Accident Prone, Is it just me?

[ducky8888]

I joke all the time, prior to having my Leaf I had a black 2000 Toyota Celica GTS for years, never had an issue, never an accident. My wife (then gf) hated the car and knew that I was going to get killed in that car. After a few years of listening to the nagging I sold the car and bought the Leaf. 4th day of Leaf ownership, the car had 120 miles, an impatient lady in a BMW X5 decided to park in the back seat of the Leaf. The lady lied about the accident and I sued her (and put dash cams in all my cars). I had a coworker serve the small claims paperwork and she served the wrong person (lady who hit me moved, new resident was served) the property manager called me to let me know and asked me to come pickup the paperwork. After getting the paperwork and the lady's new address I was on my way home and got rear ended again by a kid with no license. A few years pass and I have another lady who was in the wrong lane and decided to cut across several lanes to make her turn (as they say, a bad driver never misses their turn/exit), even with me blaring my aftermarket horn the lady takes out the front bumper of the Leaf.

Aside from those incidents I have had a rock through the plastic grill which caused none of the pro-pilot or safety features to work. I have had to replace the windshield 3 times (at about $800 a piece) due to rocks and random cracking. I currently have a good chip that popped up only 2 days after the last windshield replacement.

My question is, is this all just me being a magnet for misfortune, or are these cars harder to see for some reason (its much, much bigger than my celica was) and therefore more accident prone?

 

[Drew21]

Is the Leaf hard to see? Not any harder to see than any other small-ish car on highways full of hulking SUVs and trucks. There is evidence that some colors are more or less noticeable to other drivers. One website I just found lists white, yellow, orange, and gold as the safest/most visible colors, with pretty much all other common colors (black, gray, silver, blue, red, and green) listed as less safe.

The more important question: Is anyone paying attention? Your results suggest that many drivers are not, which matches well with my observations of the other drivers.

We have a bright blue Leaf and a silver Honda Fit. I get cut-off or merged into pretty much every time I get on a major highway and I therefore drive very defensively. I assume that every other driver on the road is paying zero attention to what they're doing and has zero regard for my (or their) well-being. So far, over nearly 30 years of driving, that approach has kept me accident free, although there have been many close calls, especially since moving to the Northeast a few years ago. It seems like other drivers here are a) always in a hurry and b) all VIPs that do not need to obey traffic laws.

I am now going to knock on all the wood.

 

[marshallinwash]

No, it's not just you. Thankfully, we don't drive much, but it's crazy out there.

I never seen so many expired license tabs here in the Seattle area. You can pretty much guarantee that they don't have any insurance either.

Aggressive and distracted driving are two reasons my insurance rate has increase dramatically in the last two years, plus my insurance company now only offers 6 month policies.

 

[fjord]

Good on ya to get cams. I've seen too many dashcam videos that without the cam, the innocent person would have been screwed big time.

But I don't think there's anything about the car that's causing your misfortune. Drivers are worse than ever as the demographic that's glued to their phones 24/7 gets ever bigger.

 

[ducky8888]

No, it's not just you. Thankfully, we don't drive much, but it's crazy out there.

I never seen so many expired license tabs here in the Seattle area. You can pretty much guarantee that they don't have any insurance either.

Aggressive and distracted driving are two reasons my insurance rate has increase dramatically in the last two years, plus my insurance company now only offers 6 month policies.

Same here with the expired tags, I semi-jokingly say that people without a license, without insurance, or un-registered should automatically be at fault in the case of ANY accident. Logically speaking the accident would never have occurred if that car was not there.

 

[ducky8888]

Good on ya to get cams. I've seen too many dashcam videos that without the cam, the innocent person would have been screwed big time.

But I don't think there's anything about the car that's causing your misfortune. Drivers are worse than ever as the demographic that's glued to their phones 24/7 gets ever bigger.

In this last accident I didnt tell the lady's insurance that I had cameras. They called and said they were denying the claim because their insured said she was stopped and I hit her. I told the guy that the lady is lying and he said that they have to trust their customer, claim denied... Thats when I asked if he would like to see the dash cam footage showing she merged into me. He got mad at me cause I was withholding documentation, I told him he should be mad at his customer for lying, I shouldnt HAVE to use my dashcam to prove the truth.

 

[fjord]

In this last accident I didnt tell the lady's insurance that I had cameras. They called and said they were denying the claim because their insured said she was stopped and I hit her. I told the guy that the lady is lying and he said that they have to trust their customer, claim denied... Thats when I asked if he would like to see the dash cam footage showing she merged into me. He got mad at me cause I was withholding documentation, I told him he should be mad at his customer for lying, I shouldnt HAVE to use my dashcam to prove the truth.

I would have told them about the dashcam video. Protect yourself from the get-go; you don't want an erroneous finding against you percolating through the system.

