4 August 2008

The other side of the story? Parkway bingle

| johnboy
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Leave me out of this.

After FredJ’s description of his accident experience we have submitted the other side of the story.

    You’re not wrong there.
    I apologise for leaving the scene of a road accident, I truly do.
    However, I believe you will find my reasons for doing so perfectly justified.

    The incident was not caused by me to start with. Not as far as I can recall.
    I was tired, having worked all night, and therefore may be mistaken. I would hate to incorrectly call Fred a liar. After all, he is clearly a perfectly rational person! psh!

    On that note, the reason I left the scene, instead of pulling over to exchange details, as is required of those members involved in an incident, is that I had two extremely panicked young women in my vehicle who were verging on hysterics due to the impact of a ute making a blind merge into my vehicle some way down Hindmarsh Drive long after I had turned off of the Tuggeranong Parkway, and had almost reached speed, perfectly centred in the centre lane of the three lane road.

    not having the disregard for the safety of all the other drivers on the road that Fred clearly had, I did not swerve over to the side of the road as he did. I was planning to pull over on the next street, where I was turning, as there was likely to be less traffic flow. “Fred” got out of his car whilst we were waiting at a red light (he was idling behind me) and aggresively asked if I was going to pull over any time soon. I replied that I was, calmly and rationally.

    Once “Fred” had gotten out of earshot, the girls started panicking again, as they believed he was going to be potentially violent. I made the decision not to put them through any more torment, and I must admit, I was very concerned by the manner in which “Fred” approached me at the traffic lights, and was not intending to stop for such an aggressive individual. I was more than willing to go to a police station after the event and have it sorted out that way, as I believed he would do (and apparently has).

    I therefore did not pull over for fear of my own safety, and that of my passengers.

    As a demonstration of “Fred”’s lack of approachability or rationality, he then began to pursue me, forcing me to speeds of 100kmp/h within 60kmp/h zones! the two young ladies in my vehicle were hysterical at this point, screaming “he’s gonna get us!!” etc.
    “Fred” then decided to speed to an even higher extent, crossing double unbroken lines on a two way, and often busy, street to pass me and pull over.

    At this point, there was absolutely no way I was stopping for such a madman.
    I turned around, and went the other way, as traffic flowed the other way (I believe blocking “Fred” from turning around and continuing to pursue us as though he were the authorities himself!).

    I intend to give a full statement to an officer at a police station tomorrow morning as soon as one opens (I have so far been unable to do so, as I was dealing with the shock of being aggressively chased by a man of enough years to know better, and then having a family emergency out of town that has kept me away until now). I was appalled to find that such a disgraceful excuse for a man was given your sympathy when he is the very reason for his own complaint.

    “Fred”, you as a grown man need to learn how to interact in a public situation, regardless of a minor road accident. I apologise if it was in fact my fault. I can’t actually remember, as I was driving just as normal. However, I have never had a road accident, least of all in such a situation as a “T” intersection. Your needs would have been met if you had curbed your anger. I am sorry to have put you through the stress I have, and I will ask permission to view your expenses, and your account, and help in any way that I am required to financially.

    Sorry also to all of you who have been reading the progress of this posting.
    It was a very badly handled situation, however this post itself has escalated said situation far beyond a realistic level.

    I hope I have gotten accross that I am perfectly willing to accept fault for any wrong-doing on my part, and that I will take up the expenses linked.

Over to you?

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peterh said :

I have been chased by an idiot off the parkway, and finally, he left me alone as I pulled into the police station car park. If he had come after me, I would have been in a safer place than a back street. I did not speed, he sat on my bumper the whole way…

Same thing happened to me a couple of years ago, funnily enough after a fool failed to give way pulling out from a T junction which I had to take evasive action to avoid him, giving him a happy honk of the horn he decided to follow me. I lead him in a loop before heading for the police station, he clicked to as where I was going as I turn in. He took off quicker than he was following me!

Anyway, any reason for not pulling over at an accident scene is a piss poor one. There’s no reason for not doing so and I don’t see one in this case either, no matter whose fault it was. Having drugged up hysterical girls in the car isn’t one of them.. but I guess if you happened to be a bit under the influence too it would be a prime reason for you failing to stop.. I would be surprised if this guy has gone to the police station by now anyway.

contrast, are you in your 20’s, 30’s etc? you don’t give us the full story. How old are you, actually?

