Getting Ready For an Accident

Getting Ready For an Accident, Accidents are by definition unexpected, but it's still a good idea to make some preparations ahead of time - just in case.

* Prepare your car - Keep a notepad and pencil (not a pen; they dry up) in the glovebox so you'll have something to write details about the accident on - instead of an old Taco Bell chalupa wrapper. If there are injuries or major damage involved, it may help you in court (or with your insurance company) to have precise details you can refer back to.

Use your cell phone's video camera (or keep a disposable digital camera in the car someplace) to record things such as skid marks or a tree that obscured a stop sign. It's a good idea to carry a couple of flares in the trunk. These can help avoid a secondary accident - another car piling into your damaged vehicle, because the driver didn't see it in time to slow down or move over.

A flashlight (with good batteries) and a blanket in the trunk are good to have, too.

if you're one of the few people (like me) who doesn't have a cell phone, consider buying one of those inexpensive, for-emergency-use only phones to keep in the car. They're made to call 911 only, so there's no monthly plan.

* Prepare yourself - Every time you get behind the wheel, assume you'll be involved in an accident. Wear you seat belt. And even more importantly, drive distrustfully. Don't enter an intersection without looking left and right - even if you have a green light. Red light running is epidemic and the fact that you have the legal right-of-way won't protect you from being T-boned.

Be on the lookout for addled/oblivious drivers - the ones who are so busy talking on their cell or scarfing down a meal they don't notice you are in their blind spot. Scan your mirrors constantly - especially your rear view mirror when stopped in traffic. You may notice that a huge SUV is barreling toward your rear end in time to take evasive action - or at least brace for the impact and lessen the chances of a disabling whiplash-type neck injury.

Practice emergency braking in order to become familiar with how your vehicle reacts - and how long it takes to come to a complete stop. If your vehicle has ABS - and most cars built since about 2005 do - find an open stretch of road without much traffic on it and mash the pedal all the way to floor as hard as you can. (The ABS system will keep the wheels from locking up and you will still be able to steer the car.) This will give you a feel for how quickly your car can stop in a maximum-effort. emergency situation. Think about where you'd try to point the car if you had to swerve suddenly. Notice things like big trees - so you can at least try to avoid piling into them head on. Look for "soft landings" - or at least, softer landings.

* Follow post-accident protocol - If you do wind up involved in an accident (especially a fender-bender) the first thing to do is get yourself out of the way of further possible harm by moving out of and away from your vehicle. Some people understandably don't want to move their cars before the police arrive so that it's easier to determine fault (for insurance/court purposes) and that's fine - but don't mill around in traffic waiting for the police to show up. It's a good way to get killed by an oblivious rubber necked.

Exchange information with the other driver - name, address, driver's license number/state of issue; phone number(s) and all insurance information. Be sure the name of the driver matches the name of the listed insured on the insurance card. You should also write down on your pad the year, make and model of the other vehicle and its license plate number - as well as its overall condition and the areas where it was damaged. If you have your cell phone/disposable camera, take pictures of both vehicles, including areas not damaged. This is a good way to protect yourself against being charged with doing damage you didn't do. A photograph is worth a thousand words - especially in court.

If the other driver refuses to show you his driver's license or insurance information and you have a cell phone, immediately call the police. While it's not a legal requirement in many areas to wait for police after a minor fender-bender, it is a legal requirement to exchange driver's license and insurance information - and a major violation to drive without a valid license or insurance coverage. If something like this happens to you and the other driver looks like he's going to flee the scene, memorize the plate number of his car and a physical description of him - and get on the phone, call the cops. Hit and run is an even bigger deal than driving without a valid license or insurance coverage.

* Call your insurance company - Do this as soon as possible after the accident. Give them all the details you jotted down on your pad. Use your notes to help reconstruct what happened. If the accident was your fault - and you want to do the right thing - admit it. If it wasn't - or you don't know whose fault it was - leave it up to the insurance company to sort out.

If the accident involved personal injury, major damage and/or tickets, your insurer may provide legal counsel for your court date (depending on the type of coverage you have). There is one case where you may not want to call the insurance company - a minor accident, especially one involving just you (no other car). In this case, paying for the damages "out of pocket" will be a relatively small, one-time hit to your wallet - as opposed to the very real possibility of several years of higher insurance premiums based on your filing a claim and the fact that you now have an accident on record. As a general rule, if the cost to fix the damage is about the same as your deductible, it might be a better deal to just cut a check - and live and learn.

