CYEguy17

I'll start by saying that this is my first post to this forum, and it took a pretty unfortunate event to bring me here... an accident.

So, our car was stopped at a stop sign in a mall parking lot. We were waiting to turn left. As we were stopped at the sign we noticed a white van that appeared to be stopped and letting us go, however, a second later the driver of the van just gave the van full gas. The van had just crashed right into our 2009 ML350, and a sudden spectacle arose in the parking lot. Within seconds people had their cellphones out and were taking pictures of the accident. Several approached us and asked if we were ok. Thankfully, we were. Within minutes the cops arrived. Long story short, the cops discovered the van was unsafe, and it's back seats lacked seat belts, and the seats weren't even secure to the van. The driver of the van and all 4 passengers, including 2 children were taken to a hospital. Two witnesses approached my mother and I and said that they saw the entire accident and had no idea what the driver of the van was doing. Once everything was settled, the cop came over to my mother and I and asked if we were in any pain, and we said no. The cop responded by saying in these exact words, "Sure, you guys were in a safe car." That was when we realized that even though the van came at us and hit out car head on, the inside of the car didn't vibrate, and we didn't feel a thing. We only heard and saw what had happened. In fact, we were able to drive the car home after. Now it's safe to say when this lease is up in a few months exactly what our next car is going to be.

And here are some pics.




I'll upload more pics of the car's damage later.

hyperion667

Mercedes Benz wins again.............

sorry you had to go through it.......hope you get a new ride

CYEguy17

Thanks. Luckily, it looks like everything works and most of the damage is cosmetic. We'll most likely be in a loaner for a couple weeks though.

Car's safely in the driveway until Tuesday now.

Moto One

I would speculat that the van driver was trying to sucker you in to being at fault in a scam accident.
Glad to see you and family are all safe. But not really a fan of the van mod.

Mark

CYEguy17

Thanks. We honestly believed that it was some sort of scam because it also seemed too fake. We were just stopped then a van turned right into us. At first everyone in the van was safe, then two were injured, then all the passengers were injured. It was such a joke, and people were laughing as these crooks got wheeled into 3 separate ambulances. We live in Northern NJ and the van was from Massachusetts and the driver had a MA ID. The cop told us not to worry because he sees things like this all the time.

08-ML320

Sucks that this is not your fault and you cant trade this vehicle in anymore at a Benz dealer or get a "normal" price when selling it private now.

AMGC60-3

Thats the first thing I thought, scam.

dgiturbo

Really, for a parking lot crash?? My tax dollars at work again...
BTW, is that after the driver was done posing for your first picture? He really looks injured in that shot...
Glad you and yours are OK, but sorry that the ML was forced to do it's job by scammers.

CYEguy17

Exactly! It's a shame that there are scammers like this out there, and we have to pay. Yes, that is the driver in the first pic, and I never even noticed that. That was before the cops showed up, and once police came the whole family was in so much pain .
Thanks, yeah our car just stood there like a rock as this van came at us. We should be getting an estimate tomorrow, and the hood will finally be opened to check for any more damage. Fingers crossed!

V12toHybrid

it's such a shame what people would do for a couple thousand of dollars. i see this everyday at work. instead of going to work everyday, they do things like this to pay for their "fancy" shoes and cigarettes. their kids imitate and the cycle repeats itself forever. in america now, there is no middle class. there is "high class"- people who work for a living regardless of the pay and there is "low class"-people who don't work and blame the government and others and expect to be fed and housed.

with such an slow speed impact, i doubt there is any fracture even if they hit something in the car. without any structure damage, you won't have pain immediately. whiplash type of muscle pain starts day two on. all 4 people have pain immediately after such a minor accident but, hey, it's Jersey, right

glad you and your mom are fine and having the right attitude about such an annoying situation. forget about the insurance and future trade in value, you can't help it even if you worry.

AMGC60-3

In the first pic it looks like he turned directly towards the ML.

iankayem

I believe we have eliminated this problem in Victoria Australia.

We have the TAC(Transport Accident Commision) which is a government sponsored insurance fund paid when you renew your rego.

You have a bingle and no questions asked you are taken to hospital and fixed up. All medical is fully paid.

If you want to claim for "Pain and suffering" or loss of wages etc., you must wait two years and prove you were not at fault, and you are still more than 25% incapacitated or have aserious injury.

So anyone with a stiff neck will get their physio paid for but no cash compensation.

If they become paraplegic (which coul not happen in a carpark bingle) gets full medical for life, all the home aids needed, and if not at fault then a handsome cash compensation for pain age wage loss.

And the lawyers get SFA.