I hope that Contrast will become another Crazychester.

Yeah contrast where’d you go???

I would say your silence is an admission of guilt but you already admitted you’re guilty…

Petroleum jelly will scare even the Hardest crim (no pun intended)

Just so you all know, Keeping a big maglite in the car is a good idea. However if you ever use it on someone, the courts will see it as a lead pipe and you will be done for assault with a weapon. I am still trying to justify the axe handle i have in the car, Nothing like a good piece of hickory.

Oh and finally:

Contrast, Are you still out there? or have you driven off?

Mr Evil said :

peterh said :

and people wonder why my fire extinguisher in the car is metal….

A jar of vaseline is a much better weapon of terror: it’ll strike fear into the heart of any person!

yes, but petroleum jelly don’t put out fires.

peterh said :

and people wonder why my fire extinguisher in the car is metal….

A jar of vaseline is a much better weapon of terror: it’ll strike fear into the heart of any person!

Well, this thread has just made it to a 5 star rating from me….

: D

Well done those men!

peterh said :

and people wonder why my fire extinguisher in the car is metal….

Because it’s the only sort they make?

and people wonder why my fire extinguisher in the car is metal….

Steering wheel lock remains the weapon of the true patriot.

@hk0reduck:
Crowbars in the car are a dead giveaway for getting up to something untoward.

A 6D-cell maglite (495mm long, reasonable weight, mace-like head) works just fine and has the benefit of being dual use for the times when you actually need a torch in the car.
The guy who ran into my car last winter thought I was going to beat his head in with it, when all I wanted to do was inspect the damage to our cars.

This is crazy, you’re crazy. Your excuses are terrible and I can’t work out why you would come and defend yourself here, your plates are probably already on the internet at RateThePlate. I’d hate to be your insurance company right now.

Anway, I suggest investing in a crowbar and keeping it by your seat so next time someone ‘Road Rages’ you and ‘forces’ you to drive 100km/h in a residential area putting the lives of MY CHILDREN at risk you can pull over and when they come up to the window you can be all like “SHAPOW! Don’t nobody walk up to my window and ask me to pull over.”

Secondly, I suggest investing in some duct-tape or a ball gag so when some smacky in your back seat starts whining about the ‘bad man that’s chasing them’ and the ‘insects crawling under her skin’ that are attacking HER BABIES you can pull over and be all like “SHAPOW! Shut up and let a man drive!”

Regards,
HongKong0REDuck

Hey Contrast, You can go to the Police now that the Drugs would be out of your system.

Loquaciousness1:16 pm 04 Aug 08

Granny said :

I would leave it alone if I were you, and just sit back and let him dig his holes. It is sad, but he is really his own worst advocate.

Trust me on this.

+1 Granny … with every post he digs that hole a little deeper.

(I was intending to rant a little on all the inaccuracies, but decided against it – consider yourselves lucky!).

oh, so the misspelling was on purpose? looked like someone driving and texting…

Thumper is just sucking up to JB for the next nutcase of the month award…

😀

U PPL DONT NOW WAT UR ON ABOUT.

bit concerned, thumper, did you type that whilst driving??

All sounds very ‘Todd Carney’to me

FredJ said :

johnboy said :

FredJ said :

You seem to be digging yourself into a bigger hole with each comment, now admitting that one of your passengers has a drug problem.

Pretty sure I never want to even visit a place where this is an offence.

I’m not saying it’s an offence. It just suggests contrast may have been under the influence himself, hence why he drove off.

I would leave it alone if I were you, and just sit back and let him dig his holes. It is sad, but he is really his own worst advocate.

Trust me on this.

THE TRUTH WILL B TOLD

johnboy said :

FredJ said :

You seem to be digging yourself into a bigger hole with each comment, now admitting that one of your passengers has a drug problem.

Pretty sure I never want to even visit a place where this is an offence.

I’m not saying it’s an offence. It just suggests contrast may have been under the influence himself, hence why he drove off.

