So today in Harvard Square, an infamously congested and bewilderingly arranged area in Boston, I was stopped on a side street giving a big rig plenty of room to back into a loading dock. Just as I started moving again, a Rav4 rear ended me. I stopped right there, not wanting to risk the other driver running, grabbed my camera and surveyed the damage, which consisted of a barely perceivable scratch. I went up to the car and was about to pleasantly tell the driver not to worry and to drive carefully, but the lady rolled down her window and snapped "You Stopped!" I replied "Yes, I stopped". Then she screamed "YOU STOPPED!!!" to which I replied "yes I stopped and you didn't and you hit me, but don't worry about it". I went back to my car, but she screamed out the window "YUR AT FAULT!!!". I yelled at her to pull over, and once we had done so she started to explain to me that "there was NO LIGHT!" "You can't stop if there's no light. You're at fault". SCREAMED back "THIS IS HARVARD SQUARE!!! YOU STOP WHEN PEOPLE CROSS THE STREET, YOU STOP WHEN YOU PARALLEL PARK YOU NEED TO PAY ATTENTION AND DRIVE AND WATCH THE ROAD etc etc", all the while she's screaming "NO LIGHT, NO LIGHT" I also explained that if you rear end someone, it's always your fault, especially on a city street and when the other car doesn't even stop short or anything. At this point her boyfriend stepped out of the car, and I could deal with her but I didn't really want to deal with her boyfriend, so I screamed back "TOOTLES, LEARN TO DRIVE", and she was still screaming "YUR AT FAULT YUR AT FAULT" when I got into my car. I saw her furiously pull out her cell phone and dial... Now, if I wasn't late for class, I would have waited around and watched (and maybe videotaped) the lady try to explain to the cop that I caused the accident because after all, you can't stop unless there's a red light, but alas, I guess I'll have to use my imagination... And yes, it's after 12 so April Fools day is over. I'm not kidding you.
To a degree. I rear ended someone at a traffic light and was sued. The jury found me 10% at fault and her 90% at fault. She received nothing.
Just because you rear end someone doesn't mean you are always at fault. Let me give you one example: If the person that got rear ended tinted their brake lights so that it made it difficult for the car behind him to see the lights. Lol. Sorry for your accident. Luckily you are one of the cooler heads out there on the road. Little fender benders can lead to tragic events. You are a better person than most.
But if she hit you as you were starting to move forward again, that's pretty clearly her fault 100%. Hopefully you snagged her plate in the process of getting pictures, at least.. . _H*
OHHHHHH you should have stayed and enjoyed the entertainment. Her head would have exploded when the popo showed up and told her it was her fault. Then if it got REALLY good you'd get to watch her get cuffed and stuffed :rofl:
I'm sure by the time the cops got there, she was telling them how you backed into her. (BTW that actually happened to me. I was stopped in a left turn lane and the guy in front of me backed in to me because he didn't want to wait and decided to pull out and go through the intersection. Lucky for me the guy told his insurance company the truth. I was "front ended."
Being hit at all sucks something awful. Hopefully you have all the info you need to file a claim. Good Luck.
LOLOL! I was just waiting for her to say "April Fool's! You probably would have been too if it had been on April 1... OMG I was backed into in NYC, and the lady stormed out of the car and said 'Well I didn't know you where behind me!" She told me I didn't need to call the insurance company or report it, and tried to un-crunch the crunched fender and somehow magically fix the broken headlight and eventually left the scene, but I took plenty of pictures and even though my insurance company couldn't track her down, they paid for it anyway and the shop actually did a whole bunch of other body work on the car and billed it all to the IC, so I was happy!
I don't know. . . One thing I learned in college was that you can always get someone's notes. Some things - sleeping in, old friends, crazy people, afternoon rendezvous :eyebrows:, early drinking - warrant the occasional class skipping.
Great response. I always avoid driving in Hahvahd Square if possible. Parking is always a bitch. Using her logic I suppose she must be plowing over the people in the crosswalk since many intersections have crosswalks but no lights. She must also parallel park nose first at 30 mph. I wouldn't sweat it. She likely has issues that go well beyond slow reflexes.
Ethnicity: In my family we have black, white, brown, asian, & middle east goin' on. That gives us license to make fun of our own ... make fun of each other in a steriotype-manner (at least in front of each other). I won't do so here, but I'd put mony on ...
Boston, isn't that where left turns from the far right hand are ok, after a toot on the horn? One of the most difficult city's to drive in! If you don't have Mass Tags, you're fair game!
Funny you should mention mention this, as today I found out that a friend of mine had his Civic hybrid totaled in Boston the other day by a lady who made a left turn from the rightermost of the two right turn only lanes across 4 more lanes of moving traffic without really looking and no toot of the horn! Guess what he bought to replace it! I'm so sorry! I've been taking courses through the Harvard extension school to fill out my high school transcript, so I have to park on the street there multiple times a week. In the last few years it's gotten even more congested, and of course they plan the nonstop construction to strategically create as much gridlock as possible. It does beat highway robbery T and parking lots though. My mother made me drive in Boston only a couple months after I got my permit = Scarred for life!
I had this happen to me more than once in Bean Town. Although I did manage to avoid having an accident. My brother works in Boston and says it's quite common to have people make all kinds of turns with out any warning. I think the cowda clouds their minds...
Parking lots, certainly but the T must certainly be cheaper than driving, even accounting for Prius mileage. Plus you must be feeding a meter and/or eating an occasional parking ticket while in class, right? Obviously it depends on where you are coming from whether you can pick up the red line easily but I think if I were in your position I would be making every effort to use the T. After all, it gets even better mileage than the Prius.