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Sad day for my Flex :(


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Figured I'd share with you guys - was in an accident this morning on my way to work. I'm alright (the other guy too), but my Flex got some nice scrapes and dents on it (see pics below) :(

 

Here's a little quick diagram I drew of what happened:

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I was headed south on Powerline Road. There was a stack of cars waiting to go straight (south) at a light. I needed to go right (west) onto Sunrise Boulevard to get to the highway to head to work, so I turned into the right lane to pass all the traffic and turn right when I reached Sunrise (a move I do every morning). I'm not entirely sure where the other driver came from or where he was heading, but he was perpendicular to me and the stopped cars, trying to come out from between the stopped cars. I'm guessing he either wanted to go on the side street on the right, or into the right turn lane I was in. I was driving along toward the intersection ahead, and he pulled out into my lane as I passed and hit me, as you can see below, it scraped the entire side of my car down both doors and the panel before the wheel well. There wasn't any visible damage on the inside of the bottom part of the doors, but you can see where the paint chipped up on higher parts where the outer door skins bent. His car (which I won't post pictures of) had the front right damaged - with the bumper breaking away and headlight damage on a first-gen Mercedes CLS. Both vehicles were still drive-able, though.

 

There were also "witnesses" there that told a completely different story than what happened - they tried to say we were both headed the same direction and that I somehow was speeding and hit him. The officer that arrived told them that that made no sense based on the damage; he also told me that his report would indicate the other guy was at fault (which he was).

 

So now the lovely process of dealing with insurance gets to start. My insurance guy said the other company isn't good to deal with, so I'm going through mine and letting them deal with getting reimbursed.

 

All that said, I'm ok, and that's what matters - just frustrating to have to deal with the headache of it all, and sucks too because I just got it back Saturday from having some work done (new fuel pump, oil change, rear brakes, and new tires).

 

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Edited by rmc523
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That sucks. Why would witnesses lie like that? Or were they just completely clueless and making stuff up?

 

Glad nobody was injured.

 

I have no idea. I didn't see them beforehand (doesn't mean they weren't there and didn't see it, I might've just not seen them, as I was watching the car hitting me lol), but while we were waiting for the cop, the guy was there talking to them. Almost seemed like they were trying to "cover" for the guy or something.....I'm a little out of place in that part of town....don't know if that had anything to do with it.

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So glad no one was hurt.........

 

A dash cam might be a good investment for times like this....

 

You know, I spent a lot of Friday at work watching dash cam crash videos (something about them is entertaining haha), and I've thought about all these stupid people out there (especially down here), and how it might be worth getting one.

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My guess? Bad timing on his part-as I see it, he is poised to jump across into your lane-his guess-you are doing 45-Nope a tad slower!

Good luck with the insurance process.

More likely the cars in the right lane stopped to let him go through and he went without looking to see if someone was coming in the turn lane. Happens a lot around here.

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More likely the cars in the right lane stopped to let him go through and he went without looking to see if someone was coming in the turn lane. Happens a lot around here.

Its a 35 zone, and if anything I was doing less than that, as I had to slow down initially to go around the stopped cars.

 

Yeah, the cars in the center lane were stopped, and some had left a gap where he was trying to squeeze through. My guess is that he just couldnt see whether there was a car coming (view blocked by the stopped cars that let him through) and thought it was clear and decided to go right as I happened to drive by.

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Ouch, I know exactly the intersection you were on, I've been thru there many times, but this is a common accident. Not sure why if people can't see clearly, they take the chance to dodge inbetween vehicles like that. I usually have a foot on the brakes when I see an opening like that cause of course it's S.FL so someone will find a way and common sense is lacking. Glad your ok though, could have been worse.

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Ouch, I know exactly the intersection you were on, I've been thru there many times, but this is a common accident. Not sure why if people can't see clearly, they take the chance to dodge inbetween vehicles like that. I usually have a foot on the brakes when I see an opening like that cause of course it's S.FL so someone will find a way and common sense is lacking. Glad your ok though, could have been worse.

 

They recently reconfigured Powerline in that area from 3 lanes each direction to 2 plus a bike lane each way. And right before this spot is where the bike lane ends and the right turn lane begins.

 

I usually do have my foot near the brakes in this type of scenario, but even if I had, there wasn't any avoiding it - both because by the time I saw him, he was hitting me, and because of where he hit me - right in the middle, so slowing down wouldn't have helped. There also wasn't room to swerve right, as there was a car waiting at the cross road to turn onto Powerline, and like I said, there wasn't really time to react anyway.

 

And you're not kidding with the clueless south Florida drivers.......putting on brakes when nobody is in front of them for miles, putzing along in the left lane, turning whenever they feel like whether there's a car there or not, etc. etc.

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