J.B.

I was in heavy city traffic a few weeks ago trying to pull across three opposing lanes of traffic close to an intersection. the first two lanes were completely backed up waiting for the light. The cars saw my intent to cross and left a space for me. At this point the third lane was empty (so I thought), but I knew there was a good chance there was a car blocked from my vision by the considerate cars in the first two lanes. So I slowly crept forward to try to see more of the last lane. Still not seeing anything I started across. After moving about one foot into the lane a F150 came rumbling down the empty lane. I stopped quick, but still hit him. At the speed I was going I did not expect much damage, and since I was blocking two lanes of rush hour traffic I pulled around into the parking lot. I hit right on the truck's front tire, which caused way more damage than I thought. A piece of plactic ripped fom my bumper had wedged inbetween the rim and tire of his truck, though it didn't puncture the tube. The truck had some scratches, most of which were just my paint, and on the opposite side he had barely sideswiped a utility pole which left a scratch about 1" X 3". You can see the $3,000 worth of damage to my brand new Shinka in the picture. The police officer arrived on the scene shortly after, took our statements, and so forth. I heard the other guy's statement, and he told the officer basically the same thing I did, which is basically what I said above. The officer told us the report would be generic because he didn;t witness the accident, and would just include our statements. Fine.
So I picked up the police report after the 10 day waiting period and just about blew a fuse. I always thought of officers as professional, detail-oriented people, but this report chanced my thinking. First of all, the receptionist had trouble (about 10 minutes of trouble) finding my report even though everything was computerized complete with search functions. Why? The officer did not even spell my name right on the report. I was not aware John was difficult, but there it was- "JONH". Continuing with his careless entry, the portion describing our statements was riddled with mistakes. one sentence read "Unit2 two collided with a nlility pole". He also quoted me with saying i was given the right of way by one of the stopped cars; I never said anything of the sort! I made a point in telling the officer my caution crossing the lanes and the heavy traffic and other variables, but none of these are included. Then I turned to the next pages. On my page, human factor was listed as "failure to yield right of way". I probably cant argue that. So I read on. All normal- no, wait- my speed was listed as 20-25 MPH. What?!?! Damage was listed as minor/mod. OK, kind of fishy. Next is the other car's information. His speed- 5-10 MPH. His damage- Moderate.
So, aside from all the misspelled words on an offical report, the oficer reported my speed at 20-25 from a dead stop to a few feet forward, yet the F150 who had a clear lane ahead of him was only reported as 5-10! and My $3,00 damage was minor, yet the few scratches on his truck was moderate! None of this adds up, and combined with the the fact that the officer did not even take time to make sure his report, or even MY NAME, was spelled correcly complete lost my respect towards this officer. How can this pass as a reputable and acceptable police report? I'm sure there is nothing I can do, because the addident will boil down to my fault. But am I alone in thinking this is completely rediculous? Anyone else experience anything like this?

(sorry about being longwinded- I just needed to rant)

Aero8

Sorry to hear about the accident, but I think there is a lot you can do to fight this due to al the mistakes. Especially your name. I don't have mauch knowledge on this, so I will let others answer, but I think you should be able to fight something.

CTrx8

iTrader: (2)

i don't think he's looking to fight it since he's admitting fault. though the details are wrong the main thing is that he cause the accident.

J.B. - sorry to hear about the accident but glad to see you're okay. i'd speak to your insurance agent and make sure that the details aren't going to make a difference. i couldn't imagine that they would but they would be more knowledgeable in that area.

VRZOOMZOOM

Is just me or am i seeing a lot of posts lately with accidents with RX-8s! So sad!

Detrich

sorry to hear about this and hope u get everything repaired good as new. insurance doesn't always take the police report at face value to assess fault. they often use simple right-of-way rules and then assess % of fault. if you were crossing lanes, then most likely u will get the blame. the only way u would get only partial fault is if the police report showed the truck as speeding.

all in all, drivers aged 15 to 25 have the most accidents. unfortunately, this also is the target demographic for the rx-8. so, it's not surprising to see a lot of accidents on the forum for this age group.

drive safely everyone.

CarAndDriver

What is up with all these accidents? More idiots driving them, I suppose.

They are wrecking my insurance rate!

½mv²

Cops make mistakes like this all the time. The first thing you should do when you get in an accident is call your agent and tell them everything. THEY will file a police report for you, and it'll get done correctly. Make sure you have the others involved give statements over the phone at the scene of the accident (if an adjuster doesn't come to the scene personally).

