O O Ø O O O O
The Importance Of Clear Documentation
All of us have endured the confusion of traffic accidents and tried to summarize on those pitifully inadequate insurance forms in a few words or less, exactly what happened.
The following was published by Tilden, Canada’s foremost home-grown car rental business, for internal distribution. Tilden apparently picked it up from an Alcan publication, which got it from heaven knows where. In any event, these are summaries actually submitted when police asked for a brief statement on how a particular accident happened:
- Coming home, I drove into the wrong house and collided with a tree I don’t have.
- The other car collided with mine without giving warning of its intentions.
- I thought my window was down, but found it was up when I put my hand through it.
- I collided with a stationary truck coming the other way.
- A truck backed through my windshield into my wife’s face.
- A pedestrian hit me and went under my car.
- The guy was all over the road. I had to swerve a number of times before I hit him.
- I pulled away from the side of the road, glanced at my mother-in-law and headed over the embankment.
- The gentleman behind me struck me on the backside. He then went to rest in the bush with just his read end showing.
- In my attempt to kill a fly, I drove into a telephone pole.
- I had been shopping for plants all day and was on my way home. As I reached an intersection a hedge sprang up obscuring my vision. I did not see the other car.
- I had been driving my car for forty years when I fell asleep at the wheel and had the accident.
- The accident occurred when I was attempting to bring my car out of a skid by steering it into the other vehicle.
- I had been learning to drive with power steering. I turned the wheel to what I thought was enough and found myself in a different direction going the opposite way.
- I was backing my car out of the driveway in the usual manner when it was struck by the other car in the same place it had been struck several times before.
- I was on my way to the doctor’s with rear-end trouble when my universal joint gave way causing me to have an accident.
- I was taking my canary to the hospital. It got loose in the car and flew out the window. The next thing I saw was his rear end and there was a crash.
- As I approached the intersection, a stop sign suddenly appeared in a place where no stop sign had ever appeared before. I was unable to stop in time to avoid the accident.
- To avoid hitting the bumper of the car in front, I struck the pedestrian.
- My car was legally parked as it backed into the other vehicle.
- An invisible car came out of nowhere, struck my vehicle and vanished.
- I told the police that I was not injured, but on removing my hat, I found that I had a fractured skull.
- I was sure the old fellow would never make it to the other side of the roadway when I struck him.
- When I saw I could not avoid a collision I stepped on the gas and crashed into the other car.
- The pedestrian had no idea which direction to go, so I ran over him.
- The indirect cause of this accident was a little guy in a small car with a big mouth.
- I saw the slow-moving, sad-faced old gentleman as he bounced off the hood of my car.
- I was thrown from my car as it left the road. I was later found in a ditch by some stray cows.
- The accident happened when the right front door of a car came around the corner without giving signal.
- The telephone pole was approaching fast. I was attempting to swerve out of its path when it struck my front end.
- I saw her look at me twice. She appeared to be making slow progress, then we met on impact.
- No one was to blame for the accident but it never would have happened if the other driver had been alert.
- I was unable to stop in time and my car crashed in to the other vehicle. The driver and passengers then left immediately for a vacation with injuries.