Children, perhaps you could get a (mediating) room, discuss this and compare notes amongst yourselves?
It’d be far less likely to get ugly in public, and affect anybody’s legal standing…
But, like a girlfight, it is fun to watch, and nobody will actually tell you to stop until its no longer entertaining.

FredJ said :

You seem to be digging yourself into a bigger hole with each comment, now admitting that one of your passengers has a drug problem.

Pretty sure I never want to even visit a place where this is an offence.

You did the wrong thing mate, all I’m hearing is ‘waaahhh, Fred was violent, waaahhhh I was scared’. Excuses.

The fact is that your excuses are lame and you’re probably not the safest driver in the world…

He was in the MIDDLE lane on Hindmarsh and you merged into him from the Parkway!!! How do you do that??? You’ve got a whole lane to play with but that’s not good enough and you have to take Fred’s lane too!?!?!? How do you do that unless you’re already driving like a maniac and coming around the corner too fast?

How does the city with the best roads in the country have the worst drivers??? I was nearly killed on Kings Ave by a stupid b*tch with a poodle ruinning around on her back seat because she didn’t see me in her blind spot as I was overtaking.

FredJ may have been a bit silly for pursuing but Contrast was just a silly for taking off at 100kph in a 60 zone. People tend not to react in a very pleasant fashion when someone is being an idiot and crashes into them.

Fill the accident report out Fred!!!

Contrast – You said, “I hope I have gotten accross that I am perfectly willing to accept fault for any wrong-doing on my part, and that I will take up the expenses linked.”

So shut up and pay the man…

Transcend the bullsh*t!

Contrast – Your account makes no sense to me. My 63kg build has often intimidated people! If you are involved in another accident then pull over at the first safe opportunity. I followed you just long enough to be certain of your rego, once it was obvious you weren’t going to stop. Let’s leave this to insurance now. You seem to be digging yourself into a bigger hole with each comment, now admitting that one of your passengers has a drug problem.

>He reckons that the police won’t deal with minor road accidents.

You still need to compleate an accident report, it is a fedral offence not to do so.

when you go to the station, will / have you given a frank and accurate statement of the events? perhaps the police will be interested as to why you chose to exceed the speed limit by 40kph. you may find that they are very interested in taking your license and making you walk.

if you have to claim that you were doing 70kph off the parkway onto hindmarsh, where? at either the northbound exit, with the red light camera, you wouldn’t have any traffic to compete with.

On the southbound exit, if you had turned out and was in the centre lane, you have skipped the left lane. I think that you have merged at speed, if you travel from the city down the parkway and exit onto hindmarsh, usually at 9.25 am, you have to stop.

I see many near misses daily, where drivers aren’t content to sit in the left hand lane, instead, without indicators, they happily play pick a lane. if fred was in your blind spot, you had not looked closely. he would have been traveling in your rear view mirror, prior to you “carefully” joining traffic.

you have made mention of not having any accidents, prior. How long have you been driving?

If your GF has a slight drug problem then i think that you might as well, driving under the influence is illegal. Maybe you did not want to be tested and decided to wait a while for the drugs in your system to subside? I have to say that i do not believe you. Their were three of you in the ute and only one of Fred, did none of you have mobile phones to call for help? Why were you speeding to get away in traffic? Do you have no regard for the lives of others on the roads? I am sorry but you will have to do better than the “Carney, i am the victim” defence.

hairy nosed wombat10:26 am 04 Aug 08

i believe the police station in Gungahlin is only open during business hours (but the ambulance and fire officers are there 24/7)

but i am getting off topic. i believe the road rules state that after an accident you must safely pull over, stop and exchange details.

But then again, i was not there

Phone, no. Internet access, yes. Go figure.

I had two young women shouting directions, and squealing over the fact that he wouldn’t drop it, arguing with each other to shut up and shit, I just couldn’t think

All the more reason to not be behind the wheel of a moving car while all this is going on.

As I said in the other thread, re the chase it takes two to tango and perhaps Fred might not have needed to do 100km/h if you weren’t speeding!?!? And the mental state (or lack thereof) of your passengers is not a good enough excuse to not stop.

