no one seemed to care that my car got hit As for the lady that merged into me, i would have had to make her pull over and then wait hours for a cop to show up..... its so0o easy to cause damage but takes forever to get anything done about it...

[Stang2Vibe]

Nobody but you is obligated to care about the condition of your car. If someone hits you and damages your car, you can both agree to leave and not file any claims. This basically means that you don't care that there is damage to your car and you aren't going to hold the other person responsible for fixing it. You have the right to just walk away from it as long as you are both agreeable to it. So nobody else is going to care about your interests, you have to protect them yourself through your own actions. Even if it's not convenient for you, you have to take action to protect yourself if you expect anything to be done about it. Sometimes, wasting time waiting for a cop to arrive might be the smallest price you have to pay in order to protect yourself.Here's to better luck with your Vibe and no more accidents!

[JustinVGT]

NOW lets make it 3 for me! I just got rear ended again today!!!! Luckily, it appears to be only damage to the rear bumper. There was quite a jolt and they'll inspect it all, but the bumper is just scraped up. It was really dark, so I may have missed some. It was a '93 Prelude that hit me. His bumper and hood got messed up. Looked like he slid under my bumper a bit. This accident occured on the same highway about 1/2 a mile before the last rearending I had!Like I mentioned in my earlier post, I have had so many close calls with people almost rear ending me. Our Vibes brake so well. I keep my distance and don't have any problem stopping, but so often I see people in my rearview mirror coming up when I'm braking and I'm thinking "please don't rearend me!" and well, it happens. I sure am glad I decided to wait on getting my bumper replaced from the last rear ending! Everything went okay, a sheriff came to help out too.Drive safe,Later,

[Stang2Vibe]

The Prelude shouldn't have much trouble with braking, either. I should brake every bit as well as the Vibe. Often the car brakes well, but the driver doesn't. I've already had a few close calls as well. When I have to brake quickly and unexpectedly in traffic, I find that I usually have to think for the person behind me a bit as well. I will rapidly look ahead and in my rearview mirror to make sure that I'm stopping quickly enough so I don't hit the car in front of me, but I try to adjust my braking as best I can to allow the person behind me room to stop as well. So far, this method has me batting 1000. If worse comes to worse and I see that the person behind me can't stop in time, I would try to quickly change lanes to get out of the way if it is possible to safely do so. If they can't stop and I can't change lanes, then too bad for them. I did my part to stop short of hitting the person in front of me, it's ulitmately their responsibility to not hit me.Also, in driver's ed we were taught that if you see that you are going to be struck from behind and there is nothing you can do to avoid it, you should let off your brake pedal just before impact to help reduce the chances of you being injured. If you allow your car to drift a bit with the impact, the forces on your body aren't as great as if you lock up your brakes. As far as responsibilty for the damage to the car in front of you goes, as long as you stopped short of hitting the car, you're not responsible if someone plows you from behind and slams you into the car in front of you, so reduce the injury to yourself and let off the brakes before impact. Just thought I would add this since I see so many people are getting hit from behind here lately.

[JustinVGT]

Quote, originally posted by Stang2Vibe »When I have to brake quickly and unexpectedly in traffic, I find that I usually have to think for the person behind me a bit as well. I will rapidly look ahead and in my rearview mirror to make sure that I'm stopping quickly enough so I don't hit the car in front of me, but I try to adjust my braking as best I can to allow the person behind me room to stop as well. That's exactly what I do. I really hate it when I have an SUV driving to closely with their poor stopping distances. I've had SUVs slam on their brakes and swerve to the side in sudden braking in traffic.

[joatmon]

Anyone planning to buy a new car should consider this important scientific finding, from http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/Arti...iTechQuote, originally posted by "ctv.ca" »Silver cars are safest, study findsCTV.ca News StaffSilver cars are less likely to be involved in a crash resulting in seriousinjury, says a study in this week's issue of the British Medical Journal.Researchers in New Zealand examined the effect of car colour on therisk of a serious injury in over 1,000 drivers in Auckland car crash injury study between 1998 and 1999. Factors such as age and (removed) of driver, seat belt use, vehicle age, and road conditions, were factored into the statistics. They found a 50 per cent reduction in the risk of serious injury in silver cars compared with white cars. There was a significantly increased risk of a serious injury in brown vehicles and the risks for black and green cars were also raised. The risk of a serious injury in yellow, grey, red, and blue cars was not significantly different from that in white carsGlad my Vibe is Satellite

[ragingfish]

Apparantly that doesn't apply to collisions with deer!

[disneydj]

Two Accidents, both involving the front left section of my Vibe. Not such a fan of the two weeks it takes to get parts and put it back together