Bumping this:

I never really witnessed any accidents. However, I was IN an accident, once.

It was a few years ago (I was 12). I was in the back of my father's car, when suddenly, the car skidded before hitting a concrete barrier. It wasn't too bad, nobody was hurt, and that was the only car accident I've ever witnessed to this day, and I had to witness it from said car's back seat. It's horrifying at first, but you get over it quickly.

It's times like these I think of how we're lucky we don't live in a "PM Entertainment-style" world (where the car would've taken off like a rocket instead of remaining upright on the road).

Saw another aftermath today... gray 2006-10 VW Touran hit another car, but I can't remember which.

Last Thursday in Istanbul I didn't see an accident, but the results

When I waited for the green light, a brand new red Hyundai i20 stopped 2 meters in front of me, directly on the junction. The driver jumped out a forced a taxi to stop. I don't understand Turkish, but it seems, that the Hyundai-driver incriminated the taxi-driver, that he shall have damaged his car (indeed there were corresponding scratches).
But the taxi-driver didn't want to be bothered with that and refused to disembark. The Hyundai-guy couldn't pull him out because of the seatbelt, so he could just smash him a bit into the face. When he went back to his car (probably to get the phone for photos and to call the police, the taxi-driver accelerated and drove away (the passenger tried to flee, but was too slow), the Hyundai-driver jumped in his car and started a chase. At the next red light there was annother queue, but it was up the hill and as a pedestrian I was too slow, that I could check, how the chase ended.


P.S. This incident happenend really just a few minutes after I though by myself "Wow, for such a big town the people generally and the drivers, too, are very cultivated and polite.

Well, exceptions confirm the rule
But indeed, in Istanbul there is indeed much less aggressivity and bossiness in the traffic than in other towns and countries, I have seen. Even less than overe here.

Today i had a small incident with a pedestrian. It happened in the town of Rennerod which was the geographic center of the former BRD (West-Germany).

The traffic stopped and when the car in front of me started moving again i slowly accelerated and a woman ran in front of my car. I hit her but she showed me a sign that she is okay. No damage to my car, but getting hit by a car, even at slow speed, can be painful.

Here is the video of it as i filmed everything with my dashcam:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPWjU4FM6cU

This hit was unintentional. I simply didnt see her. There was definitely a hit as you can hear and see by her reaction.

I guess that she avoided the hit by "resting" on the hood with her hand.
I already did that when I was nearly hit by a van (who should have seen me, unlike here where indeed she arrived from a blindspot just when you moved) as it was turning at an intersection while I was crossing in a pedestrian passage.

Thats why you should always Check if the driver can see you when you cross the road in front of stopped cars. AT first i wanted to accelerate much faster. The woman was lucky i changed my mind.

same when passing (as pedestrian) in front of the first car waiting at a roundabout : it is very dangerous, better pass between first and second car.
I already nearly hit pedestrians coming from the right while I was waiting watching on the left.

Now they tend to put the pedestrian lines a little further from the roundabout, so the first car can wait after passing the lines, but the older roundabouts were sometimes less well made.

Does funny ones count ? Saw last week a Mitsubishi Outlander, around 2010 , trying to get in a space clearly too small for it. I was waiting for my light to be green in a perpendicular street that gave me only view of the action from rear but i saw the Outlander climbing on the curb and hit the Hyundai Elantra behind it and ran away... was kind of funny as the Mitsubishi's driver did tried more than once despite the fact that the space was too small....of course , from the Hyundai's owner perspective, its way less funny...

Around 2007, I was in a car accident myself.

We were in my dad's 2005 Jeep Grand Cherokee and we were going to turn right at an intersection and waiting for cars. Some guy let us through and we were turning until we saw a silver 2004 Toyota Highlander was racing towards our intersection trying to make a left turn when they then saw us but still went on, causing a small dinger. The driver was an older Asian Lady with a bitchy Chihuahua in the passenger seat. She kept on saying "It's your fault" and "You hit me" like she was dense. Anyways, we filed an insurance claim against her and set a court date. Between the accident and the court date, she got into yet ANOTHER accident and got hurt, possibly a heavy rear ender or an actual intersection crash Long story short, we won the case and her insurance rates went up.

Today i saw what would have become a gruesome accident. Many angels and pure luck saved the day.

I was directly behind a big truck who could also pull dolly trucks but which was rolling as a simple truck this time. We both wanted to drive off a parking lot and turn into a two-lane street. Its a pretty tight turn and you can even see in Google maps that you have to swerve into the wrong side to get around.

