I won't say I'm not the one at fault, but it definetly could've been avoided if the other person used their blinkers, or just stayed in their lane altogether.

Going about 85 on an on-ramp, red SUV in front of me creeping into my lane, I quickly jerk my steering wheel to the left to pass/avoid him, lose control. Smash into him with my ride side and sends me doing a full 900 degrees on the on-ramp bridge. The other car was totaled.

Miraculously (You'd think it was miraculous too if you saw the other car) no one walked away injured. Not even a scratch. I had one passenger and the other person was alone. It's safe to assume I was crying my eyes out.

Yes, everyone can definetely point their fingers at me. It could've been avoided if I wasn't speeding at all.

 

Ouch! So glad everyone walked away physically unharmed. If you are a drinking person - have a big one tonight.

 

Speeding or not, failing to yield right of way is failing to yield right of way. But that's for the police to sort out.

Glad you're alright though. Could hav ebeen much worse.

 

I'm glad everyone was OK.

If this is all that happened to your car after a 85 mph accident, consider yourself extremely lucky. From these photos, the damage doesn't look too bad at all. It will be easily repaired and your car should be as new.

 

Sorry for your accident. Thank God everyone is ok though!

 

I wouldnt say I was speeding here, next thing u know your warranty is up

 

glad everyone is ok, what exacaly happened when you 'lost control' ? my guess would be that you quickly move to the left causing the car to have the rear end step out to the left farther than you want, making the nose point to the right, you fight the car but the front 1/4 of the car connects with the side of the suv?

if not than what happened, also is does your car have the DSC/TCS? I know that the clearence bettween cars might have been to close to help, but just wondering, seems like this is exacaly what it was designed for, to keep the car in its lane (or close to it) in a situation with loss of traction.

Its good that your honest, i give you big points for that, not trying to CYA when you know what happened.

 

It looks like you can just replace the door and front fender which won't be that bad. The rear fender is going to need some good massaging though.

 

What was the speed limit?

 

Oh man ... the poor car. Looks pretty roughed up. Good to hear that you are ok.

 

way to go

 

cLLcLe, I know the feeling, the strange butterflies in the stomach, the fear of it actually being true, the hoping you will wake up in the morning and it will be a dream and the actual waking up and realizing it was not and the empty stomach feeling again. I understand and I'm really sorry this happened to you. Only time will heel. I totaled my 4 month old silver from a mistake I made. When you get out and look at it after the crash, that is one horrible feeling.

If it were me. I'd delete this thread and start a new one and not mention the speed or what you think is your fault as this can be referred to by others not so friendly to your cause. I'm sure no one here would complain if you did that.

From experience I can tell you that you should not admit guilt when someone else is involved. I had someone blatantly hit me one time in the back driver-side, running a red light. He didn't get ticketed because on the spot he put up such a fuss how I was going to fast and didn't have my lights on and such. That was a good move on his part as a ticket didn't show up on his insurance. His insurance company actually did pay for my cars repairs but he saved himself some points. Not that I agree with what he did but it worked for him.

 

Nah, it's alright if I post what exactly happened though. It happened and I can't change that. Yes, I was 20 mph over the speed limit ^^
Yeah, well I don't really care if people give me crap. I get alot of crap from my friends anyways (not the accident but about the car itself) hahaha. So I'm pretty used to it.
Thanks guys...

Oh, I turned off TCS just for that one time and look at what happens. I keep telling myself that if I had it on, it probably could have been avoided.... Yeah, this is what I get for being dumb. I learned my lesson.

 

I was about to ask if you had the traction control on.

 

Oh crap! I turned my DSC off, turned left from the red light and the next right hand turn... TKO'd the puppy! Lesson learned here too.

 

I've had mine turned off from day one and have never.... wait I don't want to jinx myself. nevermind. I have a silver one too. Now I'm really cursed.

 

its a good thing that they havent done this, and im not sure they will ever get it to fly but something i read a while back was that since more and more cars are getting not just traction control, but stability control... insurance companys want to put a part in the policy that if your car is has this feature and you in a colision and it was turned off, they dont have to pay the claim.

like i said it would be hard to get it to pass cause the system wont help in EVERY accident and they would have to prove it would have made a difference in your crash to not pay the claim.

does anyone know what data is recorded in a crash in the rx8, say a crash where the airbags go off. most cars measure steering input, throtle position, brakes, G's ect.

speaking of that, did the side airbags go off in your crash

 

If you had that on, you wouldn't have spun, the tcs system and technology is amazing.

That in mind, have you ever been to the track? Have you ever taken an advance driving course such as skip barber? I highly recommend taking them if you haven't. It seems you made a pretty careless mistake in 1st of all disabling a system that you obviously need, and driving aggressively without the proper experience.

I know you dont need to be lectured, and my point is not too, my point is to go take one of those schools as they are very very fun and you learn a lot too. Even go to an open trackday (a bit cheaper) as you will learn about your car a lot. I've been to numerous trackdays (none with the rx yet) and i still NEVER disable the tcs on the street. If the tcs kicks on i'm driving way to aggressive for the street, the last thing i want is my wife coming to bail me out of jail :D Never live that one down. lol

Good luck champ, the most important part as that you weren't hurt and the other driver wasn't hurt. Stay safe.

-Leo

 

Funny, I've gotten the exact opposite advice from people...they've told me to drive around with the DSC off for a few days to see how the car handles. But then again Mazda seems to be voiding warranties for leaving the turn signal on too long....sooooo I wouldnt do THAT!

cLLcLe, glad you're ok mate!

 

The car's replaceable...people aren't. Glad you're okay.

...drive on...'til another day.