Sad day indeed....wrecked the truck.

[COBALT]

Ran to Home Depot to get some lumber for a kitchen cabinet project. Was dragging around, so driving relatively slow going back home with a cup of coffee in my hand. Hwy 99 at Bitter Lake has three lanes each way with a suicide lane in the middle to act as a turn lane. I see my right-hand turn at 130th coming up, and traffic in the left and center lane is a bit slow. I get in the right lane that doubles as a "BUS ONLY" and right turn lane to take a right at 130th at the top of the hill. As it turns out I entered that lane earlier than the actual turn, but that wasn't obvious to me at the time due to the signs posted.

Right before the smaller intersection before 130th (128th) a couple in a small black car is sitting in the suicide lane trying to turn left,and a hole opens up in traffic, so they do a quick left and dart across both lanes - right in front of me while I'm going about 30mph. I nailed their front right fender with my front-left. It happened so fast I didn't have time to get on the brakes.

The front-left is pretty banged up. I shut the truck off thinking the fan clutch is probably seized by a fan that can't turn. No leaking fluids or anything, but the front-left wheel is pinned by the inner/outer fenders. The bumper and grill are demolished.

Their damage is mostly localized to that front-right fender. Luckily their car is so light I just pushed them away from me. No one got hurt.

What sucks is that the Seattle police sighted me a $200 ticket for being in that lane "too early for my turn", which is basically the difference of about 100 feet. I don't know if that will translate to this accident being my fault, but I have a hard time believing they couldn't see a big yellow truck driving in the right lane.

Anyway, there's a witness, and if he feels the same way I do he'll be totally dismayed if they try to blame it on me too.

Bad day though. The truck is sitting in the Lincoln towing lot waiting for the insurance adjuster to show up tomorrow. God, I hope they don't get any bright ideas and try to total it. The frame looks fine.