So... I was driving back to work yesterday from home. I was on my lunch break and I was about to exit the Clinton Circle. (Clinton, NJ) As I was about to get back on Rt. 173 East, the off-ramp of I-78 has to yield to Rt. 173. I saw this baby-blue Chevy Lumina come to a stop at the yield. This being a good sign, I chose to pick up speed as Rt. 173 has a speed limit of 50 MPH. I was at about 45 mph. when this d-bag in the Lumina pulls out into the middle of the road and STOPS! It's one thing if you think you can make it to the other side while avoiding me, but he pulled out into the middle 173 and just stopped. He gave me about 10 ft. to react. I step on my brakes, but the margin of space between the both of us was just too short for my brakes to have done much...

I t-boned him going about 40 mph right into his driver's side door + fender. I got a mild concussion and was in shock from what just happened. I force my way out of the car because my driver's side fender got pushed back into my door, resulting in my door being jammed shut.

He gets out of his car and says that it was my fault, when it was clearly his Yield. Luckily I had a witness that saw exactly what happened and both of our stories matched up.

The troopers were there in no time and they all told me that I was not at fault.

Now.. here comes the interesting part. Not one of my air bags deployed. My seat-belt didn't even lock (explains why my head hit off of the steering wheel). This worries me because I understand if It was a "light" bumper to bumper but this was not "light". All of the airbags in his OLD Chevy Lumina had deployed and his seat-belt even locked. I have to take this matter up with Mazda Corp. and/or Better Business Bureau.

So I took some pictures and hopefully the attachments work.

Any advice on what to do now would be great... I'm on a good amount of pain medication so if I don't respond/reply back to your posts right away, it's because i'm prob. sleeping. haha

 

That's nasty...sorry to hear that!

Very worrying that none of the airbags deployed though!!

 

Wow man that sucks...but sounds like you'll be fine which is the important thing.

Hey if it's a write-off, you can now get a manual :-P

 

ouch, I hope you insurance will pay for everything and I'm glad that you're alright at least.

I would take it up with MNAO and find out why the bags and the belt didn't engage

 

wow thats some sad **** man. hope you are ok. deff give mazda corp a call about the airbags. good luck.

 

Wow, I'm really sorry for you man. I'm glad to hear your okay, even though youre in pain. I'm also glad that youre not at fault, but shocked about your airbags. That is concerning. It seems as though there was enough imapct to have released them.

 

not to be an *** but i hope HIS insurance pays for everything - yours should not have to. again, good luck.

 

Sounded like the truck driver did that on purpose? Insurance fraud maybe?

 

^ I was thinking that also - air bag story is not good.

 

Looks like you need to update your avatar.

Can't believe that happend man...Look at it this way though, atleast now you won't have to worry about the new intake manifold not working for awhile seeing as you won't be driving because of the pain meds, and if you do you'll be in a rental car anyway!

 

If he did do that, I hope he gets nailed for it as well.... who the hell stops in the middle of an intersection for no reason?!

 

yeah, i'm def. gonig to take this up with Mazda Corp. and whoever else until this gets resolved.. but don't worry.. this time it'll be a manual :-) haha

His insurance BETTER pay for it all..

I just have to wait now until I hear back from my claims adjuster and see what he finds out after reviewing the damage done.. but from what I felt and saw... the car should be deemed totalled. I won't LET them give me that car back.

 

Eh, I don't think the car is that totaled =O

I'm sure they'll try to fix it..who knows.

 

If they say it's totaled, see if you can have that guy swing by Lubbock, TX...I've been looking for an easy way to get out of my auto too

 

Is it the total damage must be 75% of the overall value of the vehicle, or is every state diff?

 

no, I think you're right, 75%. But i'll say this.. A few months ago, I got into a VERY MINOR bumper to bumper that scratched up both headlights and raised my hood about 2 inches. Well, they came close to actually totalling it because they said that the damage was worth $7k. Well.. if that was worth 7k, i'd love to know what ridiculous number they're going to come up with this time...

 

10 billion dollars.

In Texas it's 75% too I believe.

 

i am pretty sure your car isn't totaled. this is how you total a car:

 

These pictures made me cringe....

 

Glad you're not seriously hurt.

My hunch is that your airbags worked as designed. They only go off if the car is hit not only at a certain minimum speed, but at particular angles. I could be wrong, but that's what I think happened here. Not saying you wouldn't have been better protected had they gone off—just that the angle/speed wasn't within parameters.

 

I just shed a tear, Mugatu!

 

Man... like I said last night, get me the guy's addy... we'll go hunting.

 

Wha? He went striaght in on impact @ 40 mph.

Airbags should have come out and belts should have locked.

 

sorry to hear about that man. i got into an accident about a month ago and was $9000 in parts. both front air bags deployed in mine so i think you should go talk to mazda . this what i did to mine ...

 

curse of the red, black and white