Got into a Minor Traffic Accident Today

Well, it was a super wet and rainy day tonight in Big Apple, NY. As I was driving back home from dinner, I came to a stop at the traffic light. A taxi driver, who was probably going too fast and couldn't stop on time because of the road condition rear-ended me. Good thing I drive an SUV with a spare tire hanging on the back. My car is fine (I have to check my spare tomorrow), the frame that held my spare is slightly misaligned, but there was no apparent damage to my car. The taxi, on the other hand, was a different story ... his bumper was dented, and his hood was crushed. It was clearly his fault, and he was unapologetic about the whole thing and he was extremely rude. I was actually more upset with the taxi driver being an a$$ about the situation than the accident itself. I consider myself to be pretty calm, collective and have a lot patience, but the taxi driver's attitude pushed me to the point where I almost wanted to hurt him. Instead, I just responded in a nonchalant manner with my classic wiseass oneliners. I think I got him even more mad the fact that I didn't lose my cool.

Anyway, when the police arrived, one of them took our information and went to his car, the other was checking out the damages. The officer didn't really see much damage to my car, and it was then I took out my Surefire 6P (with M60L drop in) from my glove compartment and shined it around the area where the spare tire frame was misaligned. The officer took note of the damage and afterwards he said, "nice, is that a Surefire 6PL?" You should have seen the expression on my face . I told him that he was very close. I talked with him for about 10 minutes about Malkoff and his M60 series drop ins, and a little bit about other flashlights. He told me that the EMS guys that he knows are flashaholics, always getting the latest and brightest flashlights and showing them off to him. He also stated that the EMS guys somehow convinced him to get an E2E and he's been carrying it since. The officer is no flashaholic, but he said that he found the flashlights the EMS guys were carrying as "interesting" and always listen to their conversations. Sounds to me like the officer is on the road of becoming one of us.

Despite the minor incident and rude taxi driver, it was quite pleseant talking with the officer. After the other officer gave me the police report, they left the scene. As I was walking to my car, the taxi driver approached me and told me (still in the rude and nasty manner) that his taxi won't start and asked if I had any jumper cables. I opened my trunk and took out my battery-powered jumpstarter. I approached his taxi as he pried his hood open. I paused and stood there for a moment and then said, "I would have helped you if you weren't an a$$ from the moment you rear-ended me." I smiled at him as his face turned bright red. I turned around and put my jumpstarter back in my trunk and left

:awkward silence:

LOL, thats why i never get taxi's the drivers are mostly a bunch of dip sticks.

The taxi driver might have handled the situation poorly, but consider his ability to earn a living also took a serious knock in the accident. Perhaps that was weighing on his mind a little while he was talking to you.

qtaco said:

The taxi driver might have handled the situation poorly, but consider his ability to earn a living also took a serious knock in the accident. Perhaps that was weighing on his mind a little while he was talking to you.

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If the taxi driver was the victim of this then I could undersatand him being mad. But considering he caused the accident. Total A$$.

Cool story. Pity about that taxi driver though. Must have been a long day for him. Nonetheless not an excuse to be rude to others.

I say grow up. You shouldn't be proud of yourself acting the way you did. It's as much a character flaw to intentionally not help someone in need as it is to just be rude.

It takes a real man to suck it up and do the right thing instead of giving into their ego.

I beg to differ. XL730 probably did the taxi driver a favor by letting him (taxi driver) see that there are consequences to one's behavior.

The next time that driver causes another accident like this one, he might just give a second thought to being a bit more humble and apologetic for an accident that HE caused.

It's very possible that if that driver were to get in the same situation with a real criminally raged hothead, he might find himself dead at the wrong end of a crowbar... unless he cools it and stays civil.

Warlord, your take on the situation brings to mind a famous quote:
"We have been too tolerant of the intolerant for too long".

The Europeans have made it a science of rolling over for those who would impose their impositions upon them with no recourse.
I hope that we in the US find the courage to just say "no" when the situation warrants it.

My take on the situation is that someone asked for help and it wasn't given. It takes a lot of self control to look past what might feel good to do and do what is right. I say XL made the easy self-gratifiying choice but not the right one.

