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RX8 Crash n Burn

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Old 01-13-2007 | 09:11 PM
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Post RX8 Crash n Burn

Totaled my RX8 earlier today =(
I'm concerned though cause my air bags did not deploy on impact nor after I came to a final stop.

First lemme describe exactly what happened.

I was cruising down the interstate, doing 65. Roads were wet, and it was raining lightly. The person on my left side had slammed on the brakes worried about hitting a water puddle too fast, well they ended up hydroplaning and their front right fender smashed into the side of my car, from what I can see it was just behind the wheel on the front left fender.

I lost control of the car from the force of impact, and went through two lanes, then flying off the interestate, going airborne for a few seconds before hitting the ground again. The impact caused my front bumper to come right off, and I then swung around to my left, and flew across the access road and ended up smacking into the side of a chain fence causing more major damage.

To me it appears the car is now totaled, both bumpers were ripped off, and the sides were heavily torn up, and im sure it snapped the axle along with more damage to the roof of the car.

Amazingly I got out of the car with no scratches, and there was nobody with me at the time. However, if there was there could of been a good chance they would have gotten seriously injured from the impact. Im guessing, that I was still doing about 20-25mph when I hit the fence. My question is were the air bags suppose to be deploy? I would certainly hope so..
Old 01-13-2007 | 09:23 PM
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Air bags usually only deploy when the impact is perpendicular or straight on. Angled impacts might now always set off the air bags.

Sucks, eh? At least you're okay though! Sorry to hear about the 8. Painful to read your story...
Old 01-13-2007 | 09:30 PM
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Aye i'm going to miss my car... even if they can fix it, it'll never drive the same.. =(
Old 01-13-2007 | 10:01 PM
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I'm so sorry...I hope the other drivers stayed and you got their info. and also hopefully they learned something. brakes = BAD in low traction conditions!
Old 01-13-2007 | 10:30 PM
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damn sorry i drive slow and far away from other cars in the rain. i have seen accidents like that happen in front of me before. and with all the crazy californias who cant drive in the rain you have to watch out.
Old 01-13-2007 | 10:37 PM
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Very glad you're OK. I'm also happy to hear you're OK without the air bags going off.

Air bags are part of a system. Early bags, which just went off with no intelligence, sometimes caused more injury or even killed people. (Look up "Out of position occupant" some time.) FWIW, wearing your seat belt provides more protection than anything else. Airbags are supplemental (even denoted "SRS") and deploy in bigger crashes.

The air bags in the 8 are pretty sophisticated, going off when needed and only with the strength needed. The seat position is even taken into account for the inflation pressure in frontal impacts. Also passenger weight. Nobody in the passenger seat meant the passenger side bags would not deploy at all.

Results count - you were uninjured. The car did what it was supposed to do.

As far as fixing it goes, you get to pick the shop. If it's repairable, find one that will fix it like it was before.

Ken
Old 01-13-2007 | 10:37 PM
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Well the other driver didn't have a chance to drive off, soon as they hit my car they ran into the wall. Nobody was hurt though.

Everyone was in shock when I jumped out of the car not limping lol

And yea, usually im cautious when driving, specially in the rain.. This time I wasn't watching though, and this is what happens
Old 01-13-2007 | 10:42 PM
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where did this happen? xfire.

and how are you so composed to write here after finding the site for the first time?

btw. i know where the rain was in tx today. xfire.

beers
Old 01-13-2007 | 10:49 PM
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It happened outside of plugerville goin N I-35

I was really curious to know about the Airbags, from the looks on the side, and the force of the impact I would assume that if there was a passenger they would have been injured and was by all means curious if this is the way the airbag system was designed.
Old 01-13-2007 | 10:55 PM
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Originally Posted by TexasRX8_84
It happened outside of plugerville goin N I-35

I was really curious to know about the Airbags, from the looks on the side, and the force of the impact I would assume that if there was a passenger they would have been injured and was by all means curious if this is the way the airbag system was designed.
the airbags deploy on front impact. what you describe would not deploy them..

if it is true, the car is not near totaled... got pics???

beers
Old 01-13-2007 | 11:02 PM
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Not yet, but i'll get some later this week.
Old 01-13-2007 | 11:02 PM
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Good that nobody got hurt, but now you will have the fun of getting a new car.
Old 01-13-2007 | 11:03 PM
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Pflugerville.