CYEguy17

Unfortunately the problem is really big here. We never knew about all of this nonsense until last Saturday.
Today we received the Police Report. It states the following: Driver of V#2 (the van) stated that the driver of V#1 (our MB) failed to stop at the stop sign and hit V#2 head on as he was trying to turn. However, from what the cop that responded to the scene saw, V#2 made an illegal left hand turn into the oncoming traffic lane. Two witnesses also claimed that our MB was stopped and WE were the ones that were hit.
What a load of BS this is, and an absolute SCAM. We're just glad that parking lot had security cameras if worst comes to worst.
Anyway, the MB is finally at the body shop and a Hyundai Santa Fe rental has taken it's place for the time being.

iankayem

Here's hoping for a good repair job and you will be back in the Benz soon.
And for just deserts to the other bloke. Fair penalty would be castration.

jkaetz

What non-sense. Was the van even insured? I wonder if you could go after them for the lost time and suffering you will endure from their stupidity. I'm afraid if it were me and my wife on the receiving end of that exchange the driver of the van would definitely be injured, but it wouldn't be from the accident... I'd also be letting my insurance company handle the scammers. They have the time and resources to go after the security footage and other things to recover their $$. You likely also pay them a handsome sum to take care of things like this. Sorry to hear you were downgraded from your ML to a Santa Fe. Hopefully they get the ML back to normal quickly. Most of the damage did look like cosmetic though. I can't imagine there being too much structure damage from a parking lot accident.

V12toHybrid

from your description, it's technically your fault for the accident. you have a stop sign and he doesn't. you suppose to stop and wait for him no matter what. he paused for a sec while approaching a turn but you assumed that he is letting you go ahead of him. could it be a trap? possible but sounds like your mistake for that assumption. the parking lot video will show you failed to stop at a stop sign and hit a left turn car.
my issue with the whole situation is the immediate pain and ambulance for a minor accident. that's what made this whole thing fishy like they have done it before.

pharaoh

Don't even worry about it...

Been there done that... About 10 years ago when I used to live in Jersey, had a woman pull right in front of me in a minivan as I was trying to exit the highway at about 10 mph, she pulled in front of me so fast that it made me honk at her cuz now my following distance was cut short and I had to brake hard so I did not rear end her. now she throws her car into reverse and backs into me as fast as she can.... Im like WTF... then the routine begins... we argue for a bit, she's yelling as loud as she can.... we then call the cops... before the cops could show up, I see a fire truck and an ambulance coming up on the right shoulder, she then proceeds towards her car and puts her head on the steering wheel and begins to cry..... Im like WTF again... they then took away her on a stretcher... lol

long story short.... 2 years after that she was trying a 3rd attorney to come after me... but nothing happened, all she got was some attention and no extra $$$

Scumbags like these will never change or go away..... like V12toHybrid said the cycle repeats itself...

Chill man.... everyone was alright and that is the main thing...

KA8

That's no minivan. Glad you made out all right. That van is like a truck. I have confidence in my ML to keep my family safe if get into an accident.

Moto One

There's a reason that you may want to mount a Go-Pro cam on the dash or visor. We have a system that not only videos, but show speed and time( Drive Cam) It's a loop chip that saves the last 15 min if there is an accident, or can be triggered by the driver (say we get stopped for speeding) you don't argue you take the video to court and that's that. If you are in the right same for red light cameras. But a Go-Pro will document in the same fashion less the speed reading (unless you have a newer portable nav unit in view).

Mark.

CYEguy17

That's exactly what we were thinking. That van was almost half the size of our ML, yet we didn't even move when we were hit. This was by no means a serious accident, but we know that we are protected. Exactly why we've been an all MB family since 2006.

grane

It might be the case that the smaller stop signs and driving regs in the Mall were not covered by conventional traffic statutes. Some municipalities make the Malls post that they are covered by conventional traffic regs.

Consider the other party was committing assault and battery with a deadly weapon and endangering children. Call Child Protective Services if they give you any flak.

When we drive to any mall in any state, Boston, Hartford or NYC we take the Gwagen.

Shifter

I would love to do this with my go-pro, question is how do you get it to loop the memory stick so you dont have to continually erase it?

iankayem

My BlackVue automatically overwrites the oldest recording, so I set and forget it.
If an incident occurs, I swap the mini SD card and keep the recording until I can download it.

10sjoe

Sorry to hear that. Glad that your family is safe. I can imagine there are some crazy drivers trying to cause accident and scam. I just experienced one a couple of days ago. When the light changed to green, the car on my right cut across solid white lines trying to cut right into my lane but I step on the gas to avoid him. Then, the went around the left and overtook me, cut immediately in front of me and he stepped on the brake. Luckily the ML's brake is good and I avoided hitting him. He tried one more time before he took off.