Fender Benders

I've only been involved in one accident about a year ago. I'd gone over to the mall area after class on a particularly nice day, and was heading towards home. There's a traffic circle that connects the road from the mall area, the road into the main shopping center with Wal-Mart and such, and the road that goes towards the interstate. I was going all the way around to get to the interstate, but this guy entering from the shopping center didn't stop at the stop sign and slammed into the passenger side of my car going 15-20 mph. I saw him coming fast a split second before and slammed my brakes; I think it was some idea that flashed thinking I might not go spinning wildly if I was stopped when he hit. It was too late to do anything else, and I remember trying not to tense up since they say that's what contributes to a lot of injuries in car accidents.

When I looked up (or opened my eyes, I just remember that I looked away) my first thought was that I seemed to be okay. My second thought was "that fucker's running away!" because I could see his car heading towards the interstate. It took a moment for me to realize that he was actually driving on the sidewalk, trying hard to come to a stop while luckily avoiding all the little trees planted on either side of it. Apparently my idea of coming to a stop had worked and while my car stayed put his had bounced off at an angle and flown over the curb onto the sidewalk. I pulled up next to him and motioned to park in the Kohl's parking lot on the other side of the sidewalk he was on, which I was a little uneasy about doing but I didn't want to block major traffic just to make sure he couldn't run.

I finally saw that it was a middle-aged man when he parked, but what shocked me was that he only had one leg. When he got out of his car I nearly shouted something to the effect of "Holy shit, did that just happen?!" We were both pretty shaken up, but I kept myself busy inspecting the damage on both of our cars. It wasn't until I started writing down his information that I noticed my hands and legs were shaking so much that I could barely hold the pencil. His front bumper and the frame of his car had considerable cracks, and both doors on my passenger side were pretty bashed up. It's remarkable that the front window didn't shatter since the metal was bent into it.

Since the accident was entirely his fault his insurance paid for all my repairs and such, though he did try to weasel out of it. He told his insurance that I had merged out of an inner lane into the outer lane, but as far as I know no traffic circles have more than one lane so there wasn't any hold up.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by RacinReaver

Most traffic circles that aren't just tiny little joke ones have multiple lanes, and, frankly, I don't know how there aren't more accidents in them with how little people seem to understand how they work.

I've never seen one big enough to warrant multiple lanes, but how does that work? Surely that would cause a ton of accidents from people trying to get out of the inner lane.

It's a shame my accident had to happen in a traffic circle. I thought they were pretty fun before getting rammed.

There's nowhere I can't reach.