pm me if you need more help.

beers
Old 01-14-2007 | 12:40 AM
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atleast you didnt get hurt, a car can be replaced.
Old 01-14-2007 | 12:49 PM
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where's the burn part?
Old 01-14-2007 | 11:22 PM
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Originally Posted by swoope
where did this happen? xfire.

and how are you so composed to write here after finding the site for the first time?

btw. i know where the rain was in tx today. xfire.

beers


AAAAAHHH!! the xfire is like...the rx8club fnord or something! XD
xfire
Old 01-14-2007 | 11:32 PM
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Originally Posted by TeamRX8
where's the burn part?
https://www.rx8club.com/showpost.php...76&postcount=2

beers
Old 01-15-2007 | 01:21 AM
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I don't know about seat position being taken into account in the RX-8, but I know your statement about the passenger side bags is completely wrong for U.S. models. The RX-8 (definitely the 2004 and as-far-as-I-know all later models) do not sense passenger seat occupancy. 1) I went through a dozen people at Mazda's 1-800 tech line all telling the same story, 2) there is no indicater to warn when the passenger airbag is disabled (European models have this), 3) I was alone in my car in a square frontal crash and both front airbags popped out. No offense ken-x8, in most other 2004 cars you'd be right.
No offense taken, Cool-Blue. Info sharing among friends is what this site is about.

Looks like there's been an update to the system. I've got an '06 US model. From the '06 owner's manual:

"To reduce the chance of injuries caused by deployment of the front passenger air bag, the
front passenger seat weight sensors work as a part of the supplemental restraint system.
This system deactivates the front passenger front and side air bags and also the front
passenger seat belt pretensioner system when the total seated weight on the front passenger seat is less than approximately 30 kg (66 lb)."

There's a light on the passenger side of the dash, just left of the glovebox, that says "Pass Air Bag Off" and sometimes comes on when I put my computer bag on the passenger seat - depending on how loaded the bag is.

My wife - who believes in airbags - gets upset when she sees that light come on during the start-up self-check.

So this is another improvement - along with the better heater *****, condenser rock guard, translucent white washer reservoir, etc. - that Mazda slipstreamed in over the years. Who says Mazda does not care?

Ken
Old 01-15-2007 | 08:36 AM
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Be glad it didn't deploy. The airbags are only there for HARD impacts, where you would hit the front windshield/dash and die if they weren't there, you obviouly didn't die so they did their job.


Had they deployed you would not have walked away without a scratch, having atleast a bloody/broken nose from their deployment.
Old 01-15-2007 | 11:39 AM
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I think I heard about your crash on the news. I-35 around Austin sux dead bears in August. It has to be one of the most dangerous stretches of road I've ever driven.

Given you had an accident involving complete loss of control at highway speeds I'd say you came out pretty good. Thankfully, you were not struck by another vehicle after your 8 was already compromised. This is usually when people get hurt badly.
Old 01-19-2007 | 11:36 PM
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Thanks for the posts everyone, Im certain the RX8 is the main reason im standing here now talking, so im thankful for that. The insurance company is defiantly trying to take the cheap route out of this case, and was pressuring me into taking the car to a local repair shop, but I told him the only people that I will allow to touch the car would be the dealerships repair shop.. Oh and the estimate came out to be $8200.

The cars damage actually has to be 50% or greater to be considered totaled, which is what i'm actually hoping for. I'd really hate to get the car repaired, as my main concern is that it'll never drive the same again.

I had to do some arguing with the Adjuster, but I managed to get into a premium rental car untill the cars fixed/totaled.

I'll get the pics once the car arrives at the dealership repair shop, and snab some pics of the accident scence.

Cool-Blue-Dad,

Absolutely agree with you, if those airbags went off I would have more then likely walked away with injuries. Oh and no the airbag light was not on, nor has it ever came on.

Again thanks everyone for the support!
Hopefully i'll be back in a RX8 in no time!

Last edited by TexasRX8_84; 01-19-2007 at 11:59 PM.
Old 01-21-2007 | 09:16 PM
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Damn really sorry to hear about that. I'm scared to even think about an accident in my 8.

glad to hear you're okay

-Cody
Old 01-22-2007 | 01:26 PM
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Ok I got pics of the car now, anyone know of a image hosting website I could use?


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