DUMBEST Accident You've Ever Had
 

The dumbest accident I ever had happened as I was driving home. I was in my old Celica (it was a speedy little manual, loved it). I was into the winding, twisty roads of the development, when I see some kind of little Ford hatch slow down in front of me. It was about 200 feet up, but then it stopped. I slowed down. It put on it's reverse lights. I stopped, puzzled. It started backing up. I honked, but it was pretty far away, still 150 feet. But, wait, it was still backing up, faster now! As it got closer, I started honking hard, couldn't back up, some idiot was behind me. By now, I'm standing on the horn, and it's still backing, about 20 feet. Then it hits me.

Two teenage girls get out, looking shocked. I got out, yelling at them (I am a mom, so I am well-versed in yelling at teens). They just looked sadly at their mangled car. My car, at a stop, had pushed half their trunk in. My bumper had a small scratch. I let them go, since I figured their parents would pick up where I left off with the yelling.

So, yeah, they backed up 150 feet to hit me. :rolleyes: I suspect they NOW understand "objects in mirror are closer than they appear".

What's the dumbest accident you've ever had?

I'd really rather not talk about it!

I guess mine was soon after I got my 1st car, a 1971 Firebird Formula with a transplanted 455 engine, missing carpet & console $1,000. I was 17 & spent all day cleaning & waxing it in preparation for my 1st date with the car. While backing out of my parents garage to go pickup my date, I had the drivers door open. I forget why but probably listening for some noise, the drivers door hit the wall & bent back into the front fender. I almost drove it that way but decided I better call her & have her drive her car. Some what good outcome was a couple months later I had enough money to have Maaco fix damage & paint the whole car. :ah:

Funny, I did the same thing with mt '65 Mustangs backing into the garage. Luckily I stopped before I completely folded the door back!

I had another incident with my first car, a '69 Mustang. I went blazing into the driveway too fast, didn't make the turn, and ran the front end straight up onto a boulder. The car was mostly OK, but the hit was hard enough to make the 302's timing chain skip a few teeth.

Beautiful sunny day and I'm driving around in my 1971 Triumph TR-6 with the top down. I glance down to change the radio station but can't see the display due to the sun glint. My attention is diverted just long enough to not notice that traffic that has stopped in front of me. Can't stop in time and rear end the car in front of me. Cop laughed when I told him the story.

It was not dumb on my part.
Truck behind me forgot I was in front of him at traffic light. He pulled up too close. Because the truck is high, I disappeared from his sight being blocked by his front hood.

He accelerated at the green light thinking there was no one in front him.

20 years of driving, 0 accidents.

I was stopped at a stop sign waiting to turn right into a construction zone no one behind me. An opening in traffic opens up, I take my foot off the brake, roll forward maybe 1'-2' and then hear a big thump and then see a guy laying on my windshield. Apparently he was biking across a parking lot, jumped a curb and wanted to cross in front of my bight red car (not in a cross walk etc). He hit right at my A-pillar, busted up his bike pretty bad and hurt his shoulder. He had to have been doing 15-20 mph coming up diagonally from behind me from private property and for some reason, even though I wasn't at fault, my insurance company decided to pay him for hitting me....

Been driving since 76' and haven't caused an accident yet. Was hit twice but no good story with them except the one at a stop light the lady's husband was in front of me (she hit me from behind) in another car and begged me not to tell the cops she was drunk. Somehow I got between drunk and dumb at a stop light. Go figure. My truck had a scratch on the bumper, her hood was trashed.

My most embarrassing ding was pulling in a parking lot I was checking out a girl and my Dodge truck hit one of those very solid yellow posts. Ya laugh!

Hey, at least you wasn't looking at a guy :D

Better knock on wood after that one! Pretty amazing record and I am sure the insurance company loves you.

First Boxster I never owned
 

Mid December - grey, damp misty day. Took a boxster for a test drive with a view to buy. Wet road, booted it off a roundabout, it spun and I went sideways over the grass into a lamppost.

Police came and arranged a flat bed to nearest garage.

Found I was not insured so I bought the car for the asking price and sold it on line to a restorer who collected it from the garage.

quite an expense for the car that I never drove after I bought it.