A little over a year ago, an H2 stretch limo rear ended me and drilled me into a Ford Excursion. My Avalon was compacted to the size of an MX-5, and I was knocked out. I came to seconds after the accident, and noticed people on their cellphones everywhere. I decided me calling anyone was overkill, and just stayed in my car, semi-conscious.

I get to the hospital and 20 minutes later, WHILE I'M BEING EXAMINED, a cop walks in and tries to give me a ticket for "failure to control speed"!!! When I asked why, he told me (in a very rude tone) that's it's illegal to hit the car in front of you (what a smartass!). I explained to him that I was pushed into the Excursion by the H2, but he refused to void the ticket.
I eventually ticked him off enough to radio in to his buddies to verify my claim. After a quick radio discussion, he voided out the ticket, rudely threw the carbon copy at me and left. I give him the benifit of the doubt and assume that he's not mad at me - he probably knew this would happen, but was forced to waste the time to come see me by an ******* supervisor, and was just pissed off in general.

WRONG.

35 minutes later, as I'm being carried to radiology in a stretcher, guess who stops me? Same ******* officer. He hands me a ticket saying nothing more than "there was no proof of insurance in your car - call this number and get a court date if you'd like to dispute" and left before I could show him the proof of insurance that I had in my wallet, currently in my freaking pocket!
So I waste the time and money to go to court and get that bullshit ticket resolved. But ready for the punchline? when I was given permission to gather my belongings from the car, guess what I found? The glovebox had been left open, and the contents had been tossed onto the passenger seat. Guess what the top item was? MY ******* PROOF OF INSURANCE.

It's a shame that 90% of all cops have to be completely worthless pieces of ****. There are so many cops out there trying to do a good job, but lazy douchebags like the ones that handled your and my accidents are able to completely drown them out by not caring if they ruin peoples' lives or not.

dmc27

The cop prlly types with one finger, hence the typos. A bit annoying, yes but none of that stuff will help you argue any of the accident detail. Crossing the lanes the way you did pretty much always results in you being at fault, unless the other guy hits the back 1/4 of your car - at which point you might have a case.

It's a total catch 22 - I was told to always get a copy of the police report at the scene. Yeah, good f8ckin luck telling the cop "no that's ok, you write it NOW, and I'll wait." Sucks about the nose, but look at it as an opportunity to get an aftermarket piece - w/the insurance company covering the majority of the cost. Since most body shops will work on reducing your deductible, you can prlly work it out at a pretty low out of pocket cost.

GL, J.B.

wow. c'mon now.

Maybe you should refrain from calling others idiots if you can't write a proper sentence.

Chrisbert

My insurance company has raised the symbol rating on my 8 from a 15 when it was new in 2004 to a 19 now. I'm really pissed off about it, but I cannot do anything much. When I purchased the car (any car) I included insurance costs into my calculated expenses. I even fudged for inflation, but it's getting ridiculous.

Detrich

wow, 1/2mv2- that totally sucks. i'm speachless, but not entirely surprised. i think that if they required police officers to have a bachelor's degree we would see a lot less of this.

jarnone xo

im so sorry to hearrrr thatttt. awwww. hopefully everything will be okay and you get your car fixed. =) goodluck. let me know how it goesss. you paintjob is beautiful thoughhh<3

CarAndDriver

You can peruse my other posts if you want to review my literacy and grammar.

When you have to start pointing out TYPOS, it becomes pathetic.

DarkBrew

Sorry about the car. I hope it works out for you.

½mv²

I think that's a pretty arrogant statment. Degrees don't mean **** in terms of personality and work ethic. Hell, I graduated with plenty of ******** that students and faculty alike would have liked to seen strangled.

I think it's the nature of the quota. Suddenly your job becomes about "how many" not "how well" - quantity over quality. It's a matter of having to write out a ticket to anybody for anything, even if it's got nothing to do with justice. 10% of cops are honest to god GREAT people who don't mind the monthly grey hairs that come from having to find a certain number of legitimate reasons to give out citations. The other 90% are sick of putting their *** on the line every day for **** pay and lack of respect, so they stop giving a **** about doing their job correctly.

Razz1

Never cross heavy traffic going left.

Didn't hey teach you any thing in drivers education?