Bad Day
 

Driving home from work last night and less than 100 yards from my apartment on a four lane road divided by a curbed median. I'm in the right hand lane following a Prius who is slowing to turn right into a Sonic restaurant. Being that my right turn is only another hundred feet I give them plenty of room, thankfully. I'm going 5 maybe 10 mph when BAM!!! it's like a shotgun went off right next to me. I find myself being jolted forwards and spinning to my left. I come to a force full stop facing the wrong way in the left hand lane, only stopped by the curb. First thought, please o please don't now get hit head on. Thankfully traffic stopped in time. Turns out, girl driving a Chrysler minivan was on her phone and just didn't see me. Witnesses out side of the restaurant told the cops that she didn't even use the brakes. Speed limit is 45 and it appears that that at the last second she tried to veer to the left lane. Thankfully I'm ok, just sore but she appeared to have broken her ankle. She hit me so hard that in my 180 spin, the back of my car swiped the back of the Prius in front of me before being able to turn right. Thankfully the cops figured this out before i did so i was not issued a citation. I do have a truck to get me around for the time being, but I am really going to miss this car. I haven't done much to it, mostly cosmetic, TRD springs, different body kits/pieces over the years, headers and exhaust, OFT that i was able to unmarry at the junkyard this morning and so on. You guys and this site have been a huge resource and source of fun for me for the past 5 years and I want to give everyone a big thank you for that. Don't know what is coming next, hell i may buy one again, but I'll still be creeping around here.

Sucks! Glad you are ok.

Darn... looked like it was a really nice clean ride. Good that you aren't hurt! Watch out for any delayed/hidden injuries tho.

That'll buff right out!

But seriously though, why is it so fucking hard for people to put their phone away while doing something that requires their full attention? I get stuck behind people at stop lights all the time who don't realize that the light has changed because they're busy playing with their phone. Their stupid Instantgram or Facebook will still be there for oogling at when they reach their destination!

Sounds like she got what she deserved. Hopefully that'll teach her not to use her phone while driving.

Ouch, glad you were able to walk away from that.

+1 to this. OP, you might not hurt now, but pain from whiplash can take up to 24 hours to set in. If you feel anything more than a dull ache, go to a doctor.

DANG! That was a bad hit - :(

I hope you "stay" OK from a hit like that.


humfrz

I'm sorry that your twin got totaled from some inattentive distracted driver using their damn phone. So fucking infuriating.

I hope you're OK with no injuries at all, go get checked out at the doctor just in case.

Seriously go get checked out by a doctor, even if you think you are ok. That is a crazy hard hit and the human body is insanely fragile.

My father was involved in an accident and had what he thought was minor pain so he didn't go to the hospital. Turns out when he finally ended up with massive neck injuries decades later it was a really bad injury and had been causing him pain the entire time, he had just tuned it out.

Glad it wasn't a worse day! Grateful that these little cars are strong.

Did the cops issue the stupid twit a ticket?

How in the world was your tire not touched?! Regardless, this looks more like a lucky day than a bad day. Glad you're safe- we'll support you regardless what route you take with your replacement choice.

Are they letting you take/replace any of the aftermarket parts (dem Spec-D lights tho)? Hopefully the other drive maybe gets a vehicle more fit for her driving (a bicycle) where her actions hold her more locally responsible without involving others.

+1


I too thought I felt ok after my wreck with my first 86 and so I didn't visit the doctors right away but soon after I had some back problems crop up...

Was in a wreck with my buddy's fox body Mustang. The guy that caused it fled, had no insurance. My friend was 22, had no health insurance and other than a slightly sore back, felt "totally fine" – he opted to not go to the hospital and get stuck with some crazy medical bill over nothing.

Months later he started having black out seizures, foaming at the mouth. Turns out he had numerous micro fractures in his spine from the whiplash and was leaking spinal fluid.

As everyone else said, you need to get checked out. Being hit at 45 mph with all the spinning you did, you're gonna have some internal injuries. Make sure they check your entire spine as your neck and lower back (possibly thoracic spine, too) probably took a large chunk of the force.

Hope you're doing good. I'm sorry about your car :/
I had a very minor fender bender earlier this year and it was enough to really upset me. I can't imagine how you feel...

So he was able to delay having to pay the crazy medical bill for several months. Cool!

See it all the time and I absolutely HATE hearing about the consequences. Should be treated as criminal negligence. So goddamn selfish. Sickening.

Seconded. My brother was involved in an accident, he felt fine and didn't even bother to get checked out on scene. We ended up having to take him to the hospital the next day with a headache caused by a pretty big concussion. He had memory, speech, and sleeping problems for a few weeks afterwards while it healed. Better to be safe and sure!

Sad to see the damage, but glad that you're still around to post about it!

Mostly because they've done it repeatedly over and over again without repercussions. This accident now will either force her to change behavior or cost her heavily and just won't be able to drive anymore....

Glad you're ok. And good job have the frame of mind to unmarry the OFT in time. At least you can recoup some cost if you go to another platform. Is her insurance planning to pay you the cost of the vehicle? I would raise all hell with your insurance company to go after her and they can easily retrieve the police report showing it's 100% her fault due to distracted driving.

still in the beginning stages of getting all the insurance stuff worked out, but so far so good. The paramedics did a quick look over at the scene and told me what i should or shouldn't be feeling as time went on. The phone thing, ugh i don't get it. It was my first question to her, "hey were you on your phone?" she admitted she was and didn't lie about to the cops, so i guess that's good. I don't know how the tire is still together. The left rear is flat and the passenger side wheels are badly damaged from spinning into the curb. Thanks for the concern. At first sign of anything I'm off the doctor.

