NOFX

This thread is meant to be tech oriented and to focus on how we all need to chill out and drive more responsibly. Please do not move this thread to general discussion.

What follows are photos of my first car, a 1997 Civic that I totaled after about a year of ownership. The story of the crash and what happened regarding it follows.

Anyway, feel free to comment on how the car stood up. Judging what it was up against I think it did pretty damn well at saving me. It was a stock 1997 Civic EX coupe.

Always wear your seatbelt!



















Here are the new photos now. I went to the lot where they were keeping the car and snapped some photos. But I lost the roll of film, along with a lot of other ones, during a move and only recently finally figured out which roll it was.

































CoPart later bought the car for $800. That only happened after I fought with Progressive Insurance for months to get them to give me more than the $2500 or whatever ridiculous amount they wanted to give me for the car, even though I'd bought it for about $7k just the year before.

I wish I'd gotten under hood shots too. I remember looking, so I'm not sure why I didn't snap some pics. The engine was leaned back and to the driver side. Sort of a bit diagonal.

The story of the accident is that January 18, 2003 I went to get new rear tires. It was really chilly out that morning; it had snowed a few days before but there was no snow on the road and little left on the ground. But it was 9 degrees out that morning and though I thought about it, I was too chilly and it was too early for me to want to check the pressure on each tire before I got the car home.

I'll just check it later today. Home is only seven miles away and then I can get warm and have some breakfast.

I swung by the Dover Mall to see if my friend was there first though. No Supra, so I kept driving the long road around the mall. Right behind Boscov's there's a wide left turn in the road. I admit I was going about 40 or so on the straight away (which I'd done many many times before, as it was the normal speed for cars on that road), which is over the 15mph limit, but it's mall property and at 15mph on an empty road it takes forever to get around. Either way, I now know it was way too fast for that section of road, much less when my brand new tire blew out. Had I been going slower maybe at least I wouldn't have totaled my car.

I felt my rear end suddenly jerk to the right and the car began to spin. I remember feeling paniced and then the car stopped with a deafening crunch and a sort of thud. The first thing I saw was just crumpled glass and a dashboard covered in glass fragments.

I tried to move and my legs were stuck against the steering column and the knee bolster. A van pulled over and I thought they were going to come help me, but the driver didn't even open the door. I think I saw him on his phone, but come help me! I screamed for him to help but he didn't move.

I managed to free my knees and got out of the car, screaming, "My baby," regarding the car. Later my mom told me the first cop that showed up thought I had a kid in the car. Um... oops. Not like I was exactly carefully thinking through my words at this point.

An ambulance showed up after the officer and I was checked over to be told I was fine besides the scrapes and all. Now I suffer from lower back and shoulder issues though. I also found I probably had a hairline fractured rib, but the x-ray didn't pick it up I guess.

The car moved the concrete pylon about an inch in the ground and I can only imagine how far it's sunk into the ground to keep the light pole from toppeling over in the wind.

I was later charged with careless driving and the cop told me he thought I was going 90mph.

EJ8_Man

You're still here. I think that's a testament. Anytime a ton of metal and steel hit an immobile object the result is never pretty.

What kind of new tires blew on you so I can boycott them for ever and ever? What did you replace your "baby" with?

94EG8

This thread is meant to be tech oriented and to focus on how we all need to chill out and drive more responsibly. Please do not move this thread to general discussion.

^ Guys, please keep this in mind. NOFX specifically asked me if she could post this here, and since this is to be a tech oriented discussion it will stay here unless it really veers off course. Thank you for your cooperation

NOFX

Yeah, I think hitting the concrete pillar really compares to some of the crash tests I've seen on these cars as well. Mine might be a tiny bit worse, but mine was real life too, not everything set up perfectly.

I got the tires put on at Delaware Tire Center in Dover, DE. I can't help but remember them as being BFGs or Goodyear, but looking at the new photos it looks like the left rear says "tiger" on the side.

I think the tire could have had a bubble in it, which I missed since I did not bother to inspect them before leaving. Anyone who checks on Google can see I only traveled about two miles before I crashed.

I was so impressed with being able to walk away from that that I replaced the car with a 1998 Civic EX coupe. Same color, same transmission. Basically the only difference was the new one didn't have mudguards.
Thanks.

tlarimer

iTrader: (3)

That's a testament to the structure of our little cars.

civichxtreme2

Wow glad you walked away from that, Your tires were uniroyal Tiger Paws btw, I had a friend who wasn as lucky, Civic hatch hit a guard rail in Florida ans the car basically split in half, he was DOA, unfortunate but he wasnt driving safely, Just a testament to using your head when behind the wheel

hatchnideas

i wonder how my mazda protege would do in such an accident... its survived two deer attacks (yes i got t-boned by two deer on separate occassions), and a near miss that sent me in the ditch backwards at 40+ mph, only ripping the tires off the wheels and messing up the alignment. this car seems to be built very stout as well.

NOFX

civichxtreme2, sorry to hear about your friend. My cousin died three years ago after a woman crossed the center line and hit him head on. She and her four children in the car died instantly. My cousin got out of the car before the two SUVs blew up and he died as well. Left behind three little boys and a wife. The woman left behind another child and her husband.

People need to learn to pay better attention and drive more responsibly. Even if seeing pics like this only make one person realize how easy it would have been that I could have died, that's good enough.

EJ8_Man

That's horrible... Cars are weapons and the human body is a frail thing. People don't realize this until they actually see it at someone elses expense. I know I started to re-think my driving habits after I saw some random guy walking home from work get hit by an SUV.

cool_breeze

Ouch, but its good to see you were ok. Hondas maybe small, but definitely safe.

apexi_rsx

damn im from Delaware too and know exactly where u wrecked it behind boscovs. that sucks that your insurance didn't wanna cover much of the cost of the vehicle. As for the van not getting out to help is typical for a Delaware driver ive been stranded a few times on the side of the road and about 40 cars would pass and not one would stop and ask to help. was your cousin the one that died in that accident on carpenter bridge road near ILC? i remember coming home that day seeing the one suv pass me that had to be in the accident by the time i got home it was on the news. i feel that i was quiet lucky it didn't happen to me as the accident was probably just minutes behind me as i drove through the area of the accident. im sorry to hear that.

NOFX

Damn! That's nuts if you really passed him or her. He was in the '04 Explorer ad she was in the '99 btw. Yes, that was Mike. He was a really awesome guy.

I hope, since this doesn't look like it's getting loads of anything tech related, that this ends in in appearance/cosmetic instead of gdd.