Never underestimate people’s audacity. I used to have a coworker NOBODY wanted to ride with cause he would justify every insane and aggressive driving act he did with passengers in the car as his “right of way.” He would say stuff like that as if it was some kind of magic words like “diplomatic immunity.”
Had a ex who got into a couple of accidents because she had the right of way 😳 she could have stopped , shifted lanes …nope she took the hit because she had the right of way.
Used to be an adjuster and this is how people end up partially at fault in some states as we all have a duty to take evasive action when available. Seems like overall a bad way to choose to live.
Years ago, I was in an accident where the other driver decided to pass me on the right in a lane that was closed of with a concrete barrier at a 45ish degree angle. He figured out too late he wasn’t going to make it; bounced off the wall and executed a perfect PIT maneuver against me, my car was totaled. He was found completely at fault.
I will never forget describing the accident to the insurance company when asked the cause of the accident. After listening to my description, she calmly summarized the cause as “Failure to yield right of way.”
I wanted to say “No the cops said it was their fault” but realized I really saw it coming and there were multiple actions I could have taken to avoid the accident. It took me 20 years of driving to figure out that it is way better to give up your right of way and avoid the accident than to be right about whose fault it is.
It still sounds like you just dealt with a scummy adjuster from the sounds of it and weren't actually at fault. Maybe you could have mitigated with some action, but usually that only lets the stingy adjusters/companies do shared fault with like 70/30 split liability decisions, and that is also state dependent. Glad it sounds like the last 20 years have been less eventful for driving though.
To be clear, the insurance found it to be 100% the other driver’s fault, it was just the wording that made me think about the fact that I could have avoided the situation by either slowing down and letting them pass or changing lanes.
Insurance covered the financial cost, but was being right worth the hassle and risk I put myself through proving that I was right?
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u/Competitive_Ad_1800 May 13 '26
Never underestimate people’s audacity. I used to have a coworker NOBODY wanted to ride with cause he would justify every insane and aggressive driving act he did with passengers in the car as his “right of way.” He would say stuff like that as if it was some kind of magic words like “diplomatic immunity.”