Almost lost the 8
02-21-2005 | 07:27 PM
#1
Thread Starter
Jason
Joined: Aug 2004
Posts: 216
Likes: 0
Almost lost the 8
Yes, another negative thread. Death is following me around everyday. I was almost involed in a major accident . . .My dad came in to visit me and we went shopping. I was at the light on a 2 lane road turning onto a 4 lane road with a turning lane in the middle. The light was red and there was a car infront of me. There was a ton of traffic everywhere. The guy infront of me is turning left like I was. The guy across the street was also going the same way.
All of a sudden we see a lady coming down the 4 lane road in the turing lane, swerve around the turning lane, slam on her brakes, slide toward the stopped cars in the oncoming lane, and then smash into the old man that was pulling out across the street.
She rips the front end of the old mans car, stuff flies everywhere, there is a trail of smoke from her brakes, her car starts to spin, slides toward the other turning lane, smashes into another car, knocks that car backwards, and then comes to a stop.
Everyone at the intersection got out to help. The old man had just got his car off the lot and had just set his papers on the seat. He never saw her coming. He just said that all of a sudden the airbag went off and he was facing a different way.
All the people present at the intersection were shaken up. They had to pry the lady out of her car. The passenger side was gone and all of her windows were shattered. I've never seen an accident happen before. It scared me because the car infront of me or me could have been in it.
She ran the red light in the lane of oncoming traffic doing atleast 50+. I think she had an old ford escort.
02-21-2005 | 08:56 PM
#7
Follower of CHRIST!!!!!!!
Joined: Aug 2004
Posts: 3,241
Likes: 0
From: Planet Earth
Gosh, scary stuff...thank GOD you are OK and no one appears to have died.
I once was at an exit from a Publix store behind this old lady in a old mercedes (from the 70's in great condition) I then see this kid in a two door lumina going like 60mph who then decides he is going at a reasonable speed to make a "FAST" right turn into the shopping center, well...the wheels don't turn (understeer?) and he plows right into the old ladies car.
So, what does the "ARRR NOT SO SMART YOUNG PUNK" do...he get's out of his "parents" car, it seemed, stares at the damage and starts saying F$*(, F&*%, etc etc...he NEVER...not ONCE went over to check on the poor old lady.
Before he hit her, I thought...well...here it comes I can't do anything about it, but his car hit the old lady instead. So...I share your feelings on seeing something like that unfold before your eyes...scary stuff...
I once was at an exit from a Publix store behind this old lady in a old mercedes (from the 70's in great condition) I then see this kid in a two door lumina going like 60mph who then decides he is going at a reasonable speed to make a "FAST" right turn into the shopping center, well...the wheels don't turn (understeer?) and he plows right into the old ladies car.
So, what does the "ARRR NOT SO SMART YOUNG PUNK" do...he get's out of his "parents" car, it seemed, stares at the damage and starts saying F$*(, F&*%, etc etc...he NEVER...not ONCE went over to check on the poor old lady.
Before he hit her, I thought...well...here it comes I can't do anything about it, but his car hit the old lady instead. So...I share your feelings on seeing something like that unfold before your eyes...scary stuff...
02-21-2005 | 10:53 PM
#8
Insanely Yellow
Joined: Jul 2004
Posts: 2,093
Likes: 3
From: Buffalo Grove IL
May you NEVER be in a major accident. I was in one in 1986, when I was 24 years old. My wife and I had two cars - a Ford Thunderbird Turbo Coupe (85), her car, and my 85 RX-7. I'm in her car, the T-Bird. I'm driving home at night down this four-lane highway through a suburban forest preserve here (for you Chicago guys, Lake Cook Road, west of the Tri State Tollway, east of Milwaukee Ave, back when there was almost no development there.
I'm first in line at a stoplight - it was turning red as I arrived. I wait about 30 seconds for the light to change, motor up to 55 mph (the speed limit). It's a very dark fall night, had recently quit raining, the highway surface was mostly dry, but very low clouds and dark as hell - about 9:45 at night. I'm by myself in the car - thank God. More on that later.
As I motor out from that light - I get up to the speed limit, I'm a mile west of that stoplight and approaching the first intersection, a stop-sign protected side road (meaning, we don't stop, they do), and as I'm going along, all of a sudden, all of the headlights ahead of me turn to high beams in one click - I'm thinking, WHAT THE HELL?. I step off the gas, mostly blind and in the last split second, see taillight reflectors in the headlights. WHAM.
