Weird morning.
 

My sister dropped by this morning to show me her new benz that she bought yesterday. It was pretty nice, she just had emissions done on it before heading to my place. I drove around the block in it before heading to school. well, i started heading to school, and notice that traffic is quite backed up and there is a accident right in front of the school. As I get closer I see a Ambo and Fire engine going full blast towards the accident. acouple mins later i'm in front of the whole mess, and notice it's a Mercedes. Then I see my sister in the drivers seat, and my nephew. I'm like holy ****. Not 5 mins earlier she was at my house and was I checking the benz out. She hit a minivan head on that was turning left in front of her.
The passenger airbag just about went through the windshield and the drivers side didn't go off. My sister ended up cracking the windshield with her head from the impact. She's alright though, has a nice bruise from it, a concussion, and doesn't remember anything. I talked to the police officer at the hospital and they cited her with failer to stop at a cross walk... I asked about the the mini van making the left, and he shrugged his shoulders. Then argued that she should've stopped at the cross walk.... what BS

Wow. Glad she is okay. That could have ended badly. Did she have a stop sign/signal? If not, I don't see why she was supposed to stop.

Cars turning left at intersections are scary, if you ride a two-wheeler, you get very paranoid about that, it is one of the most common ways that riders get killed. When possible, I try to adjust my speed so that a car goes through the intersection alongside me. Otherwise, I cover the brakes and horn, watch the oncoming driver and his wheels, and sometimes I'll even sit up straight or do a quick weave to be more noticeable. If I have a bad feeling, I'll slow down before entering the intersection, even though it makes me look like a putz.

Mercedes are the safest cars in the world, therefore the best cars in the world.

Glad to hear they are ok.

Why would she need to stop at a crosswalk if nobody was no one in it? Never heard that one.

Does she not wear a seatbelt??

About 15 years ago my brother was involved in a similar accident. He was driving through a green light at an intersection, and a guy in a classic late fifties thunderbird made a left turn in front of him. The guy had his grandson in the front seat with him who wasn't wearing a seatbelt. The kid (around 5 yrs old) died a few hours later of head trauma after hitting the dash. Even though he wasn't at fault, my brother was devastated. I can only imagine how the grandfather felt.... This story still bothers me every time I think about it.

Glad that your sister looks to be OK, hopefully the others are fine too.

Otrher driver probably had some connection to local law enforcement.

there were acouple kids in the cross walk on the other side of the median, and from what other people said when i got there was that cars were slowing down, I guess that gave the lady in the mini van the ok to go. But they didn't see my sister, and my sister definately didn't see them... I'm guessing that the mini van braked right before they hit as the bulk of the damage cheered off its control arm. We're probably gonna appeal the police officers decision.

Idk, but the freshman chick in the passenger seat was hot! :rolleyes:

Actually this is a concept found in many ordinances considered "preempting the intersection." Basically it says that if some one is in the intersection you can't just plow into them even if you have the right of way. For example, if someone stops at a stop sign then pulls into the street and their car stalls in the middle of the intersection or has to suddenly stop, you can't ram them even if you're on a thru street. Not saying that is what your sister did. Glad she and nephew are OK.

Get a lawyer involved as soon as possible.

Almost impossible to deploy the passenger's airbag without also deploying the driver's. Something's wrong here. Either the driver's bag was missing or disconnected, or faulty. Any of which 'should' have tripped the SRS light well before the accident. So maybe the SRS light in the dash had been pulled or disabled. What's the history of the car? Tell us more about it!

That's what I thought. I don't know much about the car except she bought it yesturday, and it passed emissions this morning... I was supposed to go through it this weekend, but.....


I'm going to help watch my nephew tomorrow while her hubby is at work, so i'll see what else i can find out about it.

I smell fish...

+ about a million. What Mr Douglas said, lawyer up. I guarantee there is something wrong with the MB or the driver's airbag would have gone off.

My wife was almost killed by the son of a constable in Texas. There was an accident, and the cops were directing traffic, she was waved through the intersection, when a guy in a truck, going about 50MPH on the shoulder, around a fire truck parked on the side of the road, T boned her. They called his father, the constable, to the scene of the wreck and he did the report himself, she was at fault it turns out.

20 years later, at a barbeque at my father in law's house, my wife's father, cousin and older brother were sitting in some lawn chairs, we were all drinking beer, having a good time. My wife's cousin, who married the sister of the guy who almost killed my wife, was running his head about how Heather was a crazy driver who almost killed his brother in law. I said, "Wayne, first of all, you should not be taking your in-law's side over your own flesh and blood, second of all, you don't know WTF you are talking about and you had best shut your mouth." He mumbled something and promptly left.

I guess I had a sort of dark look on my face and was sort of standing over him in a more than somewhat threatening manner. After Wayne was gone, my stunned brother in law said, "Well GD brother in law, I didn't think an educated MFer like you could go all red neck like that, I thought you were fixin' to whip Wayne's ass."

ABSOLUTELY!

she should not talk to anyone except thru the lawyer

and, glad to hear they are ok.

That may be a problem.

AZ traffic laws - You must yield to pedestrians in the cross-walk. I don't think it matters if the road has a median and the pedestrian hasn't reached the median yet - I can't find anything that says it matters, anyway. If this was a marked school zone, you definitely have to stop if a pedestrian is anywhere in the crosswalk.

Basic driving 101 - When another car slows or stops at a crosswalk, even if you can't see why, you must slow too. Because it is very likely that the other car is stopping for a pedestrian who you can't see, maybe because it is a little kid.

Your sister may have blown it. Possible, anyway.

From AZ drivers' manual

You must yield the right-of-way to pedestrians crossing
the street in any marked or unmarked crosswalk. When
the light turns green, you must still yield to pedestrians
and vehicles in intersections. The law also requires
vehicles to come to a complete stop at any school
crossing when the crosswalk is occupied by any person.
In the interest of safety, if you see persons crossing any
street, give them the right-of-way.