:mad:

I've had some dumb ones that I don't feel like sharing. Mostly rear-ending people that I don't think are going fast enough. But my favorite one was driving on a 30 mph road that my friend lived on. I didn't have any turn signals so I slowed early and signaled with my arm out the window making a right hand turn. All of a sudden I feel this big bump and when I turn my head I see this Mustang spinning out with several pieces of the car in flight right behind the car. (I can still see it in slow motion in my head). I continue to pull into my friends driveway and get out of the car to check if the other person was all right. Before I can get out of my car this girl comes at me screaming, "I hope you have insurance!" My buddy had come out of the house by then and I just looked at her, then looked at my buddy and told him to call the cops and I wouldn't acknowledge her. She was belligerant the entire time the cops were filling out the report.

A couple of days later, I get a message on my answering machine (remember those) from a guy. The owner of the car. Turns out he just finished restoring this car and he let his girlfriend drive it. He asked me not to report it to my insurance company and he would take care of my damages out of pocket. It left a paint streak on the bumper of my rusted out 1973 Caprice. I told him not to worry about it. He had enough to deal with.

Ouch! :eek:

What, he had no short-term memory either?

Oh, I did ;)
At $55 total per month for two vehicles, I'm loving my insurance company :D

same here although I haven't been driving as long you.
I attended an EVO school at the Nassau Colliseum stadium parking lot one summer. I think it was the second advanced day class (all day) for like $300. It was pouring something unbelievable on my drive over to the class and the whole way over I was wondering if they would simply cancel it. When I arrived in the lot they were already running (and sliding all over). Windshield wipers working over time. I can honestly say I have never driven that hard in the pounding rain before. But by mid day I was a regular Ayrton Senna in the rain. :p Okay not quiet but I had real confidence to lay into the brakes in wet conditions. That simply never happened before because you take it easy when its raining on regular roads and if raining on autocross day my lazy arse would stay in the bed instead of chasing down cones.

So about a week afer the EVO school I'm on a three lane highway on another rain day and someone up ahead cuts off another driver and causes this chain reaction.
Like an idiot I wasn't totally paying attention but once I got my witts about me I reacted, I flicked the wheel, accelerated hard and missed two cars doing parallels directly in front of me by a cat's whisker. Probably less. I pulled over to the side, picked my marbles off floorboard, and quickly realized the EVO school was money well spent.
One way to avoid accidents on the road is to take part in some driving instruction with your local PCA or SCCA. It changes your 'field of view' of the open road.

Trying to stay with my friends IROC camaro in high school, in none other then my mom's Saturn. Needless to say I slid right off the road down an embankment. Not a scratch to the car. Went to the closest bar(we were up in the mountains) bribe a guy $40 to use his truck and winch to pull the car up. All was good, not a scratch on the car . Then I started it and drove it home with the exhaust ripped in half, sounded like what ricers are doing to their cars on purpose.

Next day I begged my mom to drive it to school. She relented, and I had my buddy weld it up in auto shop. FREE and CLEAR, never got caught for that one, LOL!

My Dumbass Accident
 

Got in the car in my three car garage..... Opened the garage door with my remote......Started her up.....Goosed the throttle .......Let out the clutch....... Two seconds later my head slammed backwards as the car slammed into the front bumper ( a BIG OLD STEEL one) of a service truck that had parked on the driveway right behind my car.

I knew the service guy was in the house, I just didn't connect the dots- it was just one of those brain freezes. $4,500 in body and paint damage plus 3 years of higher insurance premiums. Yes, I am a dumbass. :D

Though I did have some very close ones. More than once someone stopped fast in front of me, I knew the guy behind me would hit me and my teenage reflexes at the time allowed me to pull around the stopping car and give the guy behind me enough distance to stop. Lots of other close calls, with lots of fast reflexes, driving in the snow up north and dirt-bike crazy stuff will give one quick thinking...not so sure at my age now I would be able to pull it off...now I just keep my distance and use wisdom to keep me out of trouble.

Now why aren't my insurance rates low!? 37 years is a long time...ya'd think it was worth something...maybe time to shop around.

I'll bet your mom knew.

Sometimes, as a parent, you just pretend not to know things, so you don't have to deal with it. :D

Dumbest accident I've ever seen...
 

The lady across the way was reversing out of her garage and running late to pick up her kids after school just as a family friend was pulling (probably too quickly) into the driveway.
Wasn't even all the way out of her garage and WHAM!
Yeah, she rear-ended a car in her own driveway.
Try explaining that one to the fuzz and your insurance agent.

My wife and neighbor did that too. :) Both backed up and turned left/right (slight offset of the driveways) and managed to meet in the middle of the street. My wife was in a Prius with backup camera. Insurance decided neither was at fault and both paid their own clients for repairs.

I have one but I'd rather share one of my Mom's, who has since passed away.