If you've never been inside a car during a major accident, I can tell you the noise of the impact is the loudest ******* thing you've ever heard in your life. It's not like a movie crash - CRRASSHHHHH tinkle tinkle tinkle ... it's BAM! - an extremely loud metallic bang.
My car skids to a stop and in one motion, I undo my seatbelt, pop my door open and jump from my car - to see a jet black 300ZX about 45 feet down the road in front of me, and across the road to my left, a car that is profoundly smashed, and just to my left 30 yards or so away, a minivan on it's wheels but has clearly rolled over. I have no idea what has happened. I hear children screaming from the back of the Z - it's clear that's the car I've smashed into - the rear end is completely obliterated. I run to that car, yank open the driver's door - it's a 300 ZX 2+2 with the rear seat. There are two little boys inside - both seem to be fine. I help them get out of the car just as the dad comes running up, panicking. They are fine. We run together to the minivan and I help him get his other two kids out of their car seats. His wife is in rough shape - semi conscious, bleeding profusely from her head and shoulder, and a compound fracture of her left arm (grey bone sticking out). I'm trained in advanced emergency first aid, and begin to treat her for shock. We see lights in the distance, then hear the sirens. Finally the cops arrive and we begin to piece together what happened.
The cop looks at my car and starts flashing his light around - "where's the driver of this car?" he shouts - while looking around at the ground. I yell over here, and he looks at me and says "No ******* way!" I said, yes, it's me. He says as he runs towards the van where he sees me treating the woman, "You must have been wearing your seatbelt." He then notices the blood on my face, and says "you sure you're OK? You've got a big cut on your forehead." I had no idea. Then, suddenly I'm aware of intense pain in my shoulder, left arm and chest. I go back over to my car - the interior looks like a backhoe attacked it - the steering wheel is folded in half against the column and the instruments are smashed. The sunvisor is laying on the dashboard, bent as if it had been bent around my head. The windshield has the imprint of my forehead smashed into it. The brake pedal is broken off and laying on the floor. The paramedics come and begin to treat me, then take me to the hospital for further treatment. I have a broken left collar bone and dislocated left shoulder from smashing into the seatbelts. A purple stripe of a bruise runs from my left shoulder, down across my chest and stomach to the right side of my pelvis. I have a cut that needs 7 stiches to close at my hairline on my forehead. My knuckles are skinned up and I have two broken fingers on each hand, and a sprained right ankle and a badly jammed right knee. I also have horrendous whiplash that gave me a stiff neck for more than three years.
Here's what happened:
In the cycle of stoplight ahead of me, a guy is following his wife home - she's driving the minivan and he's driving the black 300ZX. As they approach Portwine Road (the side road), he sees a car flying down that road and obviously not going to stop. He watches in horror as that car smashes into the right front door of his minivan, causing it to roll over twice and land on its wheels, facing oncoming traffic. He jams on his brakes, brings his car to a stop, right next to his wife's van. He jumped out, leaving the car in neutral, idling, out of gear and the parking brake off. He automatically shut off the lights as he exited.
I came along 20 seconds later - as I'm going along, all the oncoming cars from the next cycle of lights coming from the west (I was westbound, so these cars are eastbound) all begin turning on their bright headlights to see the scene. That blinds me.
As the guy watches in horror, I come along and at the last second, jammed on my brakes and smashed into his 300 ZX with his two young sons in the back. This is the second time in less than a minute that he sees one of his cars get smashed up with family in it.
In my car, although I don't remember, it's obvious I jammed on the brakes. My front tires have burnt skid spots on them. I must have braced for the impact as well - locking my knee as I stomped on the brake, and bracing my arms. I folded the steering wheel in half over the column, then my hands slipped off the spokes and smashed through the instrument panel, breaking my fingers and skinning my knuckles. Meanwhile the impact and my locked right leg and knee causes the brake pedal to break out of it's mounts and my ankle twists badly. My body is thrown forward and is caught by the seatbelts before I'm impaled on the steering column. My head snaps forward hard, catches the edge of the sun visor, rips it from it's mounts and then smacks into the upper 5" of the windshield before I'm yanked back into my seat.
I'm not aware of any of my injuries after the impact. The 300ZX I hit folded in half - the center of the car buckled upwards, the back end downwards. I somehow managed to rip the door open. Afterwards, that door will not close - the body is crushed into the door frame by a good 3". No one can explain that.
My car obviously was a total. The car rotated slightly to the left, presenting the right half of the front end to the impact (this happened when I skidded, apparently). The engine and transmission were displaced from their mounts and the transmission broke through the floor of the car and crushed the passenger seat against the door. Had my then wife of 3 1/2 months been in that seat (we're now married 18.5 years), she'd have easily been killed. The front bumper was moved back an astounding 22 inches from it's original place. The right front wheel is under the front edge of the passenger door.
