some people...

hi all and nice to see you again
i have to start posting at some point, so why not today ? well, today sucks. x-mas sucks. let me tell you a little story.

this morning i woke up late, since my boss is in vacation and since i feel like i'm also in vacation (although i'm not - in my job, this time of the year is THE craziest). i took out the garbage, enjoyed the sun (even though it's pretty cold outside), cleaned my windows and mirrors and left to work pretty happy with myself. i got out of the parking space and stopped at the red light, on the first lane. near me, on the second lane, a guy with a red VW Golf 5, looking very new.

the green light comes, we start rolling. we both notice that an idiot was forcing his red light from the road on the left. i decide to stop and save some neurons, the guy near me decides to accelerate and force the other guy to stop. of course, the other guy doesn't stop so this guy (red new Golf 5, remember ?) steers right (towards me) without looking. i was already fully stopped and all over the horn. he never looked to the right, until his car magically stopped because it had hit mine !

the red light guy accelerates and leaves the scene, me and the red new golf guy go out and start swaring. i say ok, the damage is not so big, everybody makes mistakes, i ask him to be more carefull and always look BOTH WAYS when he steers and i ask him to come to the police for doing the papers. his car was indeed new (1 month !), he had insurance and all so no problem for him. well, the idiot starts yelling at me and claims it's not his fault, but the guy's who forced the red light. then he gets in his car and leaves.

i went to the police. the policeman tells me, as usual, "what, for this little damage you want to make papers ?" of course, mister IDIOT, it's MY car and MY money, and it's VERY expensive to paint the fender and the mask and the bumper again because of some idiot ! finally he agrees to make the papers, but he explained me how the system works: they will send a paper to the idiot's home address and if he doesn't come to admit his mistake, i cannot do anything. maybe go to court, but it's difficult to prove anything.

oh well... xmas sucks.

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A physics truck just turned over outside. There's physics everywhere!

That's terrible! In the US you are supposed to report ANY accident to the police and the insurance companies use the report to fight it out amongst themselves. That is one nice thing, although the drivers are most certainly a lot worse here!

We had a similar situation with my wifes car. The person who hit the car did not want to tell where she lived and my son, the driver, did not get the license number of her car or her address. She would not answer her phone when we called. The following Saturday, we drove around the neighborhood and found the car and knocked on the door. We had the correct house and now the license number. We went to small claims court and collected almost as much as the damage was in a negotiated settlement.

Bob in Everett

Every crash sucks, even if insurance covers it all. Over here, we're supposed to inform the police when anyone is hurt (even slightly). Leaving the site of an accident without exchanging your data is a crime (even when the other party is not at the scene, in that case you can leave your data at the vehicle and you have to report to the police within 24 h).
The police should never refuse to make an official report (though our Belgian lousy officers would try to convince you not to have it filed, or they keep whining until you run off).
Cases like this make you want to shout F*CK THE POLICE and take right in your own hands. That's when you really get into trouble...

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Michiel 318iS
Every crash sucks, even if insurance covers it all.

So sorry to hear this story Michiel. Ugg.

I must admit that I'm temped to buy some type of small video camera and attach it to my dash. A competitive bicyclist friend (he trains and races) has a little v-cam that attaches to his handle bars. Sure, it would not photograph 360Deg (all around the car), but it might be helpful sometimes.

Be Well, Kelly

I'm sure you were replying to jaffar's post

I am looking for a dash cam, I'd like to find a cheaper version of what we use at work (small cam with CompactFlash storage).