Does witnessing an auto accident ever make you think, you should tune up your driving habits so it doesn't happen to you?

Take a look at this video and see…
http://youtu.be/qXWsFZWCI0A

Are you referring to the aftermath of the accident or actually seeing it as it unfolds? I’ve been in a bunch and witnessed a bunch as they happened in front of me, and it never really altered my habits. But then I am very good behind the wheel. My s/o says cocky, but I say good.

@Adirondackwannabe you have been in a bunch and still consider your driving habits good?

@SQUEEKY2 I got in a bunch because I had to see how far I could push the car and myself. I know what the car is going to do under a lot of different conditions. I just pushed a little too far at times.

Yes, but not just seeing an accident. For example, it drives me nuts when people are at a stop sign waiting for a chance to pull out, and their wheels are turning ever so slightly. Makes me feel like they’re in a hurry, not paying attention and are liable to just JUMP OUT!! To that end I always make sure my car is firmly stopped in consideration of other drivers. That’s just one thing. When I was younger and wanted to pass a car, I noticed that on two-lane highways some drivers in front of me would pull slightly to the right so I could see past them without having to cross the center line to check. I thought that was nice, so I do it too.

No, I could be Lewis Hamilton & not stop some arsehole piling into me one sorry day.
Can only be as good as you can be & take care of yourself, the rest is down to pure luck.

I don’t need to witness an accident to remind myself to be a patient and cautious driver. I’ve never been in an accident and I’ve never caused one.

@hey_now curious…how old are you?

I once had a friend who was a HORRIBLE driver. However, she claimed to be a good driver because she’d never been in an accident. Finally she got in one. It was a 4 say stop. She stopped, then proceeded without checking. Other driver ran his stop sign. Totally avoidable if she’d expected the unexpected, which she didn’t.

@Dutchess_III mid 40s. Why? I said I was a patient and cautious driver. I’m always aware of my surroundings when I drive. (and just because you know someone who said they were a good driver but they weren’t doesn’t make me just like that person you know)

No.

Just spending many years on the road and getting older I am more prudent and more aware of what can go wrong. I have only been in very few accidents and I have seen very few, unless you include the accidents I see at the race track. Those will convince you speed can do some pretty horrible things to a car, and risk everyone around and the driver himself.

Also, one time I was driving long distance and I was getting very sleepy in a very mountanous part of PA, where exuts are every 40 miles or so. I pulled over on a wide shoulder I was so tired. About an hour and a half later I woke up. I didn’t remember falling asleep at all I had fallen asleep so fast. I had been nervous to pull over, because I was a young girl alone, but I realized later that I would have probably driven off a cliff if I had not made that crucial decision. That near miss changed how seriously I felt about sleepy driving. That and an accident my boyfriend had when We were in high school, which I mention below.

I have always been more afraid of car accidents than is probably warranted. One of the first accidents where I knew someone in an accident, was a drunk driver who killed a girl in my high school a grade younger than me. My parents had never had an accident, and I didn’t know other people who had. In high school a few more accidents happened, but they were very minor. I really thought an accident meant you most likely would get very injured or dead. Then my boyfriend had an accident, he fell asleep and drive through an intersection. The car with the green drove right into his car. He was banged up pretty badly.

@Dutchess_III So you aren’t going to let me know why you asked me my age? Why ask such a personal question and then not follow through with the discussion?

Not at all. There have been times I realized I was driving a bit recklessly and slowed down, but I don’t see a car accident and get scared or cautious.

@Blackberry I don’t get scared or cautious either,just maybe reflect on my own driving habits and what I can improve on , in the last twenty some years I have driven well over 2 million kilometres and have seen things that will freeze your blood,because of peoples bad driving habits

Just wondering how old you were @hey_now. If you’ve never been in a wreck by this time you’re lucky, that’s all.

Is it luck @Dutchess_III or is it because I’m a cautious driver and aware of my surroundings? I never speed and I always leave enough distance between myself and the driver ahead of me.

It could also be because @hey_now does not drive much.

It’s very unusual to find a person in their forties who has never been in even a fender bender, so @Dutchess_III has a good point in asking your age, @hey_now.

