This is extremely unfortunate. This really showcases the need to wear your seatbelts and how necessary they really are. Buckle up, everyone... And remember, u238 (awesome user name-I get it, Uranium 238), you didn't make the choice for the other driver to not wear their seatbelt. You are lucky (well, engineering has a lot to do with it, so maybe fortunate would be a better word) that you made it out of that without some SEVERE injuries. Congrats on your replacement, btw.

 

I posted this a couple of years ago, but this occurred after I had been pulled over. The police officer drove off and while I was still sitting on the side of the road, a guy messing with his phone drifted into the shoulder and hit me going about 55-60 MPH. He didn't even have a chance to hit the brakes. I walked away completely uninjured, not even sore the next day.





Note: Keep your seatbelt on if you ever get pulled over; I usually take mine off to get in my glovebox. I would have been out in traffic had I not had it on. Everything that I had on my lap went straight out the window.

-Chase

 

Here is a couple for you.

 

Anyone know what hit this one?

I guess that's why you never see Minis at Monster truck shows, the trucks would just bounce off them.

 

Holy guacamole, batman. Wow. Amazing the number of close calls we seem to be around daily. It can almost make a body scared to leave the house sometimes. I have to remind myself that a good life lived has imminent risks involved and that when it's my time, it's my time. But, I will try to mitigate as many risks as I can!

 

How about this one.

 

That's almost what passes for parallel parking in DC. Yikes. Poor mini owner. The only thing more terrifying would be upside down in water.

 

Mind if I ask why you were pulled over?
Just wondering, bc IMO, it was the police's fault. He's supposed to "serve and protect", but it looks like you were served a ticket, then left unprotected when he drove off to harass more citizens for funds.

 

What was the officer supposed to do? Give him an escort home just in case of an inattentive driver? You're letting your pre-conceived opinion on LEO's cloud your logic here.

The fault lies entirely with the driver of the car who DRIFTED ONTO THE SHOULDER.

 

 

Oh man. I knew someone was going to go there...

Can we just pretend nobody said this and move on?

 

I did get a ticket. I believe that in Maryland they are supposed to remain behind the pulled over vehicle until the person that was pulled over is back in traffic. The officer did explain later that he was still a little wary about remaining on the side of the road, as pretty much the same thing that happened to me happened to him a month earlier. He did happen to be in a brand new cruiser.

I don't blame him; I'm still very uncomfortable when stopped on the side of the road.

-Chase

 

He's right. The officer that pulled him over is partly to blame.
In Canada (specifically Ontario, can't speak for other provinces) if you're pulled over on a highway, the cruiser has to stop behind you with his lights flashing, and remain there till you merge back onto the highway.

If you're being pulled over and you don't feel safe, you can put on your blinkers, reduce your speed, and take the next off ramp and pull over where you feel safe.

If in an emergency you have to pull over to the side of the highway, and a cruiser happens to pass by, they're supposed to pull over behind you with their lights flashing, till your tow truck shows up, hooks up your car, and drives away. You're not supposed to pull over on a highway unless it's an emergency, you'll get a ticket for that.

If you see a cruiser on the side of the highway with lights flashing, you're supposed to slow down, and change lanes if you can do so safely. This is in the Ontario Highway Traffic Act, maybe your states/provinces are different, but this makes sense here and sounds like the safest way to do things.

I'm not a fan of traffic cops either, because I rarely see one spot and pull over an unsafe driver, or just as bad, an uneducated driver. But they always seem to be setting up money grab speed traps on cars going down hill, handing out tickets for 15km/h (9 miles) over the limit. Or tickets for plastic license plate covers, tinted windows, other BS.

 

Well, I can say one thing here as someone with a Criminal Justice-Law Enforcement degree. SOP for many agencies is to do the driver a courtesy and sit behind with the lights on to assist the driver in getting back on the road. Not all departments do this, but the vast majority of the ones I've had any kind of contact (I rarely have negative contacts with LE, but have had a lot of contact through school and related things) with and brought this up with mention that this is something they were taught to do in training. I was taught to do it while in Emergency Vehicle Operations. I would place some blame on the officer for leaving him high and dry like that. Obviously most goes to the driver of the car that actually hit his.

This thread hurts my soul... That overturned Mini was painful to see.

 

I am in the camp that the driver with the cell phone is 100% to blame for that one. IMHO - cell phones are one of the worst things to happen to driving. There are too many people who think they don't need to pay attention while driving or "or what can happen if I just take a second to glance at it" and things like this happen. What they don't think about is they travel almost a football field every 3 seconds. A lot can happen in that time.

I wouldn't lay any of the blame on the officer, however, it would at least have been courteous of him/her to have waited. If he/she had stayed behind, then the cell phone idiot would have hit him. Then the officer would have had a real problem to take care of and the idiot would have a few more things to think about.

 

I see more flat out idiots on the road now than I ever have in my 41 years of driving. It's all due to distracted drivers!! I've seen morons texting, drinking coffee and plastering on eye makeup at the same time. Driving 40 on a 70 mph expressway in the fast lane while texting.

As far as I am concerned texting on a phone while driving should be a felony conviction. If I got a dollar every time I saw someone texting while driving I would be retired by now. As you can tell I am not a fan. I can only say that if you text and drive u are a moronic idiot of the first order!!

Sorry for the rant but I have some strong feelings on this subject.

 

Mini crash design seems to be pretty solid, which makes me feel a little better. sorry to hear about the accidents, though. even if i never see another car crash, it will be too soon.

 

I do agree about text messaging while driving. Since this thread relates to safety, I'm told (my dad has a 2013 328i conv't with iDrive) that iDrive can read text messages and type/send them via voice command. Any thoughts on this technology? My car can do this, but it's a Ford, so it can't actually do what it's supposed to.

All in all, I don't want to find out how well the safety cell is made, but it puts my mind at ease. My son and wife are quite important to me, and knowing this makes me feel a LOT better about this car than I did about her 06 Malibu.

 

The problem with any of this new technology is that is distracting. Talking to a machine isn't as bad as letting go of the steering wheel to type something, but at times it cannot be good. Rarely do anyone have anything so demanding that they need to be interrupted while they are driving. I raised a large family and would often take long trips. If the driving got demanding (like 70 mph bumper to bumper traffic), I wouldn't let them talk as I needed the quiet to concentrate. This is 4 girls that I got to be quiet; there must have been something in the way I asked as that was the only time they were quiet.

Cars are getting away from doing what they were intended to do...transport people from point A to B (not saying that can't be fun). Now they are entertainment systems where people can do other things other than drive. It is no wonder people don't respect them. And then they wonder what went wrong when something happens.

My rant...

 

You know, this is quite true. In my Focus, there's two screens:

And:


The cluster one can be operated while moving. You can do a systems test, earn trophies for fuel efficient driving (yes, trophies...), and change various settings. The other screen... well, it's impossible to use Sync without screwing with the screen because the system is quite unreliable. Accurate with voice commands, but glitchy and often just doesn't work at all. The menus aren't that easy to navigate without it, so it becomes distracting, despite the controller on the steering wheel. This is another reason I like our Mini. All we have is the satellite radio, which seems to work quite well. Not a lot of flashy tech like TFT screens or the like, which I find to be refreshing. Back to basics with that car.

 

This is why I love my mini. I hate the navigation system on the mini and from what I've heard its clunky and not worth it.

 

 

is that the exhaust sticking in the windshield!

 

My Wife Molly hydroplaned on the highway, spun off and rolled down an embankment. Wound up upside down in a flooded drainage ditch. It was repaired and is good as new.

 

WOW. I am glad she is all right. Any pics after the damage was fixed?