Oh, I don't believe I've ever mentioned the accident I got into in detail. I shall do that now because of two reasons. First, the guy who hit me definitely qualifies as a "dumb driver." Second, it proves that driving laws in many areas are broken and idiotic. Third, it proves that insurance companies are money-grubbing scumbags who take advantage of the fact that getting car insurance is the law.
So I was taking a break at work. It was back when I was still a caffeine fiend, so I was picking up a couple of lattes (one for me, one for my coworker) from a Sheetz gas station (it's kind of like Wawa, for those of you that have those...made to order food and drinks, yadda yadda). I was making a right turn out of the gas station as I was leaving when the vehicle that was in front of me suddenly started backing up. I laid on the horn but, long story short, the moron slammed into me, making a huge mess of the front end (pushed the hood several inches out of whack, jammed the head light door down, destroyed several assorted plastic and metal pieces, ruined my bumper). He was obviously going pretty fast when he hit me; it's amazing my airbags didn't deploy. The police were called, took both of our statements, when the state patrolman dropped a bombshell:
I could have been cited for negligence because I was pulling out of a private lot. Also, it is apparently perfectly legal to drive in reverse on a public road, on a highway no less.
Thankfully, the cop didn't cite either party because the person who hit me was clearly an idiot who wasn't paying attention to what the fuck he was doing, but it still pissed me the fuck off that he got off scot-free for driving like a reckless idiot.
Fast-forward to the insurance snafu. The idiot tried to get my insurance company to pay for the damages to his stupid van. My insurance company did its own investigation and apparently told him to fuck off. His insurance company did their research and wanted to pay me for the damages to my car (funny how that works). Given the age of the car (1995) they basically told me that they'd total it out. I didn't plan to do that unless they gave me a very good figure. Despite the body damage, the car still ran great, and I drove it for a couple of months after the accident.
I wound up getting a new car in August -- essentially a newer and slightly different version of what I had (I went from an automatic gold 1995 Saturn SC2 to red 2002 Saturn SC2 with a manual transmission) -- and kind of put it behind me. Several months later they finally give me the final verdict: they considered me 40% at fault for not psychically knowing that their moronic customer was going to needlessly back up on a public road. Never mind the witnesses that saw the entire event, the security camera footage, the logical implications of that sort of thing, the fact that the other driver was doing something blatantly reckless, or any of that. It was partially my fault that somebody hit my car. Needless to say, the implications of that are just horrid. Basically, as a result, they took the totaled out cost of $2600 (which would have been a nice payment on my current car) and turned it into about $1100 (which certainly wouldn't buy a car that ran as good as the Satty). Needless to say, I told them in polite terms to fuck off.
Meanwhile, my dad fixed up the old Saturn, putting almost no money into it, and made it look better than it did when I got it (it had some body damage when I first got it -- he fixed it up). Looks nice (the passenger side headlight door is still a bit wobbly due to the accident damage, but that can be fixed with a few more repairs), drives nice. What's the point in junking a car that's better than 90% of the shit that comes out now, and gets better gas mileage than most of the hybrids that are out now?
You guys know what the saddest part about the entire situation is? I could have gotten the full money -- and probably additional money for bodily injury -- had I just punched it into the road. If I were completely in the roadway when the idiot hit my front end it would have been completely his fault.
Now let's think about that for a second. That basically means that if I pulled a dick move and punched it onto the road I would have been in a better situation than I was. Granted, that probably would have destroyed my car, but I would have probably been able to pay for a good used car with cash with the settlement that I got when I sued his stupid ass. That's a great thing to teach people; doing something stupid and reckless might just prevent you from having to pay for another person's reckless actions.
Do I even need to go on anymore? Simply put, the laws are fucked up, the insurance companies try to fuck over their customers (and their customer's victims, in this case) as much as they legally can, and some people shouldn't have their license.