My point of telling this story? You young guys think that you can easily walk away from an accident, you don't wear seatbelts and you laugh about screwing up and wrecking your cars. Jaisin, you witnessed a horrific accident. Be glad you weren't in one of those cars. I'm one of the VERY lucky ones. I had had two racing schools under my belt when this happened, and I wouldn't dream of not having my seat properly positioned, and not wearing my seat belt. Not then, not now. The cop at the scene said he'd never seen a more torn up car where someone lived, but not only lived but was up walking around when he arrived. I was definitely injured in a big way, but thankfully none of my injuries were either life threatening or permanent.
Guys, be smart please. Don't screw around with your cars. Wear your seatbelts. If you want to drive fast, find a real race track to do it on. And take advantage of all the safety technology available to you - leave the DSC on unless you're on a racetrack, and don't defeat the safety features of your car.
I was looking for the right thread to post this to. I hope it was the right one.
Stew
I'm first in line at a stoplight - it was turning red as I arrived. I wait about 30 seconds for the light to change, motor up to 55 mph (the speed limit). It's a very dark fall night, had recently quit raining, the highway surface was mostly dry, but very low clouds and dark as hell - about 9:45 at night. I'm by myself in the car - thank God. More on that later.
As I motor out from that light - I get up to the speed limit, I'm a mile west of that stoplight and approaching the first intersection, a stop-sign protected side road (meaning, we don't stop, they do), and as I'm going along, all of a sudden, all of the headlights ahead of me turn to high beams in one click - I'm thinking, WHAT THE HELL?. I step off the gas, mostly blind and in the last split second, see taillight reflectors in the headlights. WHAM.
If you've never been inside a car during a major accident, I can tell you the noise of the impact is the loudest ******* thing you've ever heard in your life. It's not like a movie crash - CRRASSHHHHH tinkle tinkle tinkle ... it's BAM! - an extremely loud metallic bang.
My car skids to a stop and in one motion, I undo my seatbelt, pop my door open and jump from my car - to see a jet black 300ZX about 45 feet down the road in front of me, and across the road to my left, a car that is profoundly smashed, and just to my left 30 yards or so away, a minivan on it's wheels but has clearly rolled over. I have no idea what has happened. I hear children screaming from the back of the Z - it's clear that's the car I've smashed into - the rear end is completely obliterated. I run to that car, yank open the driver's door - it's a 300 ZX 2+2 with the rear seat. There are two little boys inside - both seem to be fine. I help them get out of the car just as the dad comes running up, panicking. They are fine. We run together to the minivan and I help him get his other two kids out of their car seats. His wife is in rough shape - semi conscious, bleeding profusely from her head and shoulder, and a compound fracture of her left arm (grey bone sticking out). I'm trained in advanced emergency first aid, and begin to treat her for shock. We see lights in the distance, then hear the sirens. Finally the cops arrive and we begin to piece together what happened.
The cop looks at my car and starts flashing his light around - "where's the driver of this car?" he shouts - while looking around at the ground. I yell over here, and he looks at me and says "No ******* way!" I said, yes, it's me. He says as he runs towards the van where he sees me treating the woman, "You must have been wearing your seatbelt." He then notices the blood on my face, and says "you sure you're OK? You've got a big cut on your forehead." I had no idea. Then, suddenly I'm aware of intense pain in my shoulder, left arm and chest. I go back over to my car - the interior looks like a backhoe attacked it - the steering wheel is folded in half against the column and the instruments are smashed. The sunvisor is laying on the dashboard, bent as if it had been bent around my head. The windshield has the imprint of my forehead smashed into it. The brake pedal is broken off and laying on the floor. The paramedics come and begin to treat me, then take me to the hospital for further treatment. I have a broken left collar bone and dislocated left shoulder from smashing into the seatbelts. A purple stripe of a bruise runs from my left shoulder, down across my chest and stomach to the right side of my pelvis. I have a cut that needs 7 stiches to close at my hairline on my forehead. My knuckles are skinned up and I have two broken fingers on each hand, and a sprained right ankle and a badly jammed right knee. I also have horrendous whiplash that gave me a stiff neck for more than three years.
