Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Driver's ED students and roundabouts... should these two ever be combined?






This has turned out to be the week from HELL!! Besides my insane PTO schedule and not being at all prepared for club on Saturday, last night I was in an accident. I was in the roundabout... in the left hand lane... and a driver's ed student was in the right hand lane. Well, my arrow clearly allows me to exit the roundabout or continue through it. The other arrow clearly says that the right lane can only exit the roundabout. Long story short... the girl that crossed into my lane and hit me was not sited for this accident. They claimed that they were allowed to continue around the roundabout from the far right lane. Maybe the paint on the road is wrong? I doubt it, personally. The police officer, whose name is Alan Jackson (not joking), said that it was my fault because he thought the arrows were incorrectly painted on the road and I should have yielded for her. Why would I yield to someone driving along side me going the same direction in a two lane road? Can you believe this? Either way, I followed the posted signage and she did NOT!! We are absolutely taking this further. Leif is going to the police station with photos in the morning. There is nothing in our current driver's ed manual about roundabouts. The teacher in the car said that there was... HE IS A LIAR. I am still a little angry about the whole thing. I feel that all that girl learned was to be dishonest. Did I mention that an eye witness said that I stayed in my lane and that the other car crossed the line and side swiped me? Oh, and the driver's ed teacher picked the debris up thus disabling the officer from see the exact location on the road where impact occurred. Okay, I will stop ranting now. What do you think?

7 comments:

Susan, Blain & kids said...

Mandi,
I would for sure prosue it further, that is a bunch of crap. the officer probably just sited with the drivers ed teacher because he is a drivers ed teacher and you know they know best haha!! Anyway hope your week gets better. We are coming down for the weekend the kids and I so I hope we will see you. If you have club I would like to come so plan on it if that is the case and I will pay what ever I need to.
Love you,
Aunt Susan

Patty said...

I would be sure to fight this all of the way. The drivers ed student should have received a ticket. I do care whether the teacher said otherwise. He was just covering his backside. I am glad to hear that Leif is going to talk to the police about this. Go girl. See you this weekend.

Danielle said...

GEEZ- how stupid. The whole situation doesn't make sense. I don't see how you could've been in the wrong at ALL! If the lines were painted wrong (which DUH- they weren't...i doubt) it doesn't matter either way because you are supposed to follow road instructions so that everyone is on the same page. Ugh. How irritating. I am guessing it wasn't a huge accident though, which is good. Good luck!

Anonymous said...

you go girl!!!!! she should never be able to recieve her license!!!

Lori said...

I think you're totally taking this further!!! To court, etc. The police officer's reply is absurd! Your response COULD have been "Oh, you want me to drive this roundabout GUESSING what the paint striping team MEANT to do instead of what they actually DID?! You're asking me to read their minds while reading the mind of the drivers in the lanes next to me AND navigate my way through this roundabout?!" NICE!!!! Very nice!!!

UrgentCookie said...

We have a roundabout just like that one here and it is marked just like yours. I HATE this roundabout! You were totally in the right and she clearly was in the wrong. I also that the officer was just siding with the driver's ed teacher and that is totally not right! You should absolutely fight this and the student SHOULD have gotten a ticket!

Carey said...

Holly Cow what a dork. Don't get Chad started on Roundabout drivers. He served his mission in Boston and they have roundabouts as big as 5 lanes (I think thats what he said) He gets so frusterated that people out here can't even drive a single lane roundabout. there is one in St. George that is single lane and people are just so dumb when it comes to it. apparently you're supposed to STOP in the middle the it !?! LOL
Good luck with your case.
Carey