Driving mishap

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Ugh,

So luckily all of my adult car accidents have taken place on my driveway so far

Today was another one of those days. I hired a babysitter to come help me out with the 3 kids because I'm so lame I can't manage them all by myself like the rest of normal society seems to be able to do. Luckily my good husband subsidizes this while he is out having fun. Anyhow...

We were on our way to the mall. My husband already left to go skydiving. I am backing out my car from the garage and since we have a long-ish driveway, I back up into a U-turn on my driveway and then I hear a big CRUNCH.

I'm like WTF!??? My husband isn't here, so I said, "What the hell was that??"

Babysitter said, "Uh... that's my car."

OMFG!! !! FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF....>! !! !! !!

I didn't see the car, because in my mind, it didn't exist. I didn't think to look for something that didn't exist because I didn't see her pull up on my driveway. Had I, as I normally would do, looked out my window to see her pull up the driveway when she arrived, I would have made a mental picture in my memory that her car was there. But today she came late and I was in the middle of chasing one of my kids around when she let herself into our house because our front door was open. So, even though I knew she drove to our house, at the time I was leaving to go to the mall, I failed to remember to look for her car. It simply did not exist in that moment because I didn't see it earlier in the day. What a dumbass. I'm about kicking myself.

Luckily she was a good sport. But only because I apologized profusely and told her I'd pay for the damage. She must think I'm a real dumbass. Oh, that's right. I actually WAS.

99 times out of a 100, when your husband is gone, that driveway is free and clear of cars. It was an unanticipated obstetrical and you were simply operating on 'auto pilot" so to speak. I'm thinking if a neighbor parked their car in your driveway and that happened, you'd be furious with them for putting their car in your way when you weren't expecting a car to be there.

This kind of thing happens to everyone. People put their purse in the roof of their car to unlock the door and then get in and drive off with their purse ending up on the roadside somewhere. People go to back up with their car in drive and instead of backing they up drive through their garage door. Many people have done worse. Far, far worse.

Stop that.
.

Last edited by briankelley on 21 Apr 2013, 11:28 pm, edited 3 times in total.

If you can, get into the habit of backing into your driveway so you can just pull out onto the road with no backing up, also that way all damage will be contained to your property. Get in the habit of backing with your mirrors i you haven't. Don't feel too bad, I have cought the fence and later the house and I should know better, just glad all my issues have been confined to my own driveway and the 2 vechiles that have lost their brakes while I was driving i've managed to keep away from other people and their property. It happens just pay her off and move on with the lessons learned.

I have tried this many times(!) and manage to do it in no less than 15 minutes of nonstop trying and failing. I have not been able to improve my success rate no matter how many times I've tried. I can just about hear the laughter of my husband as I keep getting it wrong--after 20 attempts I must look like a cartoon or something. I simply cannot figure out why I am so awful at it. It seems pretty straightforward but while I'm backing in straight (or so I think), I'm actually going in on an angle and about to collide with drywall. It makes no sense, as hard as I try to figure it out.

use your mirrors dont turn your head

it is much easier

Sounds like maybe a mirror use or visual reference issue or a combonation of both. hard to tell without seeing it. Also, you can't hold the wheel stright and expect the car to back stright if your doing that. There has to be a way to learn it.

Don't feel too bad about it.

Once when I went to visit my dad, I went to park the car in the yard, 'cause I knew he would have to back down the driveway when he went to leave for work.

So he says, "No, no, don't make the baby walk that far" (DD11 was about 2 at the time and it was a big yard, like over an acre).

I'm like, "Dude, it's not a problem."

He's like, "Shut up and park in the driveway."

So we socialize all afternoon and he gets ready to leave for work. I go pick up my keys.

"What are you doing??"

"Moving the car so you can get out."

"I can back around it just fine. Don't get up."

"It's not a problem."

"I do this all the time."

Fast forward 10 minutes. "I love you Daddy. You're sure you don't want me to move the car??"

"I'm sure. I love you..." CRUNCH!! "Goddammit, daughter, I just backed into your f*****g car! What the f**k is it doing there?!"

"You told me to put it there, Daddy."

"I did?!"



I think subconsciously he was looking for excuses not to go to work. But anyway you're not the first Aspie to back into a car in your own driveway. I keep backing over a big rock right next to mine. And I never remember to get the damn wheelbarrow out and move the stupid thing, before it punches a big old hole in something.

I will try this next time, thank you! I think (but can't be sure) that the driveway might be on a slight angle on that side of the garage, but my visual perception on space/distance is not very good so I might have to take a tape measure or something to figure it out, because I want to get to the bottom of this.

How rotten that this happened!

The mirrors tip really is good. The other thing that I find quite helpful is to make a habit of walking around the car, as much as possible, before getting in. That way, you can check that all your tires are OK and there is nothing interfering with your wheels when you back up.