Here's what happened:
In the cycle of stoplight ahead of me, a guy is following his wife home - she's driving the minivan and he's driving the black 300ZX. As they approach Portwine Road (the side road), he sees a car flying down that road and obviously not going to stop. He watches in horror as that car smashes into the right front door of his minivan, causing it to roll over twice and land on its wheels, facing oncoming traffic. He jams on his brakes, brings his car to a stop, right next to his wife's van. He jumped out, leaving the car in neutral, idling, out of gear and the parking brake off. He automatically shut off the lights as he exited.
I came along 20 seconds later - as I'm going along, all the oncoming cars from the next cycle of lights coming from the west (I was westbound, so these cars are eastbound) all begin turning on their bright headlights to see the scene. That blinds me.
As the guy watches in horror, I come along and at the last second, jammed on my brakes and smashed into his 300 ZX with his two young sons in the back. This is the second time in less than a minute that he sees one of his cars get smashed up with family in it.
In my car, although I don't remember, it's obvious I jammed on the brakes. My front tires have burnt skid spots on them. I must have braced for the impact as well - locking my knee as I stomped on the brake, and bracing my arms. I folded the steering wheel in half over the column, then my hands slipped off the spokes and smashed through the instrument panel, breaking my fingers and skinning my knuckles. Meanwhile the impact and my locked right leg and knee causes the brake pedal to break out of it's mounts and my ankle twists badly. My body is thrown forward and is caught by the seatbelts before I'm impaled on the steering column. My head snaps forward hard, catches the edge of the sun visor, rips it from it's mounts and then smacks into the upper 5" of the windshield before I'm yanked back into my seat.
I'm not aware of any of my injuries after the impact. The 300ZX I hit folded in half - the center of the car buckled upwards, the back end downwards. I somehow managed to rip the door open. Afterwards, that door will not close - the body is crushed into the door frame by a good 3". No one can explain that.
My car obviously was a total. The car rotated slightly to the left, presenting the right half of the front end to the impact (this happened when I skidded, apparently). The engine and transmission were displaced from their mounts and the transmission broke through the floor of the car and crushed the passenger seat against the door. Had my then wife of 3 1/2 months been in that seat (we're now married 18.5 years), she'd have easily been killed. The front bumper was moved back an astounding 22 inches from it's original place. The right front wheel is under the front edge of the passenger door.
My point of telling this story? You young guys think that you can easily walk away from an accident, you don't wear seatbelts and you laugh about screwing up and wrecking your cars. Jaisin, you witnessed a horrific accident. Be glad you weren't in one of those cars. I'm one of the VERY lucky ones. I had had two racing schools under my belt when this happened, and I wouldn't dream of not having my seat properly positioned, and not wearing my seat belt. Not then, not now. The cop at the scene said he'd never seen a more torn up car where someone lived, but not only lived but was up walking around when he arrived. I was definitely injured in a big way, but thankfully none of my injuries were either life threatening or permanent.
Guys, be smart please. Don't screw around with your cars. Wear your seatbelts. If you want to drive fast, find a real race track to do it on. And take advantage of all the safety technology available to you - leave the DSC on unless you're on a racetrack, and don't defeat the safety features of your car.
I was looking for the right thread to post this to. I hope it was the right one.
Stew
02-22-2005 | 03:20 AM
#9
RX-8 dreamer
Joined: Oct 2004
Posts: 557
Likes: 0
From: Bellevue, WA & Portland, OR
Well since we're all sharing horror stories here, I might as well toss mine out too.
Back when I was 17 (I'm 26 now) I was driving back home from one of my evening tennis lessons. It was Fall so by the time I got rolling it was already dark. About halfway home (it's a 20 minute straight shot down the main road) several cars were backed up at one of the major intersections.
A car at the front of the line (a white civic) had stopped and did not start going again for several reds. So naturally all the cars started going around it, as did I. Two intersections down I stopped at another red, being the last one in that large line I was by myself at the intersection. When I casually looked into the rear view mirror I saw the civic again, apparently the driver finally decided to get going to wherever they were headed. Of course when you're stopped at a red, you absently think that everyone behind you will naturally stop as well. But as I watched that civic draw closer I realized it wasn't slowing down.
There was already cross-traffic moving in front of me so I couldn't get out of the way. I bore down on the brakes hard, braced myself and *BAM* was hit by that civic which was going a good 40+ mph. I was pushed clear through the intersection and into the left turn lane on the other side. Mind you, this was right after cross-traffic had just finished in front of me (including a rather large Mack box truck).
When I gathered my senses I got out of my mom's station wagon and ran over to the civic (which had it's front completely mashed in). The airbags were deployed and there was white smoke everywhere. After forcing the driver-side door open I found out that it was an older lady, probably in her early sixties nearly unconscious. When I yelled, "Are you ok??" all I got was a slight mumble. A passer-by spotted us, stopped and called 911 on his cell phone. I kept trying to talk to the lady to keep her awake until the paramedics came.
