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No one ever expects to cause a car accident, let alone be involved in one.
Even as someone who had caused one accident previously - a scratch that could have been avoided by backing up and trying again ... or by simply moving to a further away parking space (instead I paid a repair bill and signed a contract) - I always thought that if I lived though another accident, I wouldn't be the cause of it.
+ Show Spoiler +It happened. Within my neighborhood. Less than a minute walking distance from my residence:
It had snowed for the first time since March. A quarter of an inch of snow after weeks of heavy rain. The nearest street became a mix of snow and scattered pieces of ice.
It was the return drive home. I entered the central avenue that connected the several residential areas, and soon crossed the bridge that led to a myriad houses and townhouses that made up my neighborhood. The main streets and connecting avenues that were devoid of dangers and obstructions, turned to smaller roads where ice and snow remained, faintly as they held
... tl:dr I didn't slow down enough on my last (left) turn, skidded, and bumped side-to-side with a vehicle parked on the curb.
I checked the damage - a broken wheel cover and a scratch covering the half circle above the tire. Worse on my side - several scratches and a dent behind my headlight.
I parked in front of the damaged vehicle, asked the nearby lady (who was already calling the owner) where the owner lived, and found the man walking out of his house.
Luckily no fist flew at my face or a barrage of expletives. The owner had seen what had happened. He checked out the damage, asked for and copied my license and insurance information, and lamented the icy conditions that led to the accident.
Two things:
(1) Please do the smart thing - be cautious even when no one is around. Take it slow at times.
It's obviously the difference between the non-eventful vs the **** ** **** headache.
(2) Please call the owner or the police immediately if you witness an accident big or small.
Honestly, if I had been the witness at the time, I would have been unsure. Likely I would have waited for the person to do the right thing and ... succeeded or failed to record the license plate if the person began to drive away.
I would definitely want a witness calling me or the authorities (like that lady) if someone damaged my property.
 
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Glad there was no serious damage! My car performs extremely poorly in the snow, so I bought snow tires for the winter. The difference in traction and control is like night and day.
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I half buried a car backwards in a snowbank once. I've been a hell of a lot more careful since then. Waiting around for someone to drive by and help dig me out sucked hard. I had to get out the passenger side because the bank was taller than the car and my driver side was completely covered. Luckily it was powder with almost no ice, so there was no damage to the car.
It was on a back road on the way back into town. The road goes over a hill that the newer highway goes around, so it's just a minor detour that I occasionally take just for the hell of it. After it reaches the bottom of the hill there are 2 left turns (not 90 degrees, just hard bends in the road) which also happen to dip down as the road turns. I slipped just a bit on the first turn, but apparently I didn't keep slow enough on the second one and once i hit the bottom of the corner the car just kept turning. I was buried facing more or less backwards in the right snowbank.
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On November 30 2014 13:07 DarkPlasmaBall wrote:
Glad there was no serious damage! My car performs extremely poorly in the snow, so I bought snow tires for the winter. The difference in traction and control is like night and day.
Winter tires are not compulsory in the US (or at least in the part where it snows regularly)? In central/northern Europe, people driving in winter conditions on summer tires are mostly considered reckless madmen, for good reasons (and should you cause an accident this way, you are really screwed).
Anyway, interesting topic, I have had my share of ups and downs with winter driving (even with good tires) - it can be quite fun, if there is enough space and you can play, but it has already cost me some money, mainly for new tires/wheels after hitting a curb and a highway crash barrier. The second one was actually pretty fun, because the reason for my skid off the highway was that there has been an accident and a lane was blocked by a fire truck. Handily, the fire truck pulled me back on the road before any police showed up, so I got away for free (only for the price of the tire).
Once I also missed a roundabout in a skid (went basically straight through) on a very snowy road, but as I was among the very few fools to drive anywhere on that extreme day, there was nobody to be hurt or offended 
Incidentally, I have had only one real accident in my life and that happened on the other side of the world in a place where it almost never snows and it was because I was just not aware of local rules for priority.
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On December 01 2014 02:48 opisska wrote:Show nested quote +On November 30 2014 13:07 DarkPlasmaBall wrote:
Glad there was no serious damage! My car performs extremely poorly in the snow, so I bought snow tires for the winter. The difference in traction and control is like night and day. Winter tires are not compulsory in the US (or at least in the part where it snows regularly)? In central/northern Europe, people driving in winter conditions on summer tires are mostly considered reckless madmen, for good reasons (and should you cause an accident this way, you are really screwed).
It depends heavily on your car's drive system too (front wheel drive, rear wheel drive, four wheel drive, all wheel drive). Some cars in some locations need snow tires; others may manage just fine without them.
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On December 01 2014 03:11 DarkPlasmaBall wrote:Show nested quote +On December 01 2014 02:48 opisska wrote:On November 30 2014 13:07 DarkPlasmaBall wrote:
Glad there was no serious damage! My car performs extremely poorly in the snow, so I bought snow tires for the winter. The difference in traction and control is like night and day. Winter tires are not compulsory in the US (or at least in the part where it snows regularly)? In central/northern Europe, people driving in winter conditions on summer tires are mostly considered reckless madmen, for good reasons (and should you cause an accident this way, you are really screwed). It depends heavily on your car's drive system too (front wheel drive, rear wheel drive, four wheel drive, all wheel drive). Some cars in some locations need snow tires; others may manage just fine without them.
However the main argument presented for the general requirement for winter tires is the braking distance in snow and on ice, for which is the drive system only marginally relevant. Some people like to say that the true argument is the tire-making lobby, but the data that is usually presented seems convincing.
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EPT
