Last Tuesday one of our crews was rear-ended on the way to a job. Thankfully they weren't hurt. The lady that hit them broke her collar bone and was also arrested for DUI (prescription methadone). The sight distance was 900'! They had the flashers on and were almost stopped to remove a traffic hazard from the road, an 18" diameter snapping turtle. State trooper called the next day and said his supervisor wouldn't sign off on the report until he put our driver down as a contributing factor. No ticket or anything but I bet it will give the insurance companies something to fight about. SMH
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That’s what you get for doing the right thing. Grrr, frustrating.
Although, from a factual standpoint, this does “feel like” an objectively true statement, “a contributing factor.”
In an overall sense, slowing down was a contributing factor, just as road or weather conditions could be a contributing factor, but that should not imply fault for the driver because there was a good reason for them to stop and avoid an obstacle.
I was the lead car in a very minor rearending situation about ten years ago. Driving on a sidestreet in a small city when a large-diameter ball came rolling slowly into my driving lane. I slowed and then stopped just as the youngster ran into my path while chasing the ball. I suppose I would have been identified as a "contributing factor". But, I would have been much more of a contributing factor had I never slowed and simply run over the anticipated child that was bound to appear.
Cops want an explanation that points anywhere but at cops....
At 900' sight distance, it probably wasn't safe for your crew to stop in the apparently ±200 MPH speed limit area of the road. Poor lady didn't even have time to react at those speeds. If only the speed limit had been about 55, she would have had nearly 12 seconds to react.
Almost saw the same thing on a road just blocks from my office a few days ago. As I was crossing the bridge, there were about 6 cars all stopped on a road with little to no shoulder while a lady moved a turtle. You could tell several of the cars had stopped very short to avoid any collisions. Those ones looked annoyed and were probably all following too close, driving too fast, and looking at their cell phones before they had to stop.
