In my almost 50 years of driving I never had an at fault accident.

Yesterday I spent all afternoon detailing our 02 S60, getting it ready for sale. Inside and outside it is in great shape, engine is in very good shape, etc.

I took it out for a run and at a place where cars must merge I stopped waiting for traffic to stop at the traffic light down the road. The merging lane is a curved lane. There was a car in front of me. SO the traffic is stopped at the traffic light, there is no oncoming traffic but the car in front just sits there. I look in my rear view mirror and the guy behind me (oddly in another Volvo) raises his hands like --- what's going on.

So I look up and the car in front starts to enter the road. So I start, looking to my left to see if there may be oncoming cars and then bam! The car, the girl that for some reason was hesitant to enter onto the main road had hit her brakes.

I get out of the car, we are now stopped on a three lane bypass and she is in the far right lane. A dangerous place to be. She had moved so far that she was 99% into the bypass road that we were all merging onto.

I ask why she stopped? She couldn't speak my language but the passenger could. He looked at their car, looked at my car....no damage to either cars. He asked if I am ok, I said yes, he extends his hand to shake and I said we must move this is dangerous. So we both went on our ways. The Volvo behind me almost rear ended me.

Even though she did something (lack of better word) something stupid, the accident would have been considered my fault. I was only driving as everyone does or would when the car in front has started to enter the road and you need to move forward to look for oncoming traffic. Yes I know that you need to look for the unexpected, the person that is going to make an unexpected move and I have no idea why she started and then stopped.

Accidents happen and happen fast. Each day we all drive assuming that people are going to drive in a certain manner, not stopping in the middle of a moving line of traffic. But then you have the person that does the unexpected and the accident happens.

Just glad nobody was hurt. Second I am glad that nothing happened to the car that I plan on selling. The hit felt like when you are riding bumper cars at the park. Maybe she thought she was at an amusement park?

Errrrrrr!!!

 

Glad no one's hurt.

 

It was slow so the chance of bodily injury was almost nonexistent.

Told this story to a police officer friend and he said that he did the same thing one time. Sitting having coffee with some guys and others had the same story.

The officer said this happens quite often at entrance ramps onto the freeway / expressway. You will have people who are old or don't know how to merge on the road and stop. Meanwhile the person behind them is looking back at the traffic and thinks, there is plenty of room for his car to merge. Meanwhile there is a car that stopped.

It can be a difficult situation. I am a very defensive driver but there is also some assumption that people will act in a manner that other prudent drivers would act. So when you start taking off, then for some reason stop, such a maneuver is outside the daily prudent driving that most people perform. There will be those seconds that to merge onto the road that you must look to see if there are cars coming for you to safely merge.

Fifty years ago my grandmother was driving on a limited access highway with my nephews riding with her. My nephews told me that grandma stopped in the highway, dead stop in the middle of moving traffic. Her reason was because she missed her exit. IT was time to take her driving privilege away.