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Rules to live by
A lifetime ago, my mentor told me, right after I was promoted to manager of a group of 35, to keep these rules in mind:
When you are in charge and bad things happen, you either:
1. Caused it to happen,
2. Let it happen, or
3. You were not smart enough or involved enough to know what was going on when, or before, it happened and consequently took no action to stop it.
As the driver, you are in charge. Only YOU. In this case there were no other cars or drivers involved. From the description there were no mechanical failures. Given those facts, this is driver error, pure and simple. If anyone believes otherwise, you are just plain kidding yourself. If a passenger had been in the car and killed, guess who would be liable?
Those of you who do not agree need to put your thinking caps on. Just assume you are appointed as a juror in a similar court case where the family of a dead passenger is suing the driver. If you have an ounce of reason in your body, you KNOW who is culpable. I believe the correct expression is to, quite literally, GET REAL.
Like the OP, I was in a bad accident as an 18 year old when I was driving with three passengers. I was driving way to fast for conditions and ran off the road on a curve, over a six foot bank, took out three fence posts, and finally stopped against a telephone pole. Thank God none of us were hurt. The car was totaled. Yes, I learned a lesson. Make no mistake, it was all me.
Just food for thought...
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