A couple days after, I received a copy of the accident report and found out that lady was completely suicidal (no joke). When they wheeled her into the emergency room they pumped her stomach and found over 90 pills!!!! Apparently things had gotten so bad with her husband that she decided that was it, took the pills, told him that he didn't need to worry about her anymore and took off in her car. She eventually went unconscious at the wheel and I ended up being the victim.
To make a long story short, my mom's station wagon barely survived being totaled, I ended up with a horrible case of whip-lash that lasted over 6 months, and I received a settlement from her insurance company (which my lawyer took amost 50%, the rat bastard) that allowed me to buy my first car for college (a nissan sentra).
It was the first and only major accident I've ever had. But instead of an error in judgement on my part, this was a case where I didn't make any mistakes and still was a victim. So I guess this is a lesson for anyone reading, practice as much defensive driving as possible and really pay attention to your surroundings. And if you're suicidal, taking it f*cking elsewhere because you don't need to take someone else with you.
Back when I was 17 (I'm 26 now) I was driving back home from one of my evening tennis lessons. It was Fall so by the time I got rolling it was already dark. About halfway home (it's a 20 minute straight shot down the main road) several cars were backed up at one of the major intersections.
A car at the front of the line (a white civic) had stopped and did not start going again for several reds. So naturally all the cars started going around it, as did I. Two intersections down I stopped at another red, being the last one in that large line I was by myself at the intersection. When I casually looked into the rear view mirror I saw the civic again, apparently the driver finally decided to get going to wherever they were headed. Of course when you're stopped at a red, you absently think that everyone behind you will naturally stop as well. But as I watched that civic draw closer I realized it wasn't slowing down.
There was already cross-traffic moving in front of me so I couldn't get out of the way. I bore down on the brakes hard, braced myself and *BAM* was hit by that civic which was going a good 40+ mph. I was pushed clear through the intersection and into the left turn lane on the other side. Mind you, this was right after cross-traffic had just finished in front of me (including a rather large Mack box truck).
When I gathered my senses I got out of my mom's station wagon and ran over to the civic (which had it's front completely mashed in). The airbags were deployed and there was white smoke everywhere. After forcing the driver-side door open I found out that it was an older lady, probably in her early sixties nearly unconscious. When I yelled, "Are you ok??" all I got was a slight mumble. A passer-by spotted us, stopped and called 911 on his cell phone. I kept trying to talk to the lady to keep her awake until the paramedics came.
A couple days after, I received a copy of the accident report and found out that lady was completely suicidal (no joke). When they wheeled her into the emergency room they pumped her stomach and found over 90 pills!!!! Apparently things had gotten so bad with her husband that she decided that was it, took the pills, told him that he didn't need to worry about her anymore and took off in her car. She eventually went unconscious at the wheel and I ended up being the victim.
To make a long story short, my mom's station wagon barely survived being totaled, I ended up with a horrible case of whip-lash that lasted over 6 months, and I received a settlement from her insurance company (which my lawyer took amost 50%, the rat bastard) that allowed me to buy my first car for college (a nissan sentra).
It was the first and only major accident I've ever had. But instead of an error in judgement on my part, this was a case where I didn't make any mistakes and still was a victim. So I guess this is a lesson for anyone reading, practice as much defensive driving as possible and really pay attention to your surroundings. And if you're suicidal, taking it f*cking elsewhere because you don't need to take someone else with you.
02-22-2005 | 04:16 AM
#10
Registered User
Joined: Feb 2004
Posts: 299
Likes: 0
From: Thousand Oaks, CA
A girl that went to my highschool in 2003 was at a stoplight in her like 2002 Jetta. At the stoplight she was in neutral with her foot on the break just sitting there. A lady going what they say was around 50-60mph never hit the breaks and rear-ended her sending her car all the way across the huge interesection into the stoplight pole. A kid that i knew ran when he saw and pulled her out, she ended up dying the day after i believe. The woman that hit her they say was on a type of drug she was around 45 years old, i don't think she was charged with murder. Anyways, moral of the story is even if you are safe i guess there is always someone else that isn't and they don't care about your safety until something happens.
02-22-2005 | 08:41 AM
#11
Follower of CHRIST!!!!!!!
Joined: Aug 2004
Posts: 3,241
Likes: 0
From: Planet Earth
I bore down on the brakes hard, braced myself and *BAM* was hit by that civic which was going a good 40+ mph.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but that's what I've heard you should do if a car is going to rear end you (well and you know about it before hand) It's a way simply to reduce the force...