Traffic Laws That Don't Make Sense

Traffic Laws That Don't Make Sense, We may have no choice but to obey - or risk a ticket - but that doesn't make bad traffic laws any more worthy of our respect than the Prohibition-era ban on alcohol. Here are a few of my favorite Traffic Laws That Don't Make Sense :

* No right on red (ever) - This one is apparently intended to protect over-cautious, under-skilled drivers - the kind who need both lanes to be totally clear for at least a football field's length before they feel confident enough to make the turn. Since they can't safely judge the speed and distance of oncoming traffic, we get to wait at the light too - even if it's obvious there isn't another car coming for miles.

* Midnight red - It's 2 o'clock in the morning and you've come to a red light that stays red forever. You sit and sit and sit - engine idling, gas and time wasting - even though it's clear the roads are empty in all directions. Sometimes, the light even cycles without giving you the green. (A common problem for motorcycle riders, because the bike doesn't trip the sensor that triggers the light.) Of course, if you become exasperated and run the light - even after stopping completely to make sure it's safe and the way is absolutely clear - it's almost guaranteed there will be a cop lurking nearby, burning the midnight oil just for you.

In Europe, where sensible traffic laws are more the rule than here, many signaled intersections switch over to flashing yellow - "proceed with caution" - after a certain hour, when traffic has died down. It is assumed that drivers are competent enough to make a judgment call on their own - and it seems to work perfectly well. It's a custom we should think about importing.

* No left turn at light - Cousin to the no-right-on-red rule, this is the one where you find yourself at an intersection wanting to make a left turn across an opposing lane of traffic onto a sidestreet. But instead of a "yield to oncoming traffic" green light - sensible policy - you're stuck with a red light - on the assumption you've got inch-thick cataracts and the ability to judge the speed and distance of oncoming traffic of Mr. Magoo. You're supposed to wait patiently for the green arrow - even when there's no oncoming traffic and you could literally get out and push the car safely across the intersection.

Like no right turn on red, it's a well-intended law designed to protect the worst drivers out there from their own marginal skills and poor judgment - but which treats the rest of us like dumbos, too.

* Under-posted speed limits - This is the biggie. Speed limits are not supposed to be random numbers picked at whim by a government bureaucrat - or revenue-minded police chief. They're supposed to be done according to traffic surveys that indicate an appropriate speed that balances safety with the goal of smoothly flowing traffic traveling at a reasonable pace for a given stretch of road.

A specific formula exist to determine this, too. It's called the "85th percentile speed" - which boils down posting the limit in accordance with the natural flow of traffic. When speed limits are set at the 85th percentile, "speeding" is virtually eliminated - without any need for cops or radar traps. Reason? Most people are neither stupid nor reckless and drive within reason, given the road, conditions and their "comfort zone." On most highways, today, the 85th percentile speed is about 70 mph. And fortunately, most highway limits are now close to 70 mph, too.

However, most posted speed limits on secondary roads still set well below the 85th percentile speed - typically at least 5-10 mph below it. This turns almost every driver out there into a "speeder" - in the legalistic/technical sense of driving faster than a number on a sign. It usually has nothing to do with safe driving, though. Things are set up this way to give police an easy reason to pull over just about anyone at just about any time - and to generate lots of revenue for the local government's piggy bank. We all know it - and so do the cops, even if they don't say so openly.

Genuinely dangerous drivers should be aggressively targeted; but using the law to extract the "motorists' tax" from unwary drivers over trumped-up "speeding" charges is unfair and cynical and does nothing to make the roads safer.

* Primary enforcement seat belt laws - This is the name given to laws that give police the authority to pull a motorist over simply for not wearing a seat belt.

The question here isn't whether it's prudent to buckle-up. Obviously, it is. It's whether failing to wear a seat belt ought to qualify as a "moving violation" - and give police a pretext to pull over an otherwise law-abiding motorist. Not wearing a seat belt may increase your risk of injury or death if there is an accident. But is that anyone's business but yours? Not wearing a seat belt poses about as much of a threat to others as failing to eat right or exercise. It increases your personal risk, perhaps - but it's really no one's business but your own.

Turning on the flashing lights and pointing guns our way for this "violation" is completely over the top - and ought to stop.

* Sobriety checkpoints - In the name of law and order, we've come to accept being randomly stopped, questioned and made to produce ID without having done anything at all - or even given reason to suspect we may have done something wrong. "Your papers, please!" is not what America is supposed to be all about. The goal of getting drunks of the road is beside the point. Probable cause is - or ought to be - the point.

It's wrong to subject people who have done absolutely nothing to even suggest they've been drinking and driving to random stops and interrogations. It violates basic civil liberties - the right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures; to be left in peace until you've given clear reason for a cop to suspect that you, specifically, have committed a crime. By all means, stop and check out any driver who appears to be weaving, driving erratically or otherswise giving good reason to suspect he may be liquored up. But leave the rest of us alone and free to go about our business until we've given good reason to warrant a closer look.

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