I find it hard to believe you didn’t know that Police Stations are staffed 24/7…

Contrast,
You’re going to lunch at 9.25am? You sound like you’re trying to dodge your responsibility. You’ve already broken at least one law (leaving the site of an accident). My advice is to cut your losses and start doing what’s right.

As a demonstration of “Fred”’s lack of approachability or rationality, he then began to pursue me, forcing me to speeds of 100kmp/h within 60kmp/h zones! the two young ladies in my vehicle were hysterical at this point, screaming “he’s gonna get us!!” etc.
“Fred” then decided to speed to an even higher extent, crossing double unbroken lines on a two way, and often busy, street to pass me and pull over.

If I was being pursued by a maniac, I would have headed for the police station.
I wouldn’t duck into suburbia at speeds exceeding 100km / hour, especially in 60 zones. If you had knocked down a pedestrian, or worse, a small child, you would have been at fault, not your “pursuer”.

I have been chased by an idiot off the parkway, and finally, he left me alone as I pulled into the police station car park. If he had come after me, I would have been in a safer place than a back street. I did not speed, he sat on my bumper the whole way…

if you feared for your life, having been threatened, why didn’t you or one of your companions phone the police?

fred was probably in the same boat as you, emotionally, but I am certain that if you had gone to the police station, it would have been sorted out calmly, and the police would have ensured that this was the case.

Woody Mann-Caruso10:06 am 04 Aug 08

Dude – stop talking, now. Seriously. You be telling us you were just coming back from an Al Quaeda meeting next.

The girls are both friends, one of them is homeless and I’ve been looking after her as best I can. She’s got a bit of a drug problem, so she’s very anxious a lot of the time. They’re both fine now, my flatmate worked a miracle initially, and our families and other friends have helped us out a fair bit too.

I’ve got to say, I never really did learn that much about the emergency services except to call 000, and that the operator would ask which one you wanted, then to keep calm and tell them where you are first and then what the problem is.

Thank you very much for the help. Didn’t think I was going to find any here. I’m going out for a lunch now, so I’ll duck into the station in amongst that and dropping off some stuff to a friend.

I can understand the difficulty in making a judgement on the situation, and I’m not asking you to ‘take my side’, given the situation and where you must be in regards to it.

Thanks again, it means a lot. If you would like, I can let you know how it goes down at the station.

Frequent visitor or not, I was taught in primary school and by my parents that you can go to the Police at any time day or night for help – having said that it does look like you were in a interesting situation. Were the young women family? You might want to sit down with them and see if they need help.

You still need to report it in person to fill in the paperwork. Your insurance company will want the Police reference number for their investigation.

Not being there to be able to establish the veracity of either account is always difficult – this is a prime example of what some folk on RA don’t get. The job of Police in matters like this is very difficult even with witnesses… and they happen all the time.

Sorry, not really a frequent visitor of the AFP buildings!
I would have thought that they were open regular business hours. I’ve not really had a need to make an appearance at a police station before.

The reason I didn’t drive to a police station is, to be honest, I really don’t know. I was thinking of getting home, it really seemed like the safest place to me. I don’t know I was just panicking, and I had two young women shouting directions, and squealing over the fact that he wouldn’t drop it, arguing with each other to shut up and shit, I just couldn’t think. Home is kinda the place you head towards when you don’t know where to go (at least I’ve found that to be the case with me).

I haven’t been able to sit down and think clearly on anything since early last week. It really should have clicked to call, I’ve just been stressed out over this, and then my family shit, and I haven’t really stopped racing around in my head since. Thank you, though for the reminder! I’ve been advised by a friend to speak with my insurance as the most important thing. He reckons that the police won’t deal with minor road accidents.

I don’t know if you’d have any opinion or advice in that regard?

None of us having been there (except for the obvious) you are going to struggle a bitin my opinion. Why didn’t you drive to a Police Station or call 000 if you believed your life and your passengers were at risk? As soon as one opens huh? They are open to the public 24/7…. or at the least 131444 or 000

DarkLadyWolfMother7:53 am 04 Aug 08

Question: Why didn’t you go to the Police immediately. If you were that worried about safety from this ‘madman’ that would have made sense?

I’m not having a go, I’m just curious.

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