I was driving on a very busy road after leaving from work, traffic was the usual rush hour deal - heavy. I was just cruising with the windows down, doing the normal drive back. Definitely not trying to recreate scenes from the Fast and the Furious.

I'm in the left lane doing about 30-35mph(speed limit is 40 I think) and this big Explorer or Expedition sized SUV is in front of me so I really can't see the low hanging traffic lights all that well(but I am still about 1.5-2 cars from his bumper). There is one for each lane, and I can only clearly see the one hanging over the right lane. No red light and traffic is still moving along nicely, so I extrapolate that it must be a green light. Suddenly I realize the light is completely out - no useful colors to tell me what the hell is going on.

Then it all happens. The SUV in front of me violently swerves into the turn lane. I thought he was going to flip, so obviously my attention was turned towards him. I look forward and see a green 5th generation Accord braking pretty hard. I pucker my ******* up and put both feet in and hope my RE71's save me just in time. They're about 30-40ft up(very rough estimate), brakes on, ABS kicks in and I'm scrubbing off speed at a pretty good rate, everything slows down and for a minute(or what seemed like one) I think I'm going to make it. Then I realize I'm going to hit them, so I brace for the impact.

BOOM! I see my hood come up and airbags go off. Never even came close to touching the airbag(which smell like *** BTW), and my right arm was only red for about 30 seconds, although I constantly hear that airbags usually hurt worse than the actual crash in anything under 30mph. Guess all those push-ups at the gym paid off. I vaguely recall lots of screeching continuing to happen all around, and see the guy behind me literally 6" off my bumper. Guess he had some pucker-effect as well.

Anyway - I get out and look at their car - figure I hit them going about 15mph or so, wasn't that violent(given the distance of braking, and having been in a few <5mph hits it definitely wasn't some 30mph+ crash). I survey the damage of their car - bumper cover is slightly pushed in on the bottom, kinda scuffed up. Muffler tip is bent down about 1"(which the lady who's car it was, but wasn't driving, was freaking out about) . Really minor damage overall. Then I take in what happened to my car. I pretty much sat there in shock and couldn't grasp how my car got so fucked.

My hood was buckled up into almost a perfect U shape sitting up about 1.5' in the middle - couldn't open it. Front bumper was crushed down - all four headlights smashed. Front fenders very slightly bent at the front. Looks like bumper support was slightly ripped from the frame(downward bending moment when it was designed for a compressive impact). Radiator is leaning badly towards the engine(pretty much on the header). Power steering fluid is shooting out all over the place(it looks like the pump might be ripped of the block). See some antifreeze, but can't find a big leak. The windshield got cracked major from the passenger side airbag. There was fluid all over my valve cover - but I couldn't tell what kind it was. Probably PS fluid, but might be coolant.

Not sure if the frame was bent, but I've driven my car without powersteering before, and the wheel was seriously 2-3x harder to turn. My car was also making these sickly wheezing sounds. Which could be the PS pump, but it really didn't sound good.

The driver of the Accord admitted he "stopped kinda hard because he didn't realize it was red due to the one red light on the right being out." Which is stretching the truth a little, since I'm pretty sure his rear bumper was still raised up from his "pretty hard stop" when I hit him. He was from out of town, and I guess he just didn't realize that slamming on brakes to avoid going through a light that just turned red is kinda stupid in rush hour traffic. Oh well - sucks for me. The SUV driver that blew through the light never stopped - nor did any witnesses(******* Atlanta).

I got it towed to the local Acura dealership just down the road, so I guess I'll get a better idea of what's going on tomorrow.

I think back and there was really no other way to react. I guess I could have gone in the turn lane, but vaguely recall cars being already in there(long turn lane). It is very heavy traffic pretty much bumper to bumper so there is really no "out." And believe me - I always try to keep in my mind a place to go if something happens. Which is probably why I haven't caused a wreck... yet. It seemed like I was given no option but throw the anchor, and it wasn't quite enough.

So I'm pretty much fucked, and am wondering if they're going to total the car?

It is a 98 Integra GS with 50k miles on it - in very good condition. I don't think the suspension is damaged, but things were torn up on top of the engine bay, and I didn't really look under it all that much. The combination of adrenaline and seeing my car like that about made me puke. This ranks up there on "The list of shitty things to experience in life."

Sorry for the kinda long post - but I keep going over it in my mind.

 

Can you post any pics?

 

if its totaled try to recover as much parts as you can

 

you probably reacted much quicker than the other drivers

it's always interesting to hear about crashes since they could happen to any of us. Heck, I even keep a couple of pages on them...

http://hogens.com/car/default.php?pa...cked/index.php

 

No pics - but it was pretty bad. I'm still amazed that all that damaged happened at about 15mph. I know all about how velocity is second order with regards to kinetic energy, but this was pretty minor as far as energy transferred. I've got a bruise on my knee, and the passenger was saying his neck was a little sore, but later said he was fine.

Their rear bumper hit a few inches higher than my front bumper, thus all the damage. Oh yea - my car is not lowered at all. Only mods are front/rear strut bars and rear swaybar. Otherwise all stock.

Do they total the car if the repairs exceed 50% of the car's value?



[Modified by Def, 6:58 PM 9/30/2002]

 

I'm always a pretty alert driver, and have only become moreso since autocrossing alot. But I feel that I would have been a few milliseconds faster if I didn't just get off a 10 hr shift. Oh well - work is one of those necessary evils.

Time to medicate my bruised ego with some beer...

 

i hate big SUVs. they need to discontinue those big POS. a SUV hit and run me and my girl in her integ and we totalled the car from crashing into 2 walls.

your car MIGHT be totalled... depending mainly on the value of your car. figure out the bluebook value... and estimate how much damage was done to it.

 

I'm thinking the damage is going to at least be $4k, if not higher.

Do they go by trade-in, private party or retail on the value? If it's trade in, it might come REALLY close.

 

that sucks...time for a JDM front end??


[Modified by ITRmike98, 10:30 PM 9/30/2002]

 

While I really like the JDM front end, I just couldn't see me putting that on my Integra.

The thing that really bums me out is that I was looking at purchasing a '95 BMW E36 M3 really soon and going to sell my car. Now I might be lucky to keep up with my increased insurance premiums. Such is life...

btw a few definitely helped make the situation seem much less severe

 

if its totaled and your gonna part it out drop me a line, i might buy some parts from you.

 

At least you didnt roll it like i rolled mine.

 

Well - I went to the body shop and had a look at the car with someone that works there. They're thinking it's going to be a very close call on if the car is totalled. But they were saying it was 70% of a car's value, while I've always heard 50% of the car's value.

Got a better look at the damage
-Front bumper is toast
-all 4 headlights and most of the headlight assemblies are shattered
-Condensor looks like toast
-Radiator might be as well
-Power steering pump is broken clean off the block(guess it's somewhere in the engine bay)
-Hood is crumpled - front of the fenders are bent, but otherwise in good shape

And here's the real spicy part:
-The front core support(basically the front part of the frame) is literally ripped to shreds.

After getting a good look at it, I have no idea if they'll even be able to replace damage like that. I do hope it gets totalled, because I don't want to deal with selling the car which I will definitely do. After seeing that much damage on my car just because a normal sized car hit a little above the bumper support, I feel really unsafe. If that had been an SUV or truck I think it might have gone all the way into the passenger cabin. My life is up there on the priority list, so I definitely want a more substantial car.

Oh yea - I will try to get a digital camera and post some pics tomorrow.


[Modified by Def, 3:37 PM 10/1/2002]