This will help you recognize when your tires need air, or you have new leaks--and you will also see any nearby hazards like the baby sitter's car and have time to plan to avoid them.

Glad that it was only damage to vehicles and not people!

If it helps you, I had a similar experience. A truck tried to turn in front of me and was blocking the street for about 5 minutes. Then I decided I would simply use another street instead of waiting, looked behind me, the street was free for half an kilometer with no car behind me. The second I wanted to start to drive back, it seemed the truck would manage his turn finally, so I freezed some seconds, until you could see that the truck didnt manage it again. So as already planned I drove backwards to turn and hit a car directly behind me, that couldnt have been there because when I looked 5 seconds before the street was free for a half kilometer (i think about 3/4 mile), so it would have been impossible that there is suddenly a car behind me.

Except if there was a small company entrance 10 meter behind me, where this car came out. I agree that the cardriver must have thought himself, that I am completly weird.

Luckily this was the only car accident I ever had, and I only wamted to drive backwars slowly to turn my car and the other car was right behind me, so except for the front barrier, there was no damage on the other car and none on mine and it was all insuranced.

But like you I have learned that you always have to look back, when you drive back. Anyway if 5 seconds before, there was no car or if there should be no car.

About driving back or parking backwards: I have lots of experience in driving but I never "got a feeling" for parking backwards, no matter how often I did it. I would recommend you to not try to get a feeling for it, but simply learn technical and precise how parking backwards with you car works. It means after some trys, that I have compared I know now exactly how much space I need between my car and the car that is in front of my place, where my car end needs to be compared to the start of the parking place I plan to use and so on and at which point of my car compared to the other car I need to switch direction to get my front part fitting into a parking place. With every new car I need to learn it again, but it works. Only when you are forced to drive with foreign cars it sucks. -.-

I've had other driving mishaps in my "younger" years (about 20 years ago OMG LOL)

One time stopped at a red light I was too close to the car in front of me so I backed up a little to give some space. Anyway, I forgot to put the car back in drive. So guess what happened when the light turned green? Yeah, I backed into the car behind me. I was mortified. I then slowly pulled into a side lot, waiting for the angry driver to confront me. A few minutes later a car pulled in. My heart about stopped when the guy rolled down the window. He said, "Hey there! I saw what happened back there!" GULP! "I saw that car hit you! I got his license plate number in case you want it!" I was dumbfounded. All I could manage was, "Uh, no, thanks, but that's OK..."

If you look at most low-speed accidents, they usually are "something changed in the enviroment, and something else was happening".

First time someone hit me that was exactly what happened. 2 kids in the backseat, I made a legit turn, he did'nt look at the road (he was further back), and he turns into me.

He apoligized and Insurance took all of about 2 minutes to decide it was on him.

And yet another mishap:

As I was driving to work one day I was going to make a right turn but had forgotten to do it early enough. So I look quickly and put my blinker on and start to make the turn when CRUNCH! I hit a bus! I almost cr@pped myself. My tiny clunky car hit a bus full of people. The driver got out and assessed the damage. I must have looked like I was about to keel over and die or something, because the driver took pity on me and let me go without incident. I almost turned religous that day LOL. The people on the bus didn't look too happy at me. I'm sure they must have been thinking some awful racist stereotypical things about Asians not knowing how to drive. It was self-inflicted public humiliation at its finest.

Without knowing you or watching you drive it sounds like your not useing your mirrors right, perhaps not set up right for you, also maybe your a bit tense of a driver right now. I know my driving gets questionable when i'm not relaxed, calm etc. I will lose some awareness of my surrondings. Thats why I won't drive in unknown areas.

I own a big Jeep Grand Cherokee (before they got shrunken into a SUV Crossover). At one point in time I used to drive an ambulance. When I was with the Fire Dept driving an ambulance they had lines painted on the driveway to make it easier, and less likely to hit something backing up the apparatus. Just line up the rear tire on the line, and done. I back into my driveway with my Jeep and it is hard not to hit the garage door. My solution is to go to Pep Boys Automotive and get one of those black rubber curb stops. It has arrows painted on it so I just line up on that with the rear tire. Saved the garage door, and the fencing along where I park.

I own a big Jeep Grand Cherokee (before they got shrunken into a SUV Crossover). At one point in time I used to drive an ambulance. When I was with the Fire Dept driving an ambulance they had lines painted on the driveway to make it easier, and less likely to hit something backing up the apparatus. Just line up the rear tire on the line, and done. I back into my driveway with my Jeep and it is hard not to hit the garage door. My solution is to go to Pep Boys Automotive and get one of those black rubber curb stops. It has arrows painted on it so I just line up on that with the rear tire. Saved the garage door, and the fencing along where I park.