Camry Got Wrecked - Toyota Nation Forum : Toyota Car and Truck Forums

drugal · 09-26-2004, 07:23 AM

The TN curse continues: I was driving at around 3 AM this morning going about 65km/h in a 60 zone when a stolen van with armed occupants ran a red light. I hit them at full speed, with zero time to react. The cops had just started chasing them right when I got to the intersection. I looked at the cops starting their sirens behind the van, which caused me to miss seeing the van itself.

The occupants were all arrested. One was in the van. Two others tried to run. One was taken down by a dog, while the other was slammed on my trunk by the cops while we were still figuring out if we were hurt in the car.

I hit their Chevy Lumina mini van on the driver's fender with the front passenger fender/bumper of the Camry. The Camry was throw across the entire 4-lane highway, hitting the van again several times. Half of the engine compartment is smashed in, most of the doors are wrecked, most of the windows blew out, and the back is also really messed up. I found my grill over 100 feet from the impact.

My keys were thrown from the ignition, and out of the car. It ended up in neutral with the engine idling fine (don't ask, I have no idea). I had to throw the car in 1st gear and drop the clutch to stop the engine in case of a gas leak or something.

The cops were amazed that all five occupants in my car got out of the car and walked away with no injurys aside from scrapes.

to the Gen2 front-end. The rear middle passenger had no shoulder harness, so she was taken to the hospital for a checkup.

So my Camry, which ironically, I had completely finished working on tonight, met its end saving the lives of myself and my friends. If the insurance process goes well, I plan on buying another one.

da_horse · 09-26-2004, 07:29 AM

WOAH !!

thats a story and a half! good to hear that ur ok mate...any pics of the damage? i cant believe all five of u are ok after that accident...sounds really bad!

dna59 · 09-26-2004, 08:00 AM

I know how you feel. The week when I finished up working on my car (only a spray job was left) to my liking, I crashed.

dropyopanties · 09-26-2004, 08:42 AM

wow.. very interesting..
glad to hear you are fine!
camry's are really safe cars..

is it true that gen3 camries have steel front and rear bumpers?
perhaps that's what saved your life and part of your engine.

drugal · 09-26-2004, 04:37 PM

I'm not allowed near the car at the moment due to it being evidence in a criminal investigation, or something like that, but I'll get some pictures of it eventually.

And yeah, the Gen2 has a solid steel bumper with a great frame design, which helped a great deal. I've seen other wrecked Gen2s where the bumper saved the car from being crushed into oblivion. The impact was quite soft, considering the speed we were going. No whiplash or any such thing.

Turns out the middle passenger has internal bleeding due to not having a shoulder harness, but they're ok. The front passenger also banged up his knee a bit, but only figured that out today as well.

If I had my way, I'd get a V6 5spd, but that's a little out of my price range. I really like the white/black bumpers with the blue interior, so I might even go looking for an identical Camry.

userlain · 09-26-2004, 05:09 PM

we were working on my friends car, new plugs, opil change and then we crashed it into a curb going 60+mph

drugal · 10-05-2004, 02:01 PM

Here's the pictures. I was thinking about buying it back for salvaging the engine/tranny if I bought another Camry, but it looks like the entire front end got blown to hell. The axle probably got pushed into the tranny/bearing, wrecking them. Looks like my new tires are also done for.

***ASG14*** · 10-05-2004, 03:03 PM

DAMN! Thanks god your ok! That looks nasty.

***2wickedtoyz*** · 10-05-2004, 03:08 PM

man that car is a tank
notice how the pillars arent bent

i crashed going 40 in my 92 teg and the whole car crumpled that is why i'm a toyota guy only now

i'm glad to hear your good and i bet it helps that the luminas have a fiberglass/plastic body

***Phi*** · 10-05-2004, 03:36 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by drugal

The cops were amazed that all five occupants in my car got out of the car and walked away with no injurys aside from scrapes. to the Gen2 front-end. The rear middle passenger had no shoulder harness, so she was taken to the hospital for a checkup.

After seeing the pics, I'm amazed myself. I'm assuming they were all wearing their seatbelts then? That's rare.

MadDawg · 10-05-2004, 05:09 PM

oh damn.... you should bump up it a gen3.... ive seen crash test photos of it slamming into a brick wall at 70+mph, and the driver walked away from it scratch free.....

i also saw this on the news, i could have sworn it was a camry, cause no other car looks like it... some guy was traveling about 70mph down the freeway on the wrong side of the road, and ran head on into (what i think was a gen3 or 4 camry) which was going 70mph also..... BAM!, thats like 140mph in a concrete wall, the guy who was running from the police, had some injuries, the 4 occupants in the camry, walked away from the car, looking like they hadnt had any serious injuries.

btrek · 10-05-2004, 05:30 PM

great example of what wearing a seatbelt can do for you

drugal · 10-05-2004, 06:16 PM

Quote:

great example of what wearing a seatbelt can do for you

Absolutely. I don't drive unless everyone's got their seatbelt on.

I'm a big fan of Toyota engineering. I was pretty thankful I wasn't driving my Nissan Multi. That thing doesn't even have B-pillars!

A Gen3 is going to be out of my price range. My injuries aren't serious, and my Camry had high mileage, so the settlement isn't going to ammount to much. I'll just have to get another Gen2 with problems, and fix it up like I did with this car.