Years ago Mom was backing their Monte Carlo out of the garage, got too close to the garage door and scrapped the passenger side of the car and broke the mirror off. My Dad and I happened to be outside on the driveway and witnessed the debacle.
Dad waves at Mom to stop and tells her she's just scratched up the car and Mom calmly replies

"Well at least no one was hurt".

^^ I watched my neighbohr from across the street pull into the drive and drive right through the garage door. I think she was sleep driving. Luckily she was alright.

I was 17, driving home from work on a very cold Winter evening in my dad's Renault Le Car (long story on how he ended up with THAT). Car had a 4-speed stick and a manual choke. After about a half mile, the engine is warmed up. I attempt to push in the choke, and it's sticking. I look down to see what's going on and (without realizing it) gradually veer to the right. The right side of the car goes up the side of a snow bank, and the car rolls onto the driver's side.

Fortunately, the car had a very large, manual canvas sunroof. I opened that and crawled out. The person behind me stopped to see if I was okay. More embarassed and surprised than anything else. We flipped the car back on all four. The side mirror was bent, and the "Le" from "Le Car" on the door was scraped off.

Told Dad I would pay for it myself. Cost $170 (that's how long ago it was).

Let the guffawing commence.

DBear

Well, let's see..... I've had a few. The last one was about 10 years ago. I backed out of my driveway in a Honda civic and T-boned my truck that I forgot that I had parked in the street. The first thing I did when I got out was to look up and down the street... and say to myself... "did anybody see that"???

dbear61, I've got one for you. About 25-30 years ago I had a LeCar also. We used to call it either the LeCan or the Le********************. It was actually a fairly new car at the time. It didn't have enough power to get out of it's own way. I was merging onto an onramp in an un-named city. (They may still find me).... anyway, I got onto the freeway and heard this screeeech-bam!, screeeech-bam! and so on. You get the idea. The driver behind way underestimated my lack of power to get up to speed. It didn't make the news but there were at least 8-10 cars piled up behind me.

So then the karma: Years ago my x-wife rear ended me on sheet-ice and messed up both our vehicles. Problem was; I owned both of them and insured both of them.

My dumbest (and there have more dumb ones than I care to admit) was from a few years ago, on the day I picked up my wife and brand-new daughter from the hospital after she was born. I was starving, so I stopped at a drive-thru to pick up some fries. Making a left hand turn from the center lane, behind one other truck. Figured I had a few minutes, since on-coming traffic was quite heavy, I just knew that I HAD to get the last little bits of fried goodness from bottom of the fry container, so I tipped it up to my mouth, and was so engrossed in the yumminess that I took my foot completely off the brake. Next thing I know, thump, I rolled right into the truck in front of me. Most expensive French fries I've ever bought!

I had to think rather hard to remember this one, so I guess I've been lucky to not have many dumb accidents...

Since I'm single, I a lot of times become the hotel for wayward guys separating from their wives. I was hosting a co-worker about 15 yrs ago. My two cars were in the garage and his pickup was about half way down the driveway so I could get either car out.

It's Sunday morning and I'm going to church. I get in the car that's in the same lane as the pickup. I start the car (my 79 Mustang Pace Car) and see it's got no gas. Dang! Shut it off and run up and get the keys to my 2 yr old 97 Probe GT. Now I'm behind schedule so I buzz out of the garage not thinking about being careful. Bang! Hit the side of his bumper with the rt qtr panel of my car. Crap! It just put a mark in his bumper that I was able to buff out, but did quite a bit of damage to my car. I was so pissed. He was paying me some modest rent but whatever he paid was now going to go out the window as my deductible. I told him he was out at the end of the month.

Oh, okay . . . if we're going to get all confessional . . .

I used to drive a monolithic Mercedes SEL (stands for Super Extra Long). It was more of a boat than a car, it swaddled you in leather, you could lay down full length in the back seat, never felt a bump. Fabulous cruiser.

So I pulled into the driveway, both kids in the back, and hop out to do something or other. I turn my back, and hear this odd squealing noise. It's the kids, screaming at the top of their lungs because the car is cruising up the driveway, heading for the garage. I had forgotten to put it in park. Or put the brake on. Luckily it was going pretty slow. I ran up the driveway, jump into the passenger seat and pull the brake. Slowed it down just enough so I could scramble into the driver's seat and hit the brake. The car just touched the pile of plywood hubby had leaning against the garage wall. No damage.

To this day, whenever anyone in the family gets out of the driver's seat of a running car, we all say "Park! Brake!" Kids will never let me hear the end of that one . . .

A woman after my own heart! She sounds like an awesome lady. :cheers: