The damage:

...that's it. It could turn out to to be much more then just "it," but hopefully not.



in this pic and behind me:
one fire truck
one bylaw officer
three police cars
Fortis (light repair) truck
one sander
one tow truck
one other old guy who ran over the post after I knocked it over. He saved my ass, I will explain that in a second.
one outrageously hot girl who stopped to help. I unfortunately was too worried about my car to get her number. Like, she was crazy hot. girlfriend material haha

You can see the cop talking to me in the shadows on the bottom. I didn't think street lights fell over that easy, it ripped right out of the ground and did no damage to my car. But, it fell backwards onto the road and started bouncing around (it got probably a good ten feet of air, which includes the internet exagerration factor so it was more like the entire 900 pound thing was about six feet off the ground) and now it is bent halfway up its length. While it was laying across the road, this old guy when into a four wheel slide and smashed up the front of his car and his radiator but he kept driving over it and then got stuck on top of it. It was kinda my fault, but when you have a 19 year old kid and a 85 year old man in the same accident doing the same thing (sliding out of control) odds are the roads just sucked complete ass.. since I wasn't speeding and old people always go 15 under the limit, which was 50km/h (30mph and he was probably going about 22)

Realizing people were even dumber then I thought (at about the same time I had an epiphany and realized I was way dumber then I thought), I ran up to start telling people to slow down since its a blind corner, but I almost got run over by some tool in a minivan and everybody else started sliding all over the place anyway. You can see the tracks from the van in question to the left of the black car, behind mine. Barely. The fact that three cars went completely out of control here probably helped with me not getting any tickets.

Then they shut down and rerouted traffic. I got about ten phone calls in 5 minutes wondering what was going on, condolences from some and jibs and jabs from buddies, you know how it is. The tunnel was probably icier then it has ever been in three years, I was only going 50 and my back end started sliding out aiming me towards the massive concerete wall you see on the right, so I steered the other way but at this point I was on sheer hockey rink ice so there was nothing I could do but hit the curb and the post.

Damage to my car? The body is totally fine! Hitting a light post does fuck all do your car, apparently. No damage to anything painted, not even a crack in the bumper, nothing, no scratches even. The only damage you can see in the first pic, the front wheel is about 4" behind where it usually is and the rim is wrecked. I'm thinking lower control arm and an axle so far, but at least I can give to my mechanic (who I trust) instead of a body shop (and I don't trust any of them in this town). I might have wrecked the strut too, but I have new ones on the way anyways, and the part I am most worried about is my differential. Steering is fine, somehow.

The adrenaline rush is worth it right now, but I expect a straight haymaker to my pocketbook coming tomorrow morning when I find out the extent of the mechanical damage, and apparently those street lights are really, really expensive, so that will probably hurt too.

Apparently, I was lucky. It could have played out more like this:



I'm not asking for a pity party, but sharing helps me feel better.

I really hope you don't have to pay for that light pole.

Originally posted by pr0
I really hope you don't have to pay for that light pole.

Lmao, yes, that is rediculous.

You ass! I saw the first pic and was like :shrug don't look too bad, then as I'm reading, I catch a glimpse of the 3rd pic and thought thats what the rest of the car looked like! :whoa Then I saw the header... :P
Edit: In the shadows, it looks like your flipping off the cop.

Ouch. I've almost lost it in the cold/ice/snow many times. I was young (still am, 22, but not as naieve as I used to be) and had a 90 Skylark... I had that thing sideways and almost got t-boned by a guard rail!!! Yes, I was sideways and the tires got traction, so I started going off of the road sideways into a guardrail, that would have ended the car, and me, but luckily I somehow got the car straightened out.

I've had many other incidences, like last year, going to my parents for christmas... BAD snowstorm and I had the Talon... I luckily made it safely.

Moral of the story... When the weather get's very slick, I drive like granny because I know my car's limits, and I not only value my car, but I value my life and the others that I might accidentally kill.

That's one of the things why I wanted AWD...

Originally posted by T_K
That's one of the things why I wanted AWD...

awd does not save your ass when all four wheels are on ice..

Originally posted by saikou

Originally posted by pr0 I really hope you don't have to pay for that light pole.

Lmao, yes, that is rediculous.

Not shure what its like in your province but in Ontario the city will send you a bill for the light pole.

At least you have a shiny new gMail account. :P

around here in Kansas and Missouri, if a pot hole does damage to your car, you can call the city and threaten to sue for roads not being road worthy. I know of a few incidents where the city winded up forking over a couple hundred bucks for some suspension and wheels. You could try it out if the city sends you a bill for the light.

Originally posted by Erik
around here in Kansas and Missouri, if a pot hole does damage to your car, you can call the city and threaten to sue for roads not being road worthy. I know of a few incidents where the city winded up forking over a couple hundred bucks for some suspension and wheels. You could try it out if the city sends you a bill for the light.

good plan
Three cars went off the road here and I would assume that them sanding it immediately after this accident could constitute something of an admittance of guilt, so I think I could run with that

was there more to the accident than just the suspension components getting fucked up? did u scratch any of the paint?

I'm glad to hear you are of, so is it totaled?

Originally posted by eclipse_99rs
I'm glad to hear you are of, so is it totaled?

dunno yet ...going to find out this afternooon.

but yeah, zero paint damage. I won't know for sure until I wash it, but no dirt got scraped off so I don't think it is very likely the paint got scraped off either.

my car is probably a write-off, bent the subframe, underbody, and every suspension component on that side is toast.

...pete i really really really want to buy doug's car from you now, I've got a nice set of 18s and new coilovers to put on it :D

So you need a junkyard front crossmember, lower control arm, lower trailing arm, strut assembly, strut fork, and an alignment?

Ouch man.

Originally posted by DarkOne
So you need a junkyard front crossmember, lower control arm, lower trailing arm, strut assembly, strut fork, and an alignment? Ouch man.

Is our front crossmember unique to our car or is it interchangeable with the one from the Sebrings and Avengers like a lot of other stuff is? I don't know anything about our chassis, would I need to weld this new crossmember in or does it bolt on like it does in old school unibody Camaros and firebirds?

How fast were you going? I hopped a curb and killed a handicapped sign going about 45mph (conservative estimate) and all that needed to be replaced was the lower control arms, though a shop told me the subframe was toast cause they don't understand the concept of a control arm that will give to save the frame. Check it out yourself, don't write the car off yet.

Originally posted by Keith2172
How fast were you going? I hopped a curb and killed a handicapped sign going about 45mph (conservative estimate) and all that needed to be replaced was the lower control arms, though a shop told me the subframe was toast cause they don't understand the concept of a control arm that will give to save the frame. Check it out yourself, don't write the car off yet.

I was going about 30mph and the passenger wheel took the hit full-on

So is your car turbo still? or did you take your set up off?

naw I took it all off and sold my turbo and wastegate. still have the mani though, and if I do end up fixing it, it will still be getting turbod down the road

What made you change your mind?

Originally posted by ScreaminE
What made you change your mind?

I decided to stop being a pussy and tough it out haha

that sucks! I remember one time a couple of friends of mine was in a pos ford aspire and I was sitting in the backseat with my G/f at the time and the chick driving thought it would be funny to weave around on the interstate going about 80 mph. Well needless to say she swerved a little too much and went off the road, came back on the road cause she jerked the wheel to the right, then we started doing doughnuts on the interstate and hit a mile marker post. we landed off in some trees about 500 or so feet away from the interstate. when they pulled it out, we all thought that it would have to be towed home, hell no that sob started right up and I had to drive it home, cause i was the most stable of the three of us. Man that was some scarry shit.

The car should be fine...