Fess Up, first wrecks

I don't actually remember my first accident, probably from the head trauma. The circumstances were a bit strange and we only know what happened, not exactly why. My best guess is that I simply fell asleep, but I don't remember being tired.

Here goes - it was the summer between my junior and senior years of high school and I was just about to turn 17. I was on 45 min drive home from a friends house around 10pm. I remember about the first 20 minutes of that drive, but the accident happened less than 5 minutes from my house..

From my perspective, I was on a drive then I woke up at dawn in what looked like a forest. My vision was really blurry so it was hard to tell where I was. No signs of civilization though. The only pain I remember was trying to get out of the car and stand up. I couldn't stand because my hips were broken and I fell into the shallow creek the car was sitting in. I was in a small creek bed with a road overpass far above me. I tried to call for help, but my face was pretty messed up and I couldn't pronounce anything. That's when I realized I was going to die down there if I didn't do anything and started climbing. I don't remember any pain from that climb either, but once I got to the top I managed to stand up until a car finally stopped (a few passed by - I can only imagine what I looked like). Once the old white pickup stopped I just passed out until days after all my surgeries.

Turns out I went straight when I should have turned slightly left onto a bridge. From the police calculations the car was airborne for more than 40 ft as it flew into the other side of the embankment, which then it fell another 25ft down. I guess I was down there for about 7 hours before I woke up.

My hips and collarbone were broken, but the worst was my face. It hit the steering wheel, bending the column 20ish degerees. My right eye socket and cheekbone were shattered, my right upper maxilla (holds your upper teeth) broke off of my skull completely, and my jaw was broken in two places. Somehow my nose came out unscathed.

I'm lucky to be alive and I had a brilliant facial surgeon, so no one is the wiser really. Plenty of metal in my head though. Funny thing, I wasn't really into cars or driving fast until after the accident. Blame it on a lust-for-life-glad-to-be-alive-feeling I guess.

Was in my integra on PCH, right in front of Pepperdine. Made an illegal U-turn just as the light changed red. Guy in a BMW ran it, t-boned me. His car flipped onto the passenger side and was stopped from plummeting into the ocean by the guard rail. I got pushed back into the lane I had just turned from, facing the wrong way.

Both cars were totaled. We both walked away with whiplash and minor bruises. Paramedics said it was a great example of seatbelts and airbags savings lives. The irony was that I had driven a foxbody mustang around for 3 years with completely bald tires without incident. Owned the much newer, much better maintained Integra for about 6 months before totaling it.

Second time driving my dad's Corvette when I was in high school (driving a Stealth RT/TT at the time, mind you). It was a Saturday, I was heading to school in the afternoon for closing night of the play I was stage managing, girlfriend next to me, good music, great weather. Life is good.

Until I stomped on the gas making the right turn out of my subdivision - an action that wouldn't have produced any drama in the Stealth, where turbo lag would have delayed the power until I had it straightened out, and AWD would have cleaned up any mistakes I made. The back end stepped out to the left a bit before traction control "caught it" just as I began to correct, causing the tail to snap back to the right, towards a rather deep C4 sized ditch which we backed into at a high rate of speed. Not 50 yards down the road.

Fortunately, no injuries aside from a goose egg on my girlfriend's forehead from the garage door opener popping off when we abruptly parked in the ditch. She attests that to this day, she's never heard me drop the f-bomb as much as that day - which is really saying something in my case.

$7k in damage later (and that summer spent working off the insurance deductible at my dad's office), he still has the Vette, and I still have the girlfriend - not to mention a healthy respect for low-end torque and RWD.

Was driving my dad's '81 Datsun station wagon in the right lane of a four lane road with a turn lane. Suddenly realized I needed to be in the turn lane, slowed and changed lanes without checking the mirrors. You can guess the rest - the car behind me was going too fast to stop. The Datsun was still drivable, although the subframe was twisted and one back door wouldn't open. Other car was smashed pretty badly, but nobody was hurt.

First... within hours of getting my license I backed my moms' Saab 9-5 into a mailbox.

First real one... too fast, snow on top of ice = full sideways into ditch, clipping stump with the nose and spinning back into the road.

Young and stupid.

3 days before graduating from HS after graduation practice 6 of us decided to make a run down to a local store for a Coke. Myself and two friends were in my parents 83 900s and there were three other guys in a Datsun 610 coupe. The road out to the store was two lane and fairly straight with sagebrush on each side tall enough in some places to hide a car.

The guys in the 610 decide to see who could get tot he store the fastest and of course I did not want to be last, and I was in front already, so I took off. We come around a slight bend, the speedo was pegged at 85, and in the middle of the road is another guy from our class in his Bratt. He is stopped stradling the yellow line. Not wanting to t bone the Bratt I go off to the right side of the road with the right wheels in the sand. I make it around the Subi and think to myself, that was close I should get the car back on the road before I hit a pole.

