The Last Thing You Want to See Driving on I-95

What's concerning is that you said you got on your brakes to "about 60", or 66, or whatever... which implies that you were going a helluva bit faster than that in the dark and wet. And yeah, semantics, pedants, and word deconstruction aside, the context of your posts very much imply that it wasn't your fault that you sideswiped someone. Whether you intended it or not, that's how it reads.

You said that people who slow for accidents get on your nerves because they're rubbernecking. Which isn't true. Accident scenes have a lot going on with a lot of new introduced potentials for another collision, and sometimes the only way to scan the scene for my safety (not entertainment) is to slow down.

I'll leave this thread with that thesis statement- that if you had perhaps slowed down a little more, whether they sideswiped you or you sideswiped them, maybe a little less speed and a little more scanning for potential impacts would have resulted in going home with an intact taillight.

Just saying.

 

Someone traveling too fast for the road conditions.. with no wipers.

 

Opinions? Math has no opinions.

 

Consider yourself lucky that you've never been a first responder or that you've never driven up on an accident or first responders. Had just gotten to. Standard procedure is to go wherever they're told, if they're rolling up and they see a car on the right with flashers that's where they're going to go. Maybe the cop didn't see the Mustang until he was already parked. That being said, once he's there he's not going to back into oncoming traffic which is clearly doing 80 mph to get behind. The other car. Follow up vehicles which I guarantee were on the way would have been told to hit that left lane.

It is incredibly dangerous to block left lanes, especially in the dark with only one vehicle. As we've all discussed, almost nobody slows down for emergency vehicles. And. Will take their sweet time getting there mostly because very few states have 24-hour. Service. Those guys would have had to come in from home, grab their trucks and equipment and then make it out to wherever the emergency is. Meanwhile, the police are going to have to rely on other police and fire/ EMS to get those lanes blocked. And on a dark highway in the rain when everyone's doing 80. That's putting a lot of lives in danger.

 

While on the expressway I thought I'd just had a damaged fender flair and tail light. After getting it home in my well lite garage I saw the metal damage where the fender flair and mud guard is. I was out there a little bit ago and found a slight crease in the quarter panel just behind the rear tire.

 

Bummer about the damage, but at least it's fixable and nobody got hurt. I drive a lot of highway and have seen some horrible wrecks over the years. Anything everybody walks away from is a blessing.


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Not my place to say who’s at fault and who isn’t. I’m just glad everyone is okay! Very scary situation that could have been way worse.

 

There was only one other cop, and 2 wreckers that showed up. No fire trucks or ambulance.

 

Where I live we have snow, ice and a big college full of out of state kids who have never driven on ice. And US 131 with a 75 MPH speed limit.
Shit gets ugly in a hurry.




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To think that Windshield wipers could have prevented this whole thread.

 

WTF?

OP, it’s not too late to delete this thread

 

Well, I can't say that the wipers would have prevented it but they would surely have helped greatly. The UHaul truck slowing rapidly would have had me slowing more than the OP did, especially when you couldn't see well with oncoming headlights. I didn't see the car on the left until just as the OP swerved.

I also don't know why someone from the car was out of said car where they could be injured. WTH wasn't their 2nd priority getting their car out of the lane of traffic? (1st priority was making sure everyone was OK) The car didn't appear to be that damaged that it couldn't be moved to a safe place. Had the car been moved, the flashers would have been much more effective.

Just my $.02.

 

Yeah, god forbid should you have to slow down and maybe save a life or two of either people involved in the accident or first responders. Thousands of people are either seriously injured or are killed being hit by people with this same attitude.
And for the record, you shouldn't be going much faster than 60 in rainy conditions anyways.
Hate me all you want

 

Nobody has mentioned the two other cars in the right breakdown lane with their flashers on. The police may have been there for them, before the car in left lane crashed....who knows???

 

He's from Florida, he doesn't know any better

 

Not to undermine the more important lessons here, this situation is a great example of why we should be upgrading those halogen headlights as well.

 

Why you no slow down when seeing flashing lights? Wind shield wipers might have helped too. Hope everyone is ok. Thanks for sharing.

 

He's 60...living in Florida.
Just sayin'.

 

Sometimes there's nobody around. Not enough cops to handle the volume of calls received. Fire dept doesn't usually show up unless there are reported injuries, entrapment, fluids leaking or a fire.

When I was a tow truck operator I hated getting calls on the highway. It was almost always raining, or around closing time, and the vehicles were usually in bad condition. I'd rather take my chances going into underserved communities and finding a parking violation.