 

[moapys]

I joke all the time, prior to having my Leaf I had a black 2000 Toyota Celica GTS for years, never had an issue, never an accident. My wife (then gf) hated the car and knew that I was going to get killed in that car. After a few years of listening to the nagging I sold the car and bought the Leaf. 4th day of Leaf ownership, the car had 120 miles, an impatient lady in a BMW X5 decided to park in the back seat of the Leaf. The lady lied about the accident and I sued her (and put dash cams in all my cars). I had a coworker serve the small claims paperwork and she served the wrong person (lady who hit me moved, new resident was served) the property manager called me to let me know and asked me to come pickup the paperwork. After getting the paperwork and the lady's new address I was on my way home and got rear ended agAcut across several lanes to make her turn (as they say, a bad driver never misses their turn/exit), even with me blaring my aftermarket horn the lady takes out the front bumper of the Leaf.

Aside from those incidents I have had a rock through the plastic grill which caused none of the pro-pilot or safety features to work. I have had to replace the windshield 3 times (at about $800 a piece) due to rocks and random cracking. I currently have a good chip that popped up only 2 days after the last windshield replacement.

My question is, is this all just me being a magnet for misfortune, or are these cars harder to see for some reason (its much, much bigger than my celica was) and therefore more accident prone?

I think that the "calendar is not your/our friend"... After sixty years of driving <!>, I'm *certain* that the competency and care level of drivers has plummetted over the last several years.

I sense that you (and your Leaf) are the unfortunate victims of an ever-worsening state of driving in our country: I travel frequently, and the degradation is consistent; state-to-state / city-to-city.

 

[DunanyDon]

Yikes! Quebec drivers have a reputation for fast and reckless driving, but nothing like these descriptions. Must be the Trump effect.

 

[countryleaf]

Ditto for me on noticing expired license plates. We live west of Seattle, on the Kitsap peninsula. My wife says I have a new hobby noticing expired license plates. Pretty much on every trip, even short grocery trips I notice expired plates.

 

[AlanD]

I would recommend always driving with full low-beam headlights on (not just daylight-running-lights) to make sure other drivers have a better chance of noticing you. Then you don't have to remember to turn your lights on when it starts getting dark.

 

[Jarichus]

After watching hours of YouTube videos of car crashes, I don't think we are safe on the roads anywhere! I think the insurance industry supports these videos to encourage us to buy insurance!

 

[Dooglas]

I joke all the time, prior to having my Leaf I had a black 2000 Toyota Celica GTS for years, never had an issue, never an accident. My wife (then gf) hated the car and knew that I was going to get killed in that car. After a few years of listening to the nagging I sold the car and bought the Leaf. 4th day of Leaf ownership, the car had 120 miles, an impatient lady in a BMW X5 decided to park in the back seat of the Leaf. The lady lied about the accident and I sued her (and put dash cams in all my cars). I had a coworker serve the small claims paperwork and she served the wrong person (lady who hit me moved, new resident was served) the property manager called me to let me know and asked me to come pickup the paperwork. After getting the paperwork and the lady's new address I was on my way home and got rear ended again by a kid with no license. A few years pass and I have another lady who was in the wrong lane and decided to cut across several lanes to make her turn (as they say, a bad driver never misses their turn/exit), even with me blaring my aftermarket horn the lady takes out the front bumper of the Leaf.

Aside from those incidents I have had a rock through the plastic grill which caused none of the pro-pilot or safety features to work. I have had to replace the windshield 3 times (at about $800 a piece) due to rocks and random cracking. I currently have a good chip that popped up only 2 days after the last windshield replacement.

My question is, is this all just me being a magnet for misfortune, or are these cars harder to see for some reason (its much, much bigger than my celica was) and therefore more accident prone?

I don't think it is the car. I've have owned a succession of blue LEAFs for 12 years now and have never been hit. I suspect it is a combination of where you drive and bad luck.

 

[lacostaracer]

We have a 2013 Leaf that has been rear-ended 4 times- the most recent time was last week and we're getting a repair estimate today. I really hope the car isn't totaled this time because it still functions but the hatch is messed up. When I saw this thread pop up in my email, I had to share our experience.

I don't think it's the Leaf's fault regarding visibility. I think it's how my wife drives more than the car itself. She has been rear-ended in strange ways like having a friend follow her to a location and the friend actually rear-ending her. The most recent accident was a 3 car rear-end in which she was the last car to get hit because the middle car ran into her.

I hope the Leaf activates the brake lights when using regen while off throttle- I know our 2019 Leaf seems to but haven't noticed the 2013 doing so. If that doesn't happen, I could see how rear-ends could happen more with the Leaf. The other thing people should do is give enough space behind car ahead of you at light (you should see bottom of car's rear tires) and look in rear view mirror until a car actually stops behind you. If that car behind you is too close move ahead a bit and hope that car doesn't creap more towards you.

 

[Drew21]

I hope the Leaf activates the brake lights when using regen while off throttle

I've never noticed the brake lights coming on (e.g., at night when they would be visible) when using regeneration in our 2014.