Thankfully she is insured so we're still working that out. She's the only one who got a ticket and we have to wait till the police report goes through or whatever so i can send a copy to my insurance. Gieco btw. Not sure what the car is worth. 2013 and about 100k miles

Agreed, as often as it happens there has to be a better deterrent.

Not sure how they do it in Texas or Geico but for me whenever a police report is involved I just tell my insurance company the police report number and they order it themselves saves me extra cost.

What we've been trying to tell you is that there might not be a "first sign" of something. It's in your best interest to get to the doctor ASAP and get checked out.

Seriously, I hate to sound like a nagging parent, but get your fucking ass to the doctor. :)

First sign might be a year or two down the road. Get checked out now while you can prove anything they (hopefully don't) find is related to the crash.

Yeah, don't wait till it's too late.

A coworker of my dad's went home to take a nap because "he wasn't feeling well", and never woke up. You don't know if you're fine or not, until either a doctor checks you out, or you find out the hard way.

Get well soon, and remember it's "only" a car (you can always get another).

So bummed for you. :/


Get another one but first go see a doctor. ;)

Hmm, probably a good thing she did steer off so the impact got deflected and she didn't collide with anyone else. For whatever stupid you have to be to not pay attention to the road like that, her instincts were good.

She might not have lived and I bet you'd be a lot worse off.

Shame you got your car to 100K and it had to end this way.

As a motorcycle rider, this is my greatest fear. Riding is twice as dangerous now as it was pre-cel phone.

This is why I am so grateful for lane splitting in California. Even when I'm first at a light I prefer to stay in between two lanes. Granted I would never use my bike to commute unless it was absolutely necessary, but when I'm on my way to my favorite roads I'm always on edge so it helps lol.

I'm gonna say this even though I know somebody might get her panties in a twist over it:

Go to the doctor now, regardless of whether you feel anything, to protect your insurance claim.

First, if you don't, and then you feel the effects later, the idiot driver's claims manager will try to say that since you didn't go right away, your injury might not have been caused by the accident. Or they'll try to imply you're just making it up to leverage your damage claim, going to the doctor only after you hear their estimate. They often get slapped down in court using that, but they'll try to use it in the normal claims negotiation process to intimidate you into taking less.

Second, the moment you have an injury claim involved, often the insurance company will become significantly more cooperative about the property claim. Property claims are pretty straight forward and result in predictable awards if they end up in court, so they know that even if you get pissed off and sue them, you won't get much more than they already budgeted for anyway. Injury claims are not so straight forward and can result in ridiculous awards for "pain and suffering." They become much more attentive to your demands on the property side because they want to keep you happy and litigation free on both claims.

Over the years I never went to the doctor if I had an accident, until finally I actually did have a backache the next day after getting rear-ended in New Orleans. I had just taken it for granted that they treat you like shit if you file a claim. But one little backache and suddenly they're calling me on a weekly basis to check up on me and make sure I'm doing okay.

Oh, also, I have found it much better to file the claim with the idiot driver's insurance company instead of your own, if possible. With your own insurer you're somewhat at their mercy, since they can just flat out refuse some things under the terms of your contract without any real fear of being sued, and they can just screw you later if you do sue them. If you file with the other driver's insurer, the threat of a lawsuit is always hanging over their heads, so they seem more cooperative in my experience.

How does splitting lanes prevent a distracted idiot on her cell phone from change lanes right into your path?

There is no perfect solution (other than staying home), but being plowed into and pinned between two cars is one less thing to worry about. That's the benefit. There are still plenty of ways to die on a motorcycle, or a car for that matter.

That would be my question also. It would seem to me that if you are in between two vehicles, each one of them about 2 feet away from you, that your chances of being squished by a distracted driver would be greater.- :iono:


humfrz

Damn man.... I would delete this thread as the pending legal stuff will last you a LONG time.

I lost my forester last July in a 4 car collision (rear end) and I'm still dealing with it.

Please post up when you are notified of the value they're going to assign. I also use Geico and have a 103k mile 2013. I'm curious what they think it's worth.

I've had 2 cars totaled by stop sign runners but since I had been carted off to the hospital in an ambulance before the cops got there I got hosed both times by the other drivers giving them 'false statements' about what happened. Both times I ended up taking 20% of the blame and not being made whole on the replacement value. It sounds like you aren't going to have to deal with this, you're lucky.

https://www.cycleworld.com/2015/06/0...s-rider-saftey

Riders splitting lanes are significantly less likely to be rear ended, the most common type of distracted driving accident.

Not trying to get too off topic but, as a motorcyclist, lane splitting is something I'd like to see become legal nationwide since all data suggests that, when done responsibly, it is safer for riders.

The unfortunate part is that I rarely see it done responsibly. When a bike splits lanes at twice the speed of traffic and then gets creamed by a car changing lanes everybody screams that cars don't watch out for bikes.

Yeah, outside of California its not something riders are taught to do properly in licensing courses. Squids that fly by traffic like you say give the rest of us a bad name :/