02-22-2005 | 09:38 AM
#13
Insanely Yellow
Joined: Jul 2004
Posts: 2,093
Likes: 3
From: Buffalo Grove IL
I never had a chance - I was ruled "not your fault" in my accident - no ticket or anything - and the costs of the entire accident were subrogated (assigned) to the driver of the car that started the whole mess. She was drunk and had a BAC level of .19.
Stew
Stew
02-22-2005 | 01:15 PM
#18
RX-8 dreamer
Joined: Oct 2004
Posts: 557
Likes: 0
From: Bellevue, WA & Portland, OR
Originally Posted by rx8wannahave
You reacted like most would have, but I actually heard you should NOT hit the breaks hard becaue it makes everything worse. The thing to do in that situation is to relese the breaks and turn the wheel to deflect some of the force that is going to hit you.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but that's what I've heard you should do if a car is going to rear end you (well and you know about it before hand) It's a way simply to reduce the force...
Correct me if I'm wrong, but that's what I've heard you should do if a car is going to rear end you (well and you know about it before hand) It's a way simply to reduce the force...
02-22-2005 | 11:59 PM
#19
Registered
Joined: Jul 2004
Posts: 346
Likes: 0
Why I'm here...
Why do I have over 130 posts on rx8club.com, and know as much about the RX-8 as any of you, but don't own one yet? Well...
My girlfriend had a '97 Integra that she loved. 59k miles on it, was in like-new condition. On 1 July last year I got to the house at a reasonable time (5-ish?) - usually I'm later since I have a 1:15 commute; she has a 15-minute commute. We were supposed to go grocery shopping and run other errands. She called asking whether I wanted to meet at the store, or for her to come home and we go together, or me not go at all. Finally she decided to come by the house since she had something in the car that she wanted to drop off.
She came, left the car running, dropped the stuff in the garage, I got in the passenger seat, and we took off. About 2.5 miles from the house we approached a 4-way intersection with traffic lights -- 1 lane + 2 turning lanes each direction. I pass through this intersection both directions on my commute every day.
As we approached the intersection, the light was green and we were in a line of traffic with reasonable gaps between the cars going our direction. Speed limit is posted at 45, we were probably doing 40 in the line of cars. Just before entering the intersection a 1985 Blazer S-10 was in the oncoming left-turn lane, and it creeped into the intersection like you do when you're yielding and getting ready to make a left turn after traffic passes.
We crossed the balk line doing about 35 - 40.
The Blazer then decided to "go for it", and attempt the left turn in front of us.
Note: We had just crossed the balk line.....
My brain clicked into high speed, analysing and recording everything. My g/f simultaneously braked hard, downshifted to 2nd, and steered to the right to try and avoid the incoming Blazer. I could tell that impact was inevitable, and heard her saying "omygodomygod"
BAM!
Like Stew said earlier, it's the loudest ******* noise ever. I experienced at least 4 impacts - the Blazer taking out the left front of the Integra, the Blazer broadsiding the Integra due to rotation, me hitting the seatbelt & dash, and the passenger airbag hitting me. She experienced those, plus the top of her head breaking the driver's window (sideways whiplash) and the encroaching door slamming her left arm.
The airbag crushed my glasses into my face. I looked over at her as I pushed the airbag away, and her head had come to rest leaning towards her right shoulder. She started to move and I told her to stay put until I came around to her. I unbuckled, and managed to pop open my door and get out, realising that I didn't seem to have anything broken. We were both covered all over with broken glass, I was bleeding from both arms and my face felt like it had been punched. I couldn't breath from the sodium azide from the airbags, and her airbag charge was still 'reacting', since it hadn't been entirely consumed when the bag deployed. as I got out I knew it was totaled - no question. I went around to her door, but the Blazer was slammed against it. I could tell that the Blazer driver was a young male, and as he was starting to get out I "instructed him in a firm manner" to stay in his vehicle until the police arrived.
I went back to my door and helped my g/f over the console and out of the remains of her car, and took her over to the side of the road. People had called it in already, and an off-duty EMT who was 3 cars back from the intersection ran over and started checking us out. She was transported to the ER by ambulance, I wasn't. I got off easy - she has ongoing (still) neck and back injuries.
Debris from both vehicles was scattered over 50' downrange from the impact. Both were totaled. It turns out that the driver of the Blazer was a 17-year-old kid who'd had his (provisional) licence for about a month.