I turn left, get on the hardball and then procede to slide across the road, into the ditch on the other side. The left front wheel diggs into the sand and the car flipps corner over corner and lands back on its wheels.

Thankfully no one was hurt aside from some glass cuts, those classic 900 SAABs are strong, but the car was totalled and I lost my DL for 6 weeks. The CHP said I was doing about 83 mph when I slid across the road, stupid, very stupid. I learned my lesson and have never did anything like that again.

The only good thing that came out of that wreck was that a friend of my dad was going on TDY the next week and let me have his original Super Seven while he was away. I asked him why he was letting me use the car after what I did and he told me a story about ripping the roof off of a Barracuda power shifting on a wet road in his younger days.

thestig99 wrote: First... within hours of getting my license I backed my moms' Saab 9-5 into a mailbox. First real one... too fast, snow on top of ice = full sideways into ditch, clipping stump with the nose and spinning back into the road.

Are you the Stig's Egyptian Cousin that has never seen this white stuff falling from the sky?

And I thought all Saab/Volvo's had automatic winter driving features......

In Fall of 1968, when I was a freshman in college, I rolled this black VW in the parking lot where this picture was taken. Destroyed it.
In fact it was only a few days after this photo was taken.
I had just driven the thing back from the Watkins Glen F1 race and I was doing donuts in the parking lots with two friends in the car. I guess I was pumped after watching Graham Hill, Piers Courage, etc.
It was at night and a friend of mine who was walking out saw the headlights going in a circle. I still get teased about it.

By this time, I had already had plenty of "woods car" wrecks. I lived in the South Jersey Pine Barrens and most of us had old jalopys we drove through the woods by the time we were 14. One time I flipped a Simca Aronde over onto its left side doors and the darn thing kept skidding along at about 20 mph until it smashed into a tree....and then it righted itself.
Another time I bend a Renault Daulphine around a tree so bad it looked like a banana. Still drove, but steered funny.

82 Ford EXP, in a dtich, with a log

I was a young inexperienced driver and when a pontiac 6000 crested a hill in the middle of the road I over reacted, tired went off the road, I overcorrected shot across the road into said ditch only to be stopped by said huge ass log

Taking a hand off of a joint while going around a turn in my RX-7 and having the inside wheel dip off into a gully sending the rear end a drifting through one turn and opposite the other turn and finishing it out with just enough momentum to skim a tree and get stuck in a pile of leaves.... that subsequently caught on fire while trying to get it unstuck.... damn catalytic converters.

In TN you can get your restricted motorcycle license at 14. I was 14, on my new 89 Honda NX 125, and a car leaving a grocery store pulled out in front of me, then their car stalled. I swerved to go around and they got the car started back up and took off, so basically pulled in front of me again.....nowhere to go this time and I hit the car right where the rear door meets the quarter. I flew over the car and hit the ground....bike still running. I hop up and go over, shut the bike off and just stand there in the middle of the road. I see a guy running out will a roll of paper towels wondering what those are for, then I see my hand and notice my left hand pinkie is in bad shape...close to severed. The cops come and take me to the hospital in the cop car, they bring a surgeon in for the pinkie action, and I have physical therapy on my pinkie for a good while after that to get it straight(er). It's still crooked, and I wish it had just severed it because it's annoying as is, but other than that and a few bruises I was fine. I still have that bike too.

I have only had 2 accidents, neither my fault but neither were minor either.

I was driving home from college and crossing the bridge over the Monongahela River on I-70 in a snow storm. Bridge was 4 lanes but had snow piled up on each side and the center form snow plows. Was taking it easy and doing fine untill I saw the car about 10 car lengths in front of me spin and end up sideways blocking both lanes. As soon as I touched the brakes I could feel the car slide on the icy road.

So I cut the wheel to the left and tapped the gas so I ended up sliding sideway toward the stopped car. Managed to slide to a stop 3 feet from the other car without hitting anything. As I was sitting there congratulating myself on my skillful driving I got T-boned by a car that had been following me. It drove my car into the one that I had managed to avoid hitting. The first car had one side all bent, my car was damaged on both sides and the car that hit me had the front end smashed in. The only person who got hurt was the driver of the car that hit me who broke his nose on the steering wheel.

