Car Accident
Yesterday afternoon, on our way to run a few errands, Ponzi and I got into a car accident. Everybody's fine; there were no injuries. In fact, nobody's really to blame - according to the responding officer. I was driving.
We were headed down one of the “local hills” to an uncontrolled intersection (of which there are many in the Seattle area). The law states that the first car to enter the crossing has the right-of-way. Well, this doesn't account for when two cars enter the space simultaneously. So, I had slowed down to under 10 MPH - and circumstantial evidence seems to support this. Remember, I was coming down the hill - and anybody who knows me, knows that I'm a very cautious driver.
The next thing we saw was the other guy (and his car) moving in front of us. I slammed on the brakes, grinding to a halt. I wasn't moving very fast, but already, I was in the middle of the intersection. His car may have been to the right of ours, but we were seemingly there at the same time. Visibility to the right and left (from my original perspective) was 80% occluded. I could no more see him coming than he could see me - until we were right there.
No airbags deployed. No glass shattered.
His rear driver's-side door was crunched, but my front-end sustained minimum damage. Only an inch-long puncture scarred an otherwise perfectly-horizontal cluster of scrapes on my fender. We didn't hit him very fast, and we didn't hit him very hard. Still, we waited for the police to come - and that took about three hours, since we didn't have any injuries. During that time, Ponzi walked back to our house, came back, left again to get us some food from Taco Bell, then came back. The other guy was close to his house, too, and jogged back at one point to hit the little boys room.
Originally, the officer offered to forego the police report, but we each wanted him to do so, as that would likely make insurance claims a little easier to handle. No fault is fine by me - I'm just very thankful we're all fine, and that the only real loss was a loss of paint (and time).
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17 Comments
Mitch Keeler
February 2nd, 2005
at 11:33am
Good to hear everybody came out of it alright. I've been through a couple myself, never too fun of an experiance to go through.
Anonymous
February 2nd, 2005
at 11:34am
Glad you two are ok! Safer to stay on the information highway….
Anonymous
February 2nd, 2005
at 12:36pm
Hopefully it wasn't the new car.
Anonymous
February 2nd, 2005
at 12:54pm
You are very smart to insist on a police report. You never know what's going to happen with insurance companies.
Anonymous
February 2nd, 2005
at 1:05pm
I moved to Seattle 10 years ago from the east coast and found all the intersections with no signs pretty confusing. I have since learned that the person entering the (signless) intersection from the right always has the right-of-way. Of course this doesn't help much when you can hardly see them coming, and when you're apparently the only one aware of this rule (law). Anyway, I'm glad it was only a minor scrape. I guess it is true that most accidents happen within a mile from home.
willij
February 2nd, 2005
at 2:00pm
Glad that you are all ok. Worst I have ever been in was when the 15 passenger van hit some ice and we rolled 5 times and I got ejected. I saw the uhual fly over me. We had some that where badly hurt. But they are ok now. You guys are lucky.
Anonymous
February 2nd, 2005
at 2:31pm
“Ponzi walked back to our house, came back, left again to get us some food from Taco Bell, then came back.” Does Taco Bell's food have hydrogenated oils?
Anonymous
February 2nd, 2005
at 5:06pm
Glad to here you and Ponzi are ok. We have these new fangled things here called Stop Signs. Perhaps you should suggest them to the locals there…..
yumabilly
February 2nd, 2005
at 9:04pm
WOW Sure glad to hear you are both OK I guess pictures should be the next. So we all can see how bad your hoping it is the old car looks.
Anonymous
February 2nd, 2005
at 9:04pm
Glad you all are okay!
bnaivar
February 3rd, 2005
at 4:27am
You mean the cop didn't write Ponzi and the other guy up for “leaving the scene of an accident”?
SwathingScientist
February 3rd, 2005
at 2:00pm
Well shucks!!,the fellow probably took one look at Ponzi and OPPS!!.Gud yer okay.
Anonymous
February 3rd, 2005
at 3:09pm
I had a similar low speed accident and so did my daughter (16-yr old driver). Don't forget to have your car checked out. The way they are built now, there is often damage you can't see, even from seemingly minor fenderbender. On the other hand, when you do that, the body shop may write up every microscopic scratch so they can milk the ins co to the max. So get their estimate, then a second one or use ur judgment as to what is serious (e.g., alignment, steering) and what ur willing to tolerate.
Anonymous
February 3rd, 2005
at 3:29pm
The current unexplained campaign against “free speech” appears to be little more than a Madison Avenue scheme to control any discussion of the President's desire to privatize higher education.
That is, a number of for-profit colleges have faced inquiries, lawsuits and other actions calling into question the way they inflate enrollment to mislead/increase the value of their parent company's stock.
In the last year, the Career Education Corporation of Hoffman Estates, Ill., has faced lawsuits, from shareholders and students, contending that, among other things, its colleges have inflated enrollment numbers. In addition, F.B.I. agents raided 10 campuses run by ITT Educational Services of Carmel, Ind., looking for similar problems.
But there is a bigger can of worms.
Kaplan, Inc., is wholly own by the Washington Post Company. For-profit postsecondary education has turned the company around and individuals far more powerful than Martha Steward have made millions. However, there is a nominal “Watergate” styled federal court proceeding (scandal) involving campus “free speech,” that could expose the administration's violation of public trust
In short, I provided the S.E.C., Department of Education, and federal courts information that appears to prove Kaplan inflated the Concord School of Law enrollment, telling investors that the “flagship� of its higher education division has as many as 600 to 1000 or more students.
I also provided evidence to prove apparent violations of sections 10(b) and 20(a) of the Exchange Act and Rule 10b-5 promulgated thereunder.
However, in an attempt to protect important icons of the Washington and New York financial/political circle, hacks have been hired to stir a free speech controversy.
But even Stan Chess (En Passant http://lawtv.typepad.com/en_passant/2004/a_question_of_l.html) innocently questioned the obvious - a clear violation of the federal securities laws.
“Kaplan's Concord School of Law says it's one of the largest law schools in the country, yet for each administration only about 25 of its graduates sit for the bar exam. What happens to the hundreds of other students in each class?”
What are you willing to do?
kstreetfriend
:: jozjozjoz.com ::
February 4th, 2005
at 11:03am
So glad to see that you and Ponzi are OK
Anonymous
February 16th, 2005
at 2:02am
So glad to hear that Ponzi is OK
Anonymous
June 16th, 2005
at 9:08am
This lady is good if you need an attorney but sounds like you dont need one
Her name is Alicia Slaughter