IMHO, it is the right thing to provide help to those who ask for it or just need it. It is the honorable thing to do. It speaks poorly of a person's character to not help...to feign help and then deny it is downright disgraceful.

To do this in order to "teach someone a lesson" is not a good enough justification. That sort of motive is truly selfish and self-serving.

Tolerance of intolerance? I don't get it...what was the cabby intolerant of? I really don't get what you're saying -it doesn't seem to apply.

Zenster said:

I beg to differ. XL730 probably did the taxi driver a favor by letting him (taxi driver) see that there are consequences to one's behavior.

The next time that driver causes another accident like this one, he might just give a second thought to being a bit more humble and apologetic for an accident that HE caused.

It's very possible that if that driver were to get in the same situation with a real criminally raged hothead, he might find himself dead at the wrong end of a crowbar... unless he cools it and stays civil.

Warlord, your take on the situation brings to mind a famous quote:
"We have been too tolerant of the intolerant for too long".

The Europeans have made it a science of rolling over for those who would impose their impositions upon them with no recourse.
I hope that we in the US find the courage to just say "no" when the situation warrants it.

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Just to give a little overview. NYC taxi drivers are among the most ruthless drivers you'll ever see. I could understand that it sucks to drive in a car for many hours a day, getting stuck in traffic for at least half of the time. I could understand that they have to drive aggressively in order to quickly drop off one passenger and pick up another one. However, it is unacceptable that their extremely aggressive driving methods put their passengers, other drivers, and pedestrians' life in a danger. Imagine that I wasn't driving and was walking instead ... he would have hit me and not my car.

I think it's very easy to misconstrue my action, or in this case, inaction to help the taxi driver as being mean on my part. However, I left out many details of what the taxi driver said and his overall attitude since this is a public forum. If you just imagine for one second that you were in my shoes ... how would you have reacted if the taxi driver shifted the blame on you for his negligence? He said, "it's midnight, you should have been at home, not driving in the street. Look what you did to my car?!?" (of course this is the more PC version of what he had said). It's agitating to me that he accepted no responsibilities for what had happened. As what Zenster said, if I had a bad temper, the taxi driver could have been seriously hurt. To be honest, I think the taxi driver was trying to exploit the fact that I wasn't all pissed off when I got out of my car. I wouldn't be surprised if he had told his insurance company that I slammed on the brakes for no reasons.

Also, I would like to think with me not helping him, I'm doing everyone else a favor by putting him out of commission for an hour or two. Can you imagine how he would have driven being pissed off about the accident? Would you want to be in that taxi?

That taxi driver should find another career if he's rear-ending people and being abusive.

A freind of mine has some steel bracing setup mounted to the front of a truck. Any normal car he might hit would be very badly damaged as the impact would be not be bumper to bumper. He thinks it`s cool...could care less about the harm/damages it could cause...might feel differant if the bracing kills some one in a side impact...but for now the setup looks mean~or cool.

Same with tires hanging on the back of SUV`s...turns minor damage into major damage. Downright dangerous too. I`m surprised it is even allowed...seems insurance companies would have had a fit over them by now. Guess it`s another case of spreading the cost out over all of us so a few auto manufactures can have their novalty...and profit.

The tire probably pushed the radiator, fan A/c compressor together and maybe up against the engine block. I doubt if simply jump starting it would have helped.

Sorry he was rude...probably having a bad time of it with the cost of gas...and the accident totaly ruined his day.

Unless the law has changed the cab was supposed to have a set of jumper cables in his trunk. I found that out when I was in NYC a couple of years ago and my cabbie was stopped and asked by the NYPD if he had a set so they could jump a car quickly. He told me he was required to have them. Or that was what he said.

Years ago (decades actually) in the "good old days" if two cabbies bumped cars and scratched the paint they would erupt into a fistfight on the street. Been there, seen that. Most of the cabbies today are mild mannered in comparision. Still the best E ticket ride you can take though provided traffic isn't down to a dead frozen owl spit crawl. :thumbsup: We actually scared the bejeezus out of our So Cal service rep when we had him fly to Laguardia and drive out to Long Island. He thought he knew bonzai drivers until that time.