Second accident was much worse. On my way to work in my Alfa that I had just bought 2 weeks before as a college graduation present. Stopped at a 4-way stop, looked around, and the only car I could see was coming from my left about 15 car lengths from the stop sign. So I proceded to pull across the intersection. BIG MISTAKE!!! Driver of the car on the left was drunk and blew right thru the stop at what the police determined was 15 mph over the speed limit. T-boned me causing my head to hit the side window shatteing my sun glasses into my eye and knocking me unconsious. Woke up 3 days later in the hospital tied to the bed with my eyes bandaged shut. I ended up losing the sight in my left eye and the driver who hit me permanently lost his license since this was his 3rd DUI accident.

I was 16 and driving my father's Renault Alliance down a highway entrance ramp to get on the interstate, when a deer hopped over the guardrail and then stood in the road in front of me. I swerved, got into a bit of snow and ice and wound up putting the back tail light into the guardrail.

My father didn't believe there were even deer in the area, much less involved in the wreck and was sure I was going way, way too fast or otherwise being an idiot. Two weeks later we passed a deer dead on the side of the road in right about the same spot.

The lesson I learned was to just hit the stupid deer instead of trying to go around it, since the insurance claim on that is comprehensive and not collision.

Day I got my license, 17, in my parent's 99 4runner making a left turn onto a 4 lane road, clear except a woman driving her minivan in the right lane, who decided to change lanes into the lane I was aiming for right as I was halfway into the lane already. Deemed both our faults.

18, leaving work at 4am, backed my months old IS300 into a handrail in the parkinglot that took out a taillight and damaged the quarter panel. Stupid me thought that I was looking at the outside rail, it wasn't.

Most spectacular one; 18/19 Decided to try canyon carving for the first time, trying to follow a more experienced driver, again in my IS300 (following his IS) we had a nice drive through Mulholland and then hit up Aliso/Soledad canyon, keeping up ok, hit a series of blind corners and sharper turns with elevation change, what he later described as being similar to the "Corkscrew" at Laguna Seca, my car got a little airborn after the last turn and my inexperience led me to tap the brake ever so slightly which caused my car to spin sideways into a milemarker and down the side of the mountain. No flips, passenger seat airbag went off due to the milemarker, climbed up the mountain and he came back, called a CHP and towed the car out. Totalled. Young, inexperienced and full of gasoline.

Have had 1 accident since, not my fault, guy in left turn lane suddenly decided he wanted to go straight and changed lanes/rammed me after I had passed him. Didn't see it coming, couldn't avoid it even if I had. Well 3 more if you count the girl who back into me at the mall and the man who recently bumped me at a stoplight. No damage from those two, though.

My first one was about 3 weeks ago.

Got my license when I was 17... and went 16 years without an accident/wreck/collision

thestig99 wrote:

My old Saab GM 900 looked something like that after I spun out on a two lane, left-hand overpass in 2006. I was running late for work at the mall and the roads were slushy. About halfway up the overpass, I felt the car oversteer towards the left guardrail. I couldn't countersteer because an SUV was running alongside me, so all I could do is put both feet in and hold on. WHUMP! The entire front left corner was sheared off by the guardrail. Surprisingly, the airbags never deployed, and I was able to start the car, so I sheepishly nursed the car to the darkest corner of the mall parking lot and went to work. The next day I scraped together $800 to have the radiator and left headlight replaced, and I drove the Saab like that through the rest of the winter until I could replace it. The mechanic suggested I yank the crunched bumper out using a chain tied to a tree, but TBH I hated that car anyways and wrecking it was a good excuse to replace it. Lessons learned - take it easy in winter and buy snow tires!

That wasn't my first accident- a year earlier I spun my S13 coupe off the road on a rainy day- but it was the first one where my car got damaged. The S13 was stuck in the mud but other than my pride nothing was damaged that time.

Really haven't had any wrecks (was in a bad one as a kid though). Did do a j-turn leaving work late one night and clipped my fender on a cement pillar. That was in my first car, a Nissan Micra. Picked up another fender at the wrecker's for $50.

I had a lady not paying attention run a red and nail the area between the back wheel and rear bumper of the truck (work truck) I was driving. That one was deemed not my fault as I had the green arrow when I started to make the turn.

Second one was the work van I had gotten to replace the truck. I to this day swear I had the green light but it was late and I was tired. Other driver said I ran the red, I said I wasn't 100% sure but thought I had the green. The cop put I said I ran the red and I lost my job for it.

Third was in my work truck (I own this one) while not at work. Lady pulled out from a shopping center in her newer Sante Fe. She looked like she was not going to stop but then stopped in the first traffic lane. I braked but no ABS (88 dakota) slid into her drivers fender/door. Messed up the bumper, hood, and broke all the plastic grille stuff on the truck, basically cosmetic. Pretty sure she needed a door and fender and maybe a pull on the A pillar. Made more on the insurance claim than I paid for the truck. Fixed it myself.