She did everything right. Had I been driving, I could have done nothing any different than she did. There was nowhere to go. Every option was worse, we would have hit multiple other vehicles/people, and could not have completely avoided the Blazer anyway. Half-a-second slower, and we would have t-boned the Blazer dead-on. Half-a-second faster, and he would have hit right on the driver's door, likely killing her. Had she not come by the house to pick me up, or if she had not just left the car running and lingered for 1 minute longer, or had her speed been a few MPH faster or slower, this would either not have happened or had a very different outcome. In any case, it was not her fault. The other driver was cited, got a $45.00 ticket for "failure to yield", a few points, and loss of the provisional licence until 18. Their insurance company paid up, but we didn't sue the other driver (can't get blood out of a turnip, and these white trash acted like they just fell off a turnip truck!)
That next weekend we went car shopping. I was afraid she would just get an RSX Type S to replace the Integra, so I insisted she drive a WRX first for perspective. She liked the performance and handling, but found the interior to be too cheap and spartan, the exterior booring, and it had no fold-down seats or pass-through. The RSX (driven second) was a huge disappointment compared to the old Integra, was obnoxiously noisy, too small inside, and didn't favourably compare to the WRX for performance. Next, intending to drive a Mazda3 (which she did, eventually), she drove an RX-8 while at the dealer. The sales guy didn't come along on the ride, and sent us on a nice long route with highway and secluded side-roads. By the time she had pulled off the lot and onto the highway she was already sold. The Mazda3 was nice, too, but, you know.... That day I discovered rx8club.com, and started getting educated. On the 19th of July she took delivery of a 2004 6MT Touring, Lighting Yellow.
I'd always kind of wanted one myself, now I'm serious. This VW has got to go.
So, that's the story of how a trip to the store turned into a wreck, and led to 2 more RX-8 drivers and 1 hard-core addiction to this site. :D
My girlfriend had a '97 Integra that she loved. 59k miles on it, was in like-new condition. On 1 July last year I got to the house at a reasonable time (5-ish?) - usually I'm later since I have a 1:15 commute; she has a 15-minute commute. We were supposed to go grocery shopping and run other errands. She called asking whether I wanted to meet at the store, or for her to come home and we go together, or me not go at all. Finally she decided to come by the house since she had something in the car that she wanted to drop off.
She came, left the car running, dropped the stuff in the garage, I got in the passenger seat, and we took off. About 2.5 miles from the house we approached a 4-way intersection with traffic lights -- 1 lane + 2 turning lanes each direction. I pass through this intersection both directions on my commute every day.
As we approached the intersection, the light was green and we were in a line of traffic with reasonable gaps between the cars going our direction. Speed limit is posted at 45, we were probably doing 40 in the line of cars. Just before entering the intersection a 1985 Blazer S-10 was in the oncoming left-turn lane, and it creeped into the intersection like you do when you're yielding and getting ready to make a left turn after traffic passes.
We crossed the balk line doing about 35 - 40.
The Blazer then decided to "go for it", and attempt the left turn in front of us.
Note: We had just crossed the balk line.....
My brain clicked into high speed, analysing and recording everything. My g/f simultaneously braked hard, downshifted to 2nd, and steered to the right to try and avoid the incoming Blazer. I could tell that impact was inevitable, and heard her saying "omygodomygod"
BAM!
Like Stew said earlier, it's the loudest ******* noise ever. I experienced at least 4 impacts - the Blazer taking out the left front of the Integra, the Blazer broadsiding the Integra due to rotation, me hitting the seatbelt & dash, and the passenger airbag hitting me. She experienced those, plus the top of her head breaking the driver's window (sideways whiplash) and the encroaching door slamming her left arm.
The airbag crushed my glasses into my face. I looked over at her as I pushed the airbag away, and her head had come to rest leaning towards her right shoulder. She started to move and I told her to stay put until I came around to her. I unbuckled, and managed to pop open my door and get out, realising that I didn't seem to have anything broken. We were both covered all over with broken glass, I was bleeding from both arms and my face felt like it had been punched. I couldn't breath from the sodium azide from the airbags, and her airbag charge was still 'reacting', since it hadn't been entirely consumed when the bag deployed. as I got out I knew it was totaled - no question. I went around to her door, but the Blazer was slammed against it. I could tell that the Blazer driver was a young male, and as he was starting to get out I "instructed him in a firm manner" to stay in his vehicle until the police arrived.
I went back to my door and helped my g/f over the console and out of the remains of her car, and took her over to the side of the road. People had called it in already, and an off-duty EMT who was 3 cars back from the intersection ran over and started checking us out. She was transported to the ER by ambulance, I wasn't. I got off easy - she has ongoing (still) neck and back injuries.
