OP is at fault, really both are. But if you had to lay the blame on one person, OP is 100% in the wrong concerning the accident. I had someone do exactly what OP did in a parking lot. 2 days after I just pumped a ton of money in upgrading my 1997 Thunder Bird LX. Wanted to beat their face in for being a dumb driver.
There's always a chance they'll cough it up on their own. Ask nicely and explain the situation. Tell them you only need to see that clip and record it on your phone when they show it to you to speed things up. Of course, if they offer to make you a copy, go for it, but i doubt it.
I'm thinking it is a perspective thing. Say she was actually going 15 mph and he was going 10 mph. She would appear to be coming 18 mph at him. Also, our minds tend to judge speeds by nearby objects. For him, the building is probably what his subconscious used as a point of reference for still even though it would actually be moving 10 mph south from his frame of reference. I can easily see how a car moving 15 mph would appear to be moving 20 mph to the average person. He is at least off by 15 mph on his own speed so it is safe to say he could be 20-25 mph on her speed.
Sounds good. I started this thread for advice, not really to determine who's at fault. I consider myself at fault too because I should have came to a complete stop with or without a stop sign. I blame the lady because I slammed my brakes within 1 second giving her ample time to do the same and she didn't. My skid marks show I slammed them right when I saw her and hers are soft and show her car rolling into mine. Mine were 1 feet and hers were 5 feet. She had 3x the stopping time I had and I watched her hit my car. She had two options: 1) Slam on her brakes, or 2) go around. Instead she froze up and hit me. I do think both lanes have to yield. What if I was crossing slowly, more than halfway out and she crashed into me going 35?
I'm still not understanding why your reaction to a car about to T-bone you was to brake into the crash not speed up to avoid it.
Because the accident would have been worse. I drive a Mazda3 and she would have hit the backdoor/tire.
So worst case friction factor of 1.2 for cement and worst case that all her brakes worked perfectly, she was going about 13-15 mph when she hit the brakes and you were going about 7 mph.
I should say that this assumes she was practically stopped when she hit him. If she was only halfway stopped, she could have been going up to 19 mph. Based on description of damage in OP, I think the 15 mph is probably a good estimate of her speed, which is probably still a little faster than she should be going based on visibility.
What's contradicting is youre saying she had a lot of time to stop, and even go around, but yet you didn't have time to clear her by pushing ahead. If you were driving a small car and she had time to react and go around you, then you probably had time to go ahead yourself. It sounds like both of you froze, but in different ways. It's also your responsibility to avoid the accident and not just wait for her reaction. Did you actually see her eyes on the road? Maybe she didn't really see you in time. And you should also check the places across the street/lot. If you're lucky, they have cameras outside that point far enough to have caught the accident.
I didn't get T-Boned. She hit my front bumper on the left side. I'm saying I would have easily stopped if I were her by slamming the brakes. I might post pics later to clarify things. I didn't freeze. I stopped.
But why did you stop though? If i'm clear you stopped and basically put all the faith in her to avoid the crash by stopping before hitting you. But why didn't you just avoid the whole ordeal and sped up.
I didn't want to bump this thread, but everyone is judging without being there. I'm not making excuses because I know what happened. The witness that ran up was a hispanic male, she was a black lady, and I'm a white male. Why would he lie?