One dumbass mistake from being a kid though. I had a 69 D100 sweptline shortbed with a slant six and a three on the tree that the PO had converted to a crappy floor shift with a hurst conversion stick. It had a tendency to either be in gear when you thought it was in neutral, or hang up in two gears at once. I also had an issue with the ignition switch that required you to jump the fender mounted starter relay with a screwdriver. I was at home trying to get it to start, it started but was still in reverse. Went about 15 feet turned sharp to the left and backed itself into a giant oak tree and stalled. Try explaining a large dent in the bed. I replaced the bed and eventually swapped a 318 with a big purple cam, headers and a 727 into it. Then later yanked the engine/trans and scrapped the body.

I swerved to avoid an oncoming car in my lane early one morning. Too bad I was 17 and the back tires on my 4 year old 94 Z28 were very bald. Put it rear axle deep into a pine tree. I haven't had a car that relatively new since.

thestig99 wrote: First... within hours of getting my license I backed my moms' Saab 9-5 into a mailbox.

First one I had to deal with was not mine. Junior in HS and my Mom backed out of the driveway into my GF's truck that was parked at the curb on the opposite side of the street. I have since learned that that was at least the 3rd backing up w/o looking crash Mom had and I know of at least one crash and one near miss backing up since...

And, no I don't have photos of the GF or the damage to her truck. It was a late 70's Toyota longbed 1 ton. Knowing her Dad, it's probably still running.

Short story, missed a deer, hit the tree, backwards.

Long story. 2004, I was 20, car was my '88 Accord. It had E36 M3 brakes and worn out snows. On my second day at the local CC when I was driving in, there was a deer in the road. Knowing that my brakes where bad, and not having a horn, I thought it was a good idea to lane change and go past it. Then it decided to move into my new lane. At that point I went to swerve back and hit the brakes. except my foot slipped and I floored the gas instead and the tail end broke loose. Snapped the wheel the other way to correct and the whole car pulled a 180. I flew of the road backwards, at 60. I 'grazed' a tree on the drivers side, and it pushed the driver door in 6". I hate to think what would have happened if I hit the tree square 'Back-on' at 60.

yamaha wrote:

thestig99 wrote: First... within hours of getting my license I backed my moms' Saab 9-5 into a mailbox. First real one... too fast, snow on top of ice = full sideways into ditch, clipping stump with the nose and spinning back into the road.

Are you the Stig's Egyptian Cousin that has never seen this white stuff falling from the sky? And I thought all Saab/Volvo's had automatic winter driving features......

I've lived in northern VT all my life... am no stranger to snow. But who cares about road conditions at 16, anyway?

I had a couple real minor ones early on. Bounced my Mom's 240 wagon off a snow bank (no damage to anything) and clipped the fender of my Dad's contour on a basketball post. But the first bad one was wrecking my GF's '98 Avalon. Spun it into a guard rail at 50-60 mph while driving her home from college in a big snow storm. Had to spend a couple grand to get it going again. That was super E36 M3ty, though we were both fine. It was probably 3 years after I got my licence and until then, I though I was the best driver in the snow. I used to drift around all night in an old AE86 or my mom's supercharged, alltrac minivan. That was a pretty good wake-up call.

A few years after that, the engine 'asploded on my MR2 while I was moving out of my apartment after leaving GM. The car burned to the ground on the interstate along with everything I owned, other than my cell phone, the clothes on my back, and one pair of socks. Not really a traffic accident, but still pretty crappy. It took about 3 hours and 2 fire tankers worth of water to put it out.

Here's my race helmet - whatdda know real carbon fiber?

And my 2 laptops that were in the car:

Fun times. It was pretty neat examining a totally torched car though. The ECU was particularly awesome. It was mounted vertically on the firewall and the steel case was still intact, but all the solder had melted, seeped out of the case and re-solidified on the floor of the trunk in a big puddle.

Oh, and the best part - the NY State Highway Dept. tried to bill me $2,000 to repave the section of highway that the car burned down on. What nice folks, huh?

Mine was kinda stupid teenager stuff. I was really into straight-line racing. When I would wear out the rear tires, they would go on the front of my Trans Am. I always kept the grippy ones in the back, so handling was comprimised, but launches were optimal... I tried to slide around a corner, and the car started to drift and then pushed. I hit a curb, perfectly square on and it flipped the car onto its side. The car never went all the way over which was confusing at the time, but then I looked up. Through the t-tops i could read the word "GOD" from a church sign that somehow caught the car. My friends and I scrambled out and then pushed the car onto all 4's. We left the scene as people were trying to figure out what they just saw. The car was pretty beat, I was dragging the passenger front wheel bent back and out to the side. The top and side had some minimal scuffs and the front suspension needed some new goodies, but all was good.

...and I learned a lesson.