Short Circuit's Journal: Bad day. Car totaled. Good night. (pics)

Well, my day's been bad. My new car is totaled, and I only had PL/PD.

3:30PM: Here I am, going 70 down the freeway, when I see a dark pickup at a dead stop in front of me. I hit my brakes. No squealing, and the ABS didn't need to kick in. Perfect traction. I get down to 1 or 2 mph. All I remember about the next few seconds were two bangs, and then I noticed the airbags were sitting in my lap, it smelled like the car was on fire, and there was smoke pouring out of the dashboard.

So I communicate to my passenger (who's deaf, by the way, and I don't know ASL.) to get the hell out of the car ASAP. And we do.

Turns out, the guy in front of me stopped for someone in front of him who stopped for no reason whatsoever. (And *he* sped off.) The guy behind me turned to look at his seven-year-old son for a moment, then looked up and saw me too late.

Oh, and that smoke and smell? Airbag dust.

First thing I do? Stagger out of the car and sit down in shock. Then I pull out my Zire72 and start taking pictures. When I've taken all the pictures that might be useful, I went to the voice memo feature and told it to record. So I've got about 30 minutes of audio before my battery petered out.

After explaining to two police officers that I was the driver and no, my passenger can't hear, the police call a couple of tow trucks. Of course, they call a AAA truck, but he picks up the other guy who has Allstate insurance. Some third-party guy picks my van up, and tries to tell me all the body shops are closed. (It was around 4:30PM.) We get him straightened out, and now my car is at a body shop. (Not to be repaired, but to get the stuff out. You'll see in a moment.)

So, here are the pics:

Photo_111006_002.jpg -- Left rear view of my car.
Photo_111006_004.jpg -- A peek at the driver's and passenger's seats.
Photo_111006_005.jpg -- What's left of the back of my car.
Photo_111006_001.jpg -- What's left of the front of my car.

After that, though, the evening seems to have gone pretty well. I'm running a LAN party tonight. The only major setback is that the cardboard box you see in the back of my van contains all the tournament prizes I was going to give out. Oh, and the stereo I was going to use as a PA system is also back there.

If I don't sound upset, it's because I'm not. Maybe I'm in denial, maybe I'm just plain wierd. But the only thing that bothers me about the way this turned out is that I'm going to have to ride to Florida Thanksgiving week in a much smaller car with poorer milage. (I wanted my parents to use my car for our trip, because it's more comfortable.)

Hm. Thinking of which...is there near this route interested in meeting up next weekend?

Everyone's alive.

[artifex2004]

Looking at the pictures, that didn't have to be the case.
So, congratulations on making it out alive :)

Re:

[dominator2010]

Yeah, and make sure you take it easy tonight. Make sure you do some body stretchs periodically and possibly ice your neck. Hey, maybe if there is some young, cute, and willing girl you could request a massage.

Seriously though, judging by the car I can tell you the speed that you got hit that you need to be careful of whiplash. Whiplash can be painful and also do damage if you don't treat it properly. It also usually creeps up on you the next day. That's why you need to be careful tonight. I'm glad that y

Insurance

[turg]

and I only had PL/PD

But the accident is 100% the fault of the driver behind you.

Re:

[arb]

This may be complicated by the fact that his car was cannoned into the car in front. In some jurisdictions this could leave SC liable for the damage to the front car unfortunately. A friend of mine was in a similar accident and her insurance company had to pay the guy in front and then make a claim from the guy in back - it got a bit messy but was sorted out at no net cost to her in the long run, but it wasn't as straightforward as we thought it should have been.

I certainly hope this can be sorted out with

Re:

[FroMan]

SC's dad reads slashdot... I'm proud of you.

Personlly I hate the way insurance works in this state (MI). The best SC is going to get out of this will be $500, and the odds are that is a year and change of insurance for him. However, since the law requires you to carry coverage it would require a person to get into an accident every year to have the insurance pay off. To me that is a racket, not insurance.

With no fault they claim it helps the poorest of the people, but infact hurts them the most since wh

Re:

[turg]

Here in Ontario, we have a "Partial No Fault" system. It really isn't no-fault at all but incorporates as many of the benefits of no-fault as possible without being no-fault.

First of all, the Insurance Act provides for a regulation called the Fault Determination Rules [gov.on.ca], in which every possible accident scenario is described and it indicates who is at fault in each one (or how the fault is divided up). There is no haggling with the insurance about fault. (The facts to which these rules are applied come from t

doh

[ak3ldama]

That sucks; it sounds like you're basically not covered too. I know how you feel about the "hasn't sunk in" feeling, that's how i treat a lot of situations too. It's already done, nothing you can do now changes what happened. I don't have much insurance coverage either, just the basic liability; but then again i drive a sub $2K car.

Wow.

[rk]

I feel your pain. I T-boned a Grand Marquis in June 2005 when they ran a stop sign right in front of me as I was doing about 55. The smell of the airbags really sticks with you. I'm glad everyone was okay.

I can also tell you from personal experience that the route Google Maps is giving you is complete shit. I don't know the conditions in Michigan, but I'd recommend you get to I-69 heading for Fort Wayne, then when you get to Fort Wayne cut over to I-75 using US 33. It's an easy drive without a lot of