Bent Fender (12 comments)
So I'm at Springfield & Mattis, Eastbound, waiting to turn right at a red light. The sun set about an hour ago, so I've got my parking lights on, but not my headlights. I see the north/south traffic's light turn amber, then red, and my light gets a left turn arrow. I pull out, turning to my right and coast into the far lane, ignoring the silver WRX that's already there, honking at me.
At least that's how I figure it looked from the other side. From my point of view, there was an arrow turning green, so I accepted my right of way, turned into the near lane, and watched a van drive into me. The frustrating part is that because there weren't any corroborating eyewitnesses, the officer who came to fill out the paperwork didn't feel he was able to issue citations for any of the other driver's moving violations. I can think of four:
- Operating a moving vehicle after dusk without the headlights on.
- Failing to yield at a red light when oncoming traffic has a green.
- Executing a double lane change by turning into the far lane.
- Failing to yield while changing lanes.
The more frustrating part is that the other driver is convinced that she was in the right because she signaled her turn onto Mattis. I'm not looking forward to trying to convince our insurance companies that I'm faultless in the matter.
As best as I can tell, the damage to my car is mostly superficial. The quarter panel was pushed back into the left front door, so it crinkles when the door opens, but that's all I've noticed of impaired functionality (discounting aerodynamics, which, well, you've seen the wing). The alignment didn't seem to suffer, which surprises me given the mark the van left on my wheel. Regardless, it knocks a good bit off the retail value of my car, so I'm slowly working myself up for a fight with the other driver's insurance company to try and convince them that what happened is what happened.