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Hope for the good in people but expect the worst

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Ed_McCarron:

--- Quote from: tommy on November 23, 2007, 05:02:08 pm ---There are height laws on big trucks at least here in Florida, I'm not sure exactly what the height is but i know there are laws for this reason. Having a truck bumper at the height of a normal car windshield is not a good idea for obvious reasons in an accident.

--- End quote ---

Corollary: Should cars not be allowed to be too low as to be incompatible?  Who decides the height?

Better yet - require all cars to have REAL bumpers.  Steel.  No plastic.  I loved my Wrangler.  Took the back end clear off a Jetta that made a uturn in front of me and didn't even scratch my paint.

danny_galaga:

--- Quote from: crashwg on November 21, 2007, 02:21:49 am ---Normally I'd just say hope for the good in people but I had a bit of an eye opener this morning.

Here's the story, I'll try to keep it short.

I live in NH, we like the snow up here, skiing, snowboarding, sledding etc.  So this morning when it snowed the family (myself, GF and two girls 2 & 4) were pretty excited to go sledding.  So we went out around 10:45 in hopes to go sledding with the kids for a little bit and get the 4 y/o to preschool for 11:45.  On the way to the popular sledding hill there is a bit of a hill the road travels down on which the story gets interesting.  It was slippery, I should have known better growing up not far from where we live now but the excitement of it all...  You know, seeing the kids smile and all...  Anyways, the car in front of me started to slide a bit to the right, I do a little braking work to try and slow the van and keep it as much under control as possible but the inevitable happens and we skid over to the curb and end up swinging the back end of the van out into the middle of the road.  Then "smash" an SUV (think it was a durango) smashes into the rear right quarter panel.

Here's where I'll take a little break and say that EVERYONE WAS AND IS OK, with the exception of my GF hitting her head on the seatbelt hardware and getting a bit of an egg.  The kids were scared for only a few seconds and were calmed down fairly easily.

So realizing everyone was fine, the plan at that point was to get the heck off the road which was still posing extreme hazard.  I had talked to the driver of the SUV, a seemingly nice lady who was very apologetic and we had agreed that we'd get to the bottom of the hill and into the parking lot.  She proceeded down the hill while we waited for an opportunity to turn our backward facing van around and get down there also.  It took maybe 5 minutes before not a break in the traffic came but a police officer who stopped traffic so we could get down the hill to exchange information with the lady who hit us. 

I'm sure you can guess what happened then...  Yup, we get to the bottom of the hill and she's nowhere to be found. 

Moral of the story I guess is that you can't really trust anyone.  Wright down license plate numbers, take pictures if you can, do whatever you need to do to make sure you don't get screwed by some seemingly nice lady. 

This Thanksgiving I am thankful for a lot of things.  Most importantly that we are all OK with the exception of the egg on Lee-Ann's head.  That all the windows are intact, the sliding door still operates, the trunk is still closed (although it probably won't open) and that once I fix the broken tail lights, the van will still be getting us where we need to go until we can afford to fix it up, hopefully before inspection time in April...

I guess another "moral of the story" is to be had here.  Life may throw you a curve ball once in a while and when that happens we have to be thankful for what we have and press on.

Happy Thanksgiving everybody.  And for those in snow country, stay safe on those slippery roads!

--- End quote ---

i feel for you. a lot of us have probably had that experience. when it happened to me, i think the guy was drunk. i should have called the cops but i was young and trusted he would do the right thing. 

im more tenacious now because of that experience. ive even gone as far as the small claims court to get my money for repairs (yes, ive actually 'sued' someone!)

patrickl:

--- Quote from: Ed_McCarron on November 23, 2007, 09:21:51 pm ---
--- Quote from: tommy on November 23, 2007, 05:02:08 pm ---There are height laws on big trucks at least here in Florida, I'm not sure exactly what the height is but i know there are laws for this reason. Having a truck bumper at the height of a normal car windshield is not a good idea for obvious reasons in an accident.

--- End quote ---

Corollary: Should cars not be allowed to be too low as to be incompatible?  Who decides the height?

--- End quote ---
They should all comply to the same regulation for bumper height.



--- Quote ---Better yet - require all cars to have REAL bumpers.  Steel.  No plastic.  I loved my Wrangler.  Took the back end clear off a Jetta that made a uturn in front of me and didn't even scratch my paint.
--- End quote ---
If you hit a car in the side then you inflict more damage on the car you hit yes.

All bumbers have steel underneath the plastic. The plastic is just there for looks.

Ed_McCarron:
No, really?  Theres steel under there?   :dizzy:

My point was the bumpers made of EXPOSED steel end up costing less to repair. :)  Think 1970's vintage anything.

crashwg:

--- Quote from: Ed_McCarron on November 24, 2007, 03:58:05 pm ---No, really?  Theres steel under there?   :dizzy:

My point was the bumpers made of EXPOSED steel end up costing less to repair. :)  Think 1970's vintage anything.

--- End quote ---

So your point is that cars should be designed with only form in mind and function not only takes a backseat but is rather thrown out of the car?

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