The truck driver did not see a Ford B-Max approaching (maybe he was blinded by the setting sun) and turned right. I heard the tires of the Ford screaming as he made a hard avoidance turn to the left into the wrong side lane. Luckily there was no other car at the moment and the older Ford driver had good reactions.

It was such a close call that the Ford stopped at the next possibilty and the co-driver stepped out to check for any damage. As it happened right in front of my eyes i can tell you: I thought someone is going to die in that Ford.

Thank lord that his guardian angels were driving around.

The second close call in 7 days. I should buy a life insurance.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3ERMHw6mMM

(Nope, i haven't filmed the first one i was talking about)

Yikes!

This weekend I was in my '51 Ford behind some guy waiting for my turn to enter a roundabout. He drove in. I looked to the left and it was free for me to enter too. Just as I turn my head forward I see the guy in front of me have stopped in the middle of the roundabout, I was literary standing on the break pedal with lots of tire screech as a result. I think I was just a few CM from hitting the car in front of me.
This happened to me in my '64 PV 544 a few years ago too, I'd guess I must pay better attention...

Earlier last week I drove out from a smaller street where I live onto a bigger street with my 240. There was some teenager in a pimped V70 that didn't want to give me right of way but as I was already out a bit in the road he had to stop and started to shake his fist at me. I calmly stopped in front of him, started to roll down the window to ask him if he didn't know about the 'right hand rule' (you must give cars coming from your right right of way if you're not driving on a priority road). But he drove up on the sidewalk and drove off.

Forget it. Only an "opinion booster" is helpful in such cases:

http://www.faulmann.de/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/kloppe.jpg

In Germany this rule is basically called "right before left". That explains everything.

The bus driver said at that junction the right hand rule applies. But as explained in my video this is not the case.

Does anyone of you know what horn i heard from the bus? Its an Iveco Crossway and the horn sounded akward, like an emergency horn in case of a hard braking. I know some bus experts are here, so maybe they can answer my question.

Last sunday in a car exhibition i attend, a guy backed up his Citroen 2CV 6 in a ( does street light applies even if not in a street ? ) damaging his rear bumper and possibly the tailight on the left side....

the worst part is... he had plenty of space to leave without getting in reverse....

Sedan smashed in blade of moving tractor on about 30-40km/h. From my point of view it was so obvious they would crash but no one slowed down. Tractor's driver fault.

Today i witnessed a crazy accident in Rouen (France). A Renault Driver was driving in a bus only lane and additionally on the wrong side - complete douchbag! Soon a bus came along and honked the shit out of him. The Renault drove to the right side and the bus started to pass him. God delivered instant karma and the bus accidently ripped off the reaR fender of the Renault. I hope the stupid car driver gets at least the shaRe of the accident. Have no photo because my battery was empty. Antp, as you are sometimes in France: do you see people often in bus only lanes?

The few last times I was in France it was mostly on highways, not in the cities.
In Brussels people don't go too much in bus lanes, it seems. Buses do not hesitate to honk if they can't pass
Except for turning, when permitted (bus lanes delimited by discontinued dashes rather than a continuous line can be used when turning at the next intersection). There are even many people not even knowing that, it seems, as they stay outside the bus lane for turning instead of using it, which may be more dangerous in the end...

Except when driven by stupid or/and drunk persons, cars and other 4-wheeled vehicles stay out of the bus lanes, in France. The vast majority of people follows the traffic regulations, here, please don't extrapolate a generic behavior from the one of an imbecile

In fact, the real problem with bus lanes, for me, is that they are sometimes common to buses and (non-motorized) bikes, which can be a bit dangerous for cyclists. All the more as some bus drivers drive fast, due to their empty lane...

I have my dashcam since two years and its always on during every drive. But the only accident i have seen so far was when i was walking around (already told that story).

Today there was a very funny situation on the parking lot of a shopping mall where i was parking. I was reversing into a parking space when i heard someone honking very hard. I turned my head to the left and saw a Mercedes A-Class reversing while a Peugeot 208 Convertible was standing directly behind it.

I was literally thinking "Don't crash please, you are out of my camera view!". Thank god the Mercedes stopped but there was nothing more left than a hair of space between both cars.

If they would have crashed and my camera was not filming it because it was facing the wrong direction i would have been so terribly mad at the Mercedes driver.

Here is the situation just seconds before it happened. In this screenshot the Mercedes driver is already almost hitting the Polo and the Peugeot came after the Polo.