BTW. Glad your OK. If the cabbie acted like I think he did I am guessing you did well.

I would like to think that I'm a pretty considerate person. I have purchased and stored about 60 pounds emergency gears (i.e., fire extinguisher, fire blanket, ropes, jumpstarter, etc) because I know many people aren't that prepared for crises. I've stopped on several occassions to help others ... even times when they don't wave me down to ask for help.

However, I also believe that you get what you deserve. I believe that you should accept the consequences for your behavior and your action. If someone were to punch me for no reasons and in the process broke his hand, I am not going to drive him to the hospital. Warlord, you might be more righteous person than I am ... but I simply have to draw the line somewhere. The taxi driver cannot be yelling, screaming, and cursing at someone for about an hour for his mistake, and then expects help.

warlord said:

My take on the situation is that someone asked for help and it wasn't given. It takes a lot of self control to look past what might feel good to do and do what is right. I say XL made the easy self-gratifiying choice but not the right one.

IMHO, it is the right thing to provide help to those who ask for it or just need it. It is the honorable thing to do. It speaks poorly of a person's character to not help...to feign help and then deny it is downright disgraceful.

To do this in order to "teach someone a lesson" is not a good enough justification. That sort of motive is truly selfish and self-serving.

Tolerance of intolerance? I don't get it...what was the cabby intolerant of? I really don't get what you're saying -it doesn't seem to apply.

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warlord said:

My take on the situation is that someone asked for help and it wasn't given. It takes a lot of self control to look past what might feel good to do and do what is right. I say XL made the easy self-gratifiying choice but not the right one.

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I have to respectfully disagree. His dispatcher and perhaps insurance company will deal with the matter of his driving. Their response will be relative to the size of his error and his personal history. However the taxi driver also commited a social offence for which he received a social punishment. The two are reasonably related. The driver received a mild rebuke. He took no lasting harm. If xcel730 did nothing the driver would have no incentive to try for a better personal standard. xcel730 acted for the greater public good. Since I drive in NY, that also means my greater good.

Thank you, xcel730.

AvPD said:

That taxi driver should find another career if he's rear-ending people and being abusive.

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No, this is New York City. They'll give him another cab and put him back to work. He probably got to finish his shift.

Most of my out of town friends refuse to drive in NYC. They rather walk or take the subway. They're scared sh*tless of the way the taxi drivers drive around here. Imagine a two lane road with four lanes of taxis try to cut each other off.

Ken_McE said:

I have to respectfully disagree. His dispatcher and perhaps insurance company will deal with the matter of his driving. Their response will be relative to the size of his error and his personal history. However the taxi driver also commited a social offence for which he received a social punishment. The two are reasonably related. The driver received a mild rebuke. He took no lasting harm. If xcel730 did nothing the driver would have no incentive to try for a better personal standard. xcel730 acted for the greater public good. Since I drive in NY, that also means my greater good.

Thank you, xcel730.

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As long as you've done what you feel is the right thing then fine. You don't need to justify yourself to anyone and certainly no one needs to justify your actions for you.

Taking the jumper out and taunting the guy says to me that he had more control over you than you had over yourself. It's not about righteousness, which implies religious motivation, but rather self-control. The truth is anyone of us might have behaved the way you did. I'm not saying I wouldn't have, I wasn't there. I'm just saying I wouldn't be proud of my behavior if I acted like that.

Originally Posted by Ken_McE said:

I have to respectfully disagree...

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I'm sure that the cab driver wasn't harmed but he didn't make any social offense, it was a personal offense. Xcel didn't act for any "greater public good" but for self-gratification. The same way many hot-headed road-ragers do, just subtly. The only people we should and can raise to higher personal standards is ourselves; which is my point exactly.

qtaco said:

The taxi driver might have handled the situation poorly, but consider his ability to earn a living also took a serious knock in the accident. Perhaps that was weighing on his mind a little while he was talking to you.

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That doesn't give him the right to be abusive or an @$$.

Glad no one was hurt.

:buddies: