Got in a crash...

Today I was driving through town on the way to getting my haircut, and I was behind a woman in a newer (wait, make that brand-new) Windstar minivan. Well, she was going to make a turn onto another street. I slowed down, anticipating her turn, but what happened next proved to be a costly error in judgment. Thinking she was going to go ahead with the turn, I didn't slow down as much as I should've... well, she stopped, and I couldn't get my big bad gen 2 beast halted in time. I distinctly remember hearing shattering glass (that would be my headlights), and watching my hood buckle. Well, having sat in a daze for a few seconds, I pulled off and the first thing I did was make sure she was OK. She also had her young daughter in the van (like 6 or 7 years old), fortunately she was OK too. Also, it must be said that she was extremely nice about the whole thing. Her van's rear bumper cover got cracked. That's it, folks.. Meanwhile, here's what happened to my car:
- the hood buckled
- the header panel is busted up
- destroyed both headlights and sidemarkers (Sorry white90dx but may the Silverstars rest in peace!)
- destroyed the grille
- Bent my cone filter b/c the battery whacked it
- Cracked and destroyed my coolant overflow reservior, fortunately thats what we saw leaking and not the radiator... oddly enough, the radiator is fine.
- Bent my A/C condenser
- The bumper is fine, just bent down slightly. My bumper ended up under hers.
- Bent the radiator core support, the center piece which bolts in
- The horn is useless (was to begin with, never worked... no major loss here I guess)

Fortunately, there was no frame damage (I was only going like 10 mph on impact). Also, as luck would have it, my dad was able to get in touch with one of his hook-ups through work (parts mgr. at a Toyota dealership) and get a hold of a junked Camry. We pulled all the parts we needed off an clean but rotting black '90 DX and the car is already going back together! I'll be back up and running tomorrow. Since the hood, grille, and header panel from the junk Cam were all black (and in remarkably good shape), my car will have an interesting ricer look to it... silver body and black hood. (I'll leave it that way too. I think it will look quite nice.) The lady's Windstar just needs a new bumper cover, and ironically enough her husband works for Ford. Knowing that everyone (most importantly the kid) was OK, knowing that the cars are OK, all makes me feel better; the threat of being written off by my insurance does not. Very likely, too; I've been driving for just 19 months (with no prior tickets or accidents).

Needless to say, there are far better things to do on a Saturday afternoon, folks! I can't help but laugh when I think about how well her van fared compared to my car :roll:

A police report was filled out. Now i get to wait until Monday to hear what my fate will be . At the very least my insurance will skyrocket. I'll keep in touch

Steve

[Structureboy]

Sorry to hear...
But it's good that everyone made it through okay.
Errors in driving judgment just come along with experience. I've thanked my lucky stars several times when I first started driving.
Hope all goes good with your insurance.

[brink]

Dude, that sucks. Glad everyone's alright, though. I did something similar when I first started driving, but it was in my dad's camry. Also he was in the car at the time. THAT totally sucks.

Is your insurance company that nazi-like to just cancel your policy for a low-speed impact? I've been in a couple accidents (one my fault, one not) and I've never had the threat of policy cancellation. I mean, that's why you buy insurance in the first place... to take care of accidents.

[CamrySpeaksJL]

that sucks about your car. good thing everyones OK. I got into an accident with a guy in front of my school. he backed into me, shattering my driver's side headlight and bending my quarter panel on that side as well. i know what you mean about the shattering glass sound. its really not very pleasant. thats, and the sound of crumpling metal in an accident are two sounds i really dont like hearing.

:cry:

[Eye8Pussies]

if her bumper was only cracked, why didn't you see if you could settle it without insurance/police?

[crazy_camry]

Originally Posted by 87Camry5Speed

- the hood buckled
- the header panel is busted up
- destroyed both headlights and sidemarkers (Sorry white90dx but may the Silverstars rest in peace!)
- destroyed the grille
- Bent my cone filter b/c the battery whacked it
- Cracked and destroyed my coolant overflow reservior, fortunately thats what we saw leaking and not the radiator... oddly enough, the radiator is fine.
- Bent my A/C condenser
- The bumper is fine, just bent down slightly. My bumper ended up under hers.
- Bent the radiator core support, the center piece which bolts in
- The horn is useless (was to begin with, never worked... no major loss here I guess)

sounds like my crash in my Gen 2. i was on a main road and a lady came flying out of a little sidestreet and i couldn't brake in time and i t-boned her. i was doing roughly 50k's and the whole side of her car was crushed in. luckily she admited fault straight away and we had no insurance hassles.