@hey_now It can be luck, it can be random acts of stupid. I came within feet of being snuffed out by an idiot passing in the wrong spot. I was getting ready for it. That’s not fun.

I drive quite a bit for the record. I have plenty of experience. wtf? everyone in their 40s has been in an accident? I don’t think so.

Watching videos like that make me nervous. Yeah, they probably do make me more cautious behind the wheel.

How the hell can someone claim to be a good driver after being in a bunch of accidents? “Pushing the car too far” is what bad drivers do, not good ones. Sheesh, delusional people.

@hey_now Nah. My mom didn’t have her first car accident until she was in her late 40s.

Unfortunately, I started at 17. Luckily, I’ve had none for over 5 years.

Not at all.

When I see an accident I think two things:

1) thank goodness it wasn’t me.

2) Bet the guy was texting,

@livelaughlove21 I’m sure you know all the details, so delude away.

I think every teenager should be in at least one low-speed accident. I watched an accident unfold that was totally avoidable, but the kid was only 15. Mom was with him but she couldn’t get him to stop in time. A guy simply turned left in front of him at a stop light.

@hey_now It’s a combination of luck and good driving. You can be the best driver in the world, but that isn’t going to stop some jerk from pulling out in front of you or something, leaving you NO time to stop.

I haven’t had a wreck since….1987. That’s when I learned that just because someone has their blinker on it doesn’t mean they’re actually going to turn. I’ve avoided several accidents since then though. A few BAD ones.

When I drove my 16-year old son for his driving test, I was so agitated that when I turned left onto a main thoroughfare, I stopped paying attention. An oncoming car grazed the right side of ours. My fault. After the usual negociations and exchanges, we proceded to the police barracks for the test.

My son had to climb out the driver’s side of my car, his passenger door being jammed shut. He passed the test on the first try and was forevermore a very conservative driver.

I have never had anything other than two small fender benders over the course of 50 years of driving. Once, my car skidded on a patch of black ice while moving very slowly, slid off the road, hit a tree and turned turtle. I escaped w. a bruise from the seat belt and an abraision on my cornea from the air bag. The car was upside down (with me hanging from the floor in my seat belt) so the local rescue squad did have to extricate me. And the car was not worth repairing.

My dad taught us how to drive and scared the shit out of us. He always started by saying, “Driving an automobile is like holding a loaded gun.” My sister (also a super-cautious driver) and I still joke about it. She never has accidents and is even more prudent than I.

The ice…scary that @gailcalled! My most recent brush was at an intersection here in town. There is a stop light, and a lot of semit truck traffic coming in. The line was backed up for a block. A semi was blocking the view of someone waiting at a stop sign toward the end of the ine, to cross the road I was one. I caught a glimpse of them before my car went along side the semi, caught a glimpse of their wheels starting to roll and I slammed on the brakes, threw the car to the right, entering the other side of the intersection, then back to the left. I ended up stopped just inside the intersection. The other car hit its brakes and stopped about 6 inches from my driver’s side door. If I hadn’t thrown the car to the left they absolutely would have hit me.
I wondered what the hell had been going through their mind. They couldn’t see anything so they just assumed it was safe to go on through?? Sheesh.

You want to talk ice?
In 2009 at 6am on the first day of spring coming home at 100kph hit some black ice was all over the highway and hit the bank head first on my side of the road, and think of this it was in a truck that is 82feet long with 2 trailers ,I was empty and thought it might be the end because on the other side of the road was a 200foot drop off ,so was lucky to end up on my side of the road,the truck was pennies away from being wrote off,I got away with just a welt on my shoulder where the shoulder strap was,it has made me pay real attention now to road conditions.

I can’t believe this! I went to McD’s. On the way back home, there is a car at an intersection. Damn driver was on the damn phone. Saw her looks left and right, could tell she didn’t see me at all, even though I was right there! Sure as hell she started rolling. I punched it just as she started to head into my driver’s side. Then she saw this big, red SUV right in her face and figured maybe she should stop. Moron.

Yes, but not just seeing an accident.