This is a situation where, despite being vigilant and practicing your best defensive driving, an accident can still happen.
Visiting Illinois resident and Redditor /u/LandonClipp’s trip to Colorado Springs, CO ended on a sour note. His dashcam footage shared to the /r/IdiotsInCars subreddit shows the unavoidable moment a woman and her passengers in their Ford Focus pulled out into OP’s lane, giving OP no chance to slow down and stop.
OP’s thread is linked here, with a copy of his video below.
OP’s also provided a gallery of photos showing the extent of the damage.
The accident occurred near the intersection of Bott Ave. and S. 21st with the woman pulling out of a 7-11 parking lot (exact location on Google Maps linked here.)
As his video shows, at the time of the accident it was raining pretty heavily.
It goes without saying, but drivers should take extra care, especially with reduced visibility.
OP says he was visiting Colorado Springs from Illinois to get a feel for the place, as they were thinking of moving there.
“… we’re visiting from Illinois and considering a move to Colorado, so we were checking out the different parts of town to get a feel for it. I guess this area is NOT where we want to be.”
OP says that he was going well within the speed limit and all his lights were on, fog lights included.
“I was traveling normally along the right-hand lane, and this woman for no reason pulls into my lane when she did not have the right of way. I slammed as hard as I could on my brakes, but it was raining heavily outside and couldn’t stop in time.”
“My poor Trailhawk suffered damage to the hood, the bumper, and the wheel well. The woman’s car is likely totaled due to a destroyed driver side door and a bent wheel axle.”
Although the driver in the Ford Focus was insured, as evidenced by the video how violently she was thrown around, she was not wearing her seat belt.
To make matters worse, there was an unsecured dog in the passenger seat, too.
“I just felt bad for her dog who got tossed around quite a lot. “
OP called 911
OP doesn’t mention the extent of the injuries of the other passengers, but he does say the woman’s head was hit, front and back, and reported her neck and shoulder hurting, too.
OP and his passengers came out of it just fine.
“You can drive as defensively as you want, and it’s still possible to get into situations like this where you don’t have enough stopping distance.”
“The cops gave her a ticket and I’m sure the insurance will find me 0% at fault.”
As OP mentioned, you can do everything right and still get into an accident.
Even if you consider yourself a top-notch and safe driver, this is why you need to mitigate your risk when you’re on the road.
That means making sure your car is in tip-top shape, your insurance is up-to-date, and you’re giving 100 percent of your attention to the task at hand (you know, driving.)
Thankfully OP was being a model driver and both drivers were insured, as this could’ve turned out a lot worse.
I passed that accident right after it happened 21st St. is already a nightmare… too much traffic for that road and traffic engineers derelict in their forecast for the west sides growth