[Demonskid]

My aunt came to visit to day. Today is the day .hack//gu is to arrive in the mail.. i was binge watching .hack//ROOTS to get into the mood. My aunt got a new car 3 weeks ago, and took mom for a ride. They offered for me to go as well, I refused. I wanted to finish roots before the mail went.

I get a call 10 munites later, mom said they were in a car accident.. they were at a yield sign, fully stopped waiting for the traffic to clear. The dude claims his breaks didnt want to work, as he slammed into my aunts back end.

I was suppose to go with. After I hung up from talking to my aunt, I tried to call a nieghbor to have someone to talk to. She said she'd call me back later and hung up. After she hung up, I couldn't breath. I started crying. I was in full blown panic attack mode. Its my fault cause I didn't go with.

My cats Zeke and Hiro came to me, they calmed down my panic attack. I was still having trouble breathing when my aunt was finally able to come get me 30 minutes later.

I'll post photos later when I get home. I'm at the hospital using my phone to post.


Aunts Car:


Other Person's Car:

[Coda]

Try not to blame yourself. The only thing that would have been different if you had gone with them is that you would have gotten aches and pains from being involved in a car crash.

I'm glad you were able to work your way through the worst of the panic attack. Yay for kitty empathy!

[Demonskid]

Pets are amazing with how they help humans calm down.

We're all home now. They gave her a painkiller at the hospital. Took x-rays. She's fine other than gonna be bruised up for the next few weeks.

She's complaining about how the seatbelt made her hurt worse... and it's like, better than you going through the windshield.

[Coda]

The most common reason people resist safety equipment is because of a perception of it making things worse instead of better, either because it's uncomfortable during normal non-emergency activity or because you still feel pain when it gets used in an emergency.

Older people especially tend to be stubborn about this kind of thing, which results in them receiving more serious injuries when they DO have accidents. (It used to be that young adults did the same thing, and they still do when it comes to helmets, but seatbelts in particular have become such a default part of American driving culture that the resistance has mostly faded.)

[Demonskid]

Apparently one had cut into mom's neck when she was younger, which is why she hates them so much.

Ugh, even though we're both home, safe and sound.. I'm still a bit shakey.. >x<

[Coda]

That's understandable. Panic attacks will do that. :(

[Demonskid]

I never had one that bad before.

Normally I just get sweaty and breath hard even though i'm barely moving about.. happens mostly when i'm in crowds.

this.. was.. terrible.. x-x I felt like it was an asthma attack... but with panic and anxiety and stress skyrocketing x-x

[ZenKitty]

Glad you're aunt is all right.

Coda is right. It's not your fault. None of us have that kind of power. She was hit when stopped. How could you have prevented that?

But the anxiety is sure understandable. What a scary experience!

[Demonskid]

Mom thought today was still friday. She slept all night.

I checked in on her a few times last night before finally falling asleep.. My brain was rushing with things like "You only took xrays, you didn't do a mri.. what if her brain is bleeding.. what if this what if that"

so yea.. =x=

[KittyBeary]

Glad everyone's ok, but Zen is right, if you were there it still would've happened. :(

[hyjin]

So the claim of "my breaks didnt work" is pure bs. I heard this so many times with accidents that I was involved in. It's really a poor excuse bc if your breaks dont work, then get them fixed, simple as that and it's highly unlikely that that would have been the first time the had break issues. I drove a car with break issues, I would have to occasionally have to pump the breaks to get them to work. And DK, relax don't worry. Your are not at fault for not wanting to go. Accidents are unavoidable most of the time and it would have probably still have occurred if you went. Maybe not to your aunt but probably to someone else. The good thing of this that no one got hurt.

[KittyBeary]

I agree. It's a poor excuse and it's heard all the time. Idk how people still get away with it but have them fixed if they don't work. >:( Don't put someone's life in danger cause of your mistake.

[Coda]

Well, fortunately, it's not actually an excuse, in that it doesn't excuse anything. Neither the insurance company nor the law care about your brakes failing. As the operator of the vehicle, you are responsible for making sure it is in proper working condition before driving it. If you hit someone from behind, it is almost always your fault, because you should have avoided being in the circumstances that made such a collision possible in the first place.

As a side note: It's possible that he meant that his brakes didn't work to slow him down sufficiently, not that he pushed on the pedal and nothing happened. At that point he'd be technically telling the truth, but it puts him even MORE at fault because it means he was driving too fast and following too close (and possibly didn't pump the brakes when the wheels locked).

EDIT: Now, there's a small exception in that a truly unforeseen, non-negligent mechanical failure could possibly be an excuse. But that would be a really difficult thing to have happen... If someone cut your brake lines for example and that was the first time you'd tried to slow down since you turned the car on, or if road debris flew up under your vehicle and damaged something and you had no way to avoid it... But that basically never happens.

[Demonskid]

When I made mention that people always seem to say that when its their fault the accident occurred, My aunt goes "He had a Ford so I don't doubt that his breaks failed."

o3o, well.. that's nice of her to blame the car and not the driver for checking to make sure the car was drive-able xD