Debris from both vehicles was scattered over 50' downrange from the impact. Both were totaled. It turns out that the driver of the Blazer was a 17-year-old kid who'd had his (provisional) licence for about a month.
She did everything right. Had I been driving, I could have done nothing any different than she did. There was nowhere to go. Every option was worse, we would have hit multiple other vehicles/people, and could not have completely avoided the Blazer anyway. Half-a-second slower, and we would have t-boned the Blazer dead-on. Half-a-second faster, and he would have hit right on the driver's door, likely killing her. Had she not come by the house to pick me up, or if she had not just left the car running and lingered for 1 minute longer, or had her speed been a few MPH faster or slower, this would either not have happened or had a very different outcome. In any case, it was not her fault. The other driver was cited, got a $45.00 ticket for "failure to yield", a few points, and loss of the provisional licence until 18. Their insurance company paid up, but we didn't sue the other driver (can't get blood out of a turnip, and these white trash acted like they just fell off a turnip truck!)
That next weekend we went car shopping. I was afraid she would just get an RSX Type S to replace the Integra, so I insisted she drive a WRX first for perspective. She liked the performance and handling, but found the interior to be too cheap and spartan, the exterior booring, and it had no fold-down seats or pass-through. The RSX (driven second) was a huge disappointment compared to the old Integra, was obnoxiously noisy, too small inside, and didn't favourably compare to the WRX for performance. Next, intending to drive a Mazda3 (which she did, eventually), she drove an RX-8 while at the dealer. The sales guy didn't come along on the ride, and sent us on a nice long route with highway and secluded side-roads. By the time she had pulled off the lot and onto the highway she was already sold. The Mazda3 was nice, too, but, you know.... That day I discovered rx8club.com, and started getting educated. On the 19th of July she took delivery of a 2004 6MT Touring, Lighting Yellow.
I'd always kind of wanted one myself, now I'm serious. This VW has got to go.
So, that's the story of how a trip to the store turned into a wreck, and led to 2 more RX-8 drivers and 1 hard-core addiction to this site. :D
Last edited by JM1FE; 02-24-2005 at 08:04 PM.
02-23-2005 | 12:12 AM
#20
Registered
Joined: Jul 2004
Posts: 346
Likes: 0
Originally Posted by StewC625
I somehow managed to rip the door open. Afterwards, that door will not close - the body is crushed into the door frame by a good 3". No one can explain that.
Originally Posted by StewC625
The engine and transmission were displaced from their mounts and the transmission broke through the floor of the car and crushed the passenger seat against the door. Had my then wife of 3 1/2 months been in that seat (we're now married 18.5 years), she'd have easily been killed. The front bumper was moved back an astounding 22 inches from it's original place. The right front wheel is under the front edge of the passenger door.
02-23-2005 | 12:07 PM
#21
Insanely Yellow
Joined: Jul 2004
Posts: 2,093
Likes: 3
From: Buffalo Grove IL
Originally Posted by JM1FE
I can. The guy did what you did - pop open the door and run. I'm sure he didn't close it. The force of your impact pushed his car forward and his door swung "back" in the process, but not completely clicked into the latch because of the bending you described. However, the overall body warping kept the door in a closed-ish position, so you felt some resistance as you ripped it open. I can't believe that with broken bones in your hand you could rip a door out of a bent frame, adrenaline or no.
That's why I've only ever owned European cars personally. I'll make an exception for the RX-8 because of the structural integrity.
That's why I've only ever owned European cars personally. I'll make an exception for the RX-8 because of the structural integrity.
Interesting, hadn't thought that the guy hadn't latched his door, seems to make sense ... although if I replay the "movie" of that night in my mind, I seem to remember it being latched and the latch operating. who knows ... ? It was 19 years ago ...
Glad you're OK. I had red Integra like that one - mine was a '94 GSR. Fun car. Never even got a door ding on it though ...
02-23-2005 | 12:49 PM
#22
Screw gas mileage
Joined: Oct 2004
Posts: 2,179
Likes: 1
From: Marlton, NJ
JM1FE, I had an accident almost exactly like the one you were in, except I was driving with no passenger, the culprit was a black Saab convertible, and she got me more toward the front of the car. I might have been able to get out of the way except that the road was wet and when I tried to stop I just started to slide. All that happened to me (thankfully) though was a bruise on my forearm because of the airbag popping out so fast. It really sucks for everyone involved when people aren't paying enough attention and decide to "go for it"
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