Almost lost another one!

[y4ngel]

I'll try to illustrate my adventure from this morning as much as possible. I'm on my way home from work during AM traffic on a very busy 4 lane road with a median. Traffic comes to a dead stop and I look in my rear-view mirror and see a red Camry stopped behind me, she then starts turning right ever so slightly and then I hear this huge BOOM! I see a flash of red going past my passenger side rear window and see this white pile (pictured above) coming towards me at ludicrous speed.

At this point I'm bracing for impact, trying my hardest to move as much forward as I possibly can. Palms are sweaty, knees weak, arms are heavy. Vomit on my sweater already, Mom’s spaghetti.

The first thing that flashed in my head was that PMM Type R that got rear ended and wondering how long it would take for a rear bumper to get here; because I'm sure I'm going to have to get at least get that replaced. Somehow this Maxima behind me comes to a complete stop in what seems like record pace, I even went to look to see if he had some sort of aftermarket brakes installed. (Of course not) My first instinct was to pull forward, I could have swore he at least tapped me because I thought I heard something (did not FEEL anything).



This is a picture of how close he was to me after I pulled up quite a bit, imagine having the red Camry in between that space. You can see part of her rear bumper to the right.


The above picture is how far she got pushed forward from the impact.

So a few lucky things happened.

a) The lady behind me in the red Camry was changing lanes, if she wasn't the impact from his car would have for sure hit me. Had she finished changing lanes the guy would have for sure hit me at full speed. I asked her about this and she wasn't sure if she was changing lanes just to change or if she was trying to avoid him. She was unclear about this part and appeared a little shaken up, she said she saw him coming and knew he wasn't going to stop in time.

b) There was no car in the right lane. This was 7:30AM going towards Charlotte so traffic was heavy, if there was a car to the right lane the red Camry would have for sure been pushed back into me.

c) I was able to move just a hair forward enough to avoid her car scrapping my right bumper, she was turned ever so slightly enough right so the impact didn't clip me.

d) No one was hurt in any way.


I got out and made sure everyone was not hurt, parked my car off to the side road and came back to take some more pictures.



You can tell from this picture just how far she got pushed forward, not really sure if she even hit her brakes tbh.



Not a lot of damage to her car surprisingly, I think that bumper that fell off must have taken most of the damage.




If you look ever so closely you can see a piece of her paint stuck in my rear bumper, there were a few other pieces that I brushed off.




Luckily for me nothing was damaged, I gave them my contact information just in case and left before the police showed up. GOD THOSE FAKE REAR VENTS ARE UGLY.

 

[augustus]

WOW. I'm glad everyone is alright. It's eery when something comes that close to happening! Go play the lotto!

 

[S2k_Dude]

Nice story, glad everyone is okay and your car made it out without a scratch. Makes me wonder what the driver in the Maxima was doing, clearly not paying attention, he's lucky he didn't injure people due to his lack of driving. It's disappointing to me how many people get in a car and their main focus is not the task at hand.

Just the other day, a friend of mine said, "you know how sometimes you are driving to work and you are thinking about other things and you realize you don't even remember how you got to work?", to which I said no, this has never happened to me, I am 100% focused on driving when I am behind the wheel.

 

[zroger73]

Crap. I ate spaghetti earlier - I hope that's not an omen.

On distracted driving, Texas recently passed a "no texting" law that goes into effect in a few weeks. Just a few days ago, there was an older lady driving an Accord that was swerving and holding up traffic at 30 MPH on a 60 MPH, rural, two-lane highway. When I was finally able to safely pass, I looked over and saw her pecking away on a clamshell feature phone (pre-smartphone era using T9 text input for you youngsters that started out with Apple and Android smartphones). People won't stop this deadly practice and I'm afraid it's going to get worse because instead of them holding their phones above the steering wheel with at least a partial view ahead, they're going to try and hide their act from the police by holding the phone down completely taking their eyes off the road.

 

[S2k_Dude]

Crap. I ate spaghetti earlier - I hope that's not an omen.

On distracted driving, Texas recently passed a "no texting" law that goes into effect in a few weeks. Just a few days ago, there was an older lady driving an Accord that was swerving and holding up traffic at 30 MPH on a 60 MPH, rural, two-lane highway. When I was finally able to safely pass, I looked over and saw her pecking away on a clamshell feature phone (pre-smartphone era using T9 text input for you youngsters that started out with Apple and Android smartphones). People won't stop this deadly practice and I'm afraid it's going to get worse because instead of them holding their phones above the steering wheel with at least a partial view ahead, they're going to try and hide their act from the police by holding the phone down completely taking their eyes off the road.

Sad state of driving right now. I feel the only way distracted driving will improve is if all cell phone makers shut down data functions while the vehicle is in motion, allowing only calls. It's also amazing how many people with new cars don't even use the hands free BT connection standard on most, if not all new cars.

 

[wmo168]

Wow $200k for a Townhome,... very cheap...

Here you can't even buy a new Townhome for $350k...

Did you try to buff out the paint on her car from your bumper yet?

 

[CTR_Gavin]

Yang, I'm super glad that nothing happened to your car and that everyone is ok. That definitely looks like it could have been just as bad as the PMM R that got hit.

 

[y4ngel]

Wow $200k for a Townhome,... very cheap...

Here you can't even buy a new Townhome for $350k...

Did you try to buff out the paint on her car from your bumper yet?

The paint isn't really on my car since she never actually brushed against me. It was only little pieces of paint that I assume flew off from the impact. I just picked them off.

I have no idea if he was texting or not, when I went back to check on him I couldn't really initially see inside his car because of the airbag smoke. He was still able to use his phone to call somebody though.

 

[slowride]

I can't tell you how many butthole puckering moments I have had when stopped at a light or something. No one pays attention due to these stupid phones.

 

[Ruckus]

yikes man this is horrifying, im glad everyone is okay and also your car didnt take any damage!

 

[elmoTK]

Every accident I ever got into, whether on a bicycle or car, first thing I think of is my bike or car OK. Even if half of my skin is hanging off my legs and arms.

 

[lunarsilver]

GOD THOSE FAKE REAR VENTS ARE UGLY.

100% agree, just hideous.

Sponsored