Good to hear no one was hurt and a i hope the insurance company treats you fairly. i don't know about over their but here premiums are soaring so i hope neer to be in a accident (again).

p.s. we'll hae to see what the car looks like with the black bonnet, i imagine it would look pretty cool.

Thanks everyone... One of you asked if this could be settled w/o insurance or police. Ain't happening... There was a cop on the scene. Next week I have to go get the report. I talked to the lady today... Her van is going in the shop Thursday for an estimate (for the bumper.... the van is 100% driveable), so insurance issues wait at least until then. Given the relatively light collision that happened, I hope insurance treats me fairly. The black hood does look kinda cool, when I get the car cleaned I'll take some pics. Until then...

[REN69]

you should tell them the woman signalled for a turn and then she just slammed on her brakes, making impossible for you to stop.. " I think she freaked out or something" hehehe.. chances are she did anyways.

remember, whatever you do.. NEVER admit fault! or your insurance company will have a feast with your wallet.

[kgasso]

Originally Posted by CamrySpeaksJL

i know what you mean about the shattering glass sound. its really not very pleasant. thats, and the sound of crumpling metal in an accident are two sounds i really dont like hearing.

Add to that the sound of your tires screeching as the car's being snapped around in a 540-degree spin as you're trying to hold on the brakes and being pulled to other side of the car... and the distinct *POP* of the airbags deploying, as well as the horrid smell... and you got yourself a party!

I hate wrecks. Ugh.

ren69... I never admitted fault... then again, doing so would have been redundant. I hit her, after all. It's an open and shut case. It sure looked to me like she was going to go ahead and make the turn but she stopped... and by the time I saw she was stopped it was too late already. I wonder if ABS might have saved my car here. I can only hope that, given the minimal damage to her van (hopefully her deductible covers that) and the fact that there were no personal injuries that insurance does in fact go easy on me. However, she says that there's a weird "grinding" noise coming from the back of the van. I sincerely hope it's nothing major. I'll know Thursday... until then all I can do is play the waiting game.

Steve

[white90dx]

Oh no! The silverstars are gone??? :wink:

Glad to hear everyone is ok. And I'm glad to hear your car is getting back in good shape already.

The day after I lowered my camry someone in a truck (I assume) did a 'bump and go' while I was parked on the streets of SF. I came back to find my headlight pushed in (a mounting point broken) and a dent in the panel in front of my hood. The other driver probably thought they simply hit my bumper... Stuff like that happens.

Good luck with the insurance and all of that.

-Charlie

[MalooMAN]

damn! i would b killed if i had a crash like dat! im just about 17 and i dont reken it would go down well if i hit sum1! i was driving my dad's van the other week and i was parked in a carpark and sum1 didnt stop quick enuf and hit the back of my dad's van and the van moved about 20-30 cm but did no damage but the other car's No. plate had a tow ball dent in it! hehehe nothing was done about it. so i hope i dont do anything to do with crashes in the nere future.

[camry_dude]

I was in a wreck back in the beginning of October of last year. It sucks really bad! I was out of a car for a month, but the insurance paid the 5700.00 bill to fix my car.

Hopefully this goes through without that goddamn "Invalid_session" message... I've been getting that for like a week now. At any rate, here's an update- her van came out a little worse than I thought and it is going to cost about 1500 bucks in repairs. My car is back up and running, has been since the day after the crash, and I just got the police report yesterday... so that has to go to insurance today. I posted a couple of pics to imagestation.com, only two so far but hopefully more on the way soon. I'll put a link to my imagestation pics up ASAP.

Steve

http://www.imagestation.com/album/?id=4290767083 with any luck that'll take you to the pics of my car. Like I said, only two so far but I hope to have a few of the carnage and a few "before" pics in the next couple of weeks. I'm on the school computer as I write this, because I can actully post on it; my home computer gets the retarded "Invalid_session" memo.

Steve