Yesterday morning my older son was merging onto the 401 and got cut off by some moron. The choices were Hit the moron or Swerve & hope. He swerved, and ended up a few seconds later facing the wrong way in the far left lane, having decisively smacked the concrete median twice, front and back on the right. He hit nobody and nobody hit him, thus using up a WHOLE BUNCH of anybody's lifetime luck. The moron kept on going, and I hope he doesn't do that to anybody else's kid, ever. (Like that's going to happen.)
The car, a 95 Taurus SE that my Dad bought new, is of course a writeoff. In dying, however, it saved my son's life and that of his girlfriend. He doesn't have a scratch. Neither does she, but she has a sore back. All the doors on the car open fine, and so does the trunk, even though about a quarter of it is squashed to nothing. Bottom line: I owe somebody (probably a whole team of somebodys) at Ford a Big One for engineering the 2nd-Gen Taurus as well as they did.
If you're out there, guys: I'm buying.
the new Taurus is bigger (so it must be safer)
cwh
SuperDork
10/25/09 7:07 p.m.
Went through something similar but not nearly as bad, so thank the dieties that everybody is OK. There were lessons learned.
DrBoost
HalfDork
10/25/09 7:11 p.m.
Good thing your son and his girlfriend are ok. Glad to hear the car held up we also. That's about the nicest thing I have to say to/about Ford right now..............berkleying focus!
Yeah..um..I designed ALL the safety features on that car. I'm mighty thirsty too.
..I also designed the atomic reactor..and invented the internet because I hate talking on the phone....
oldsaw
HalfDork
10/25/09 9:02 p.m.
Some have not invented anything, but have rather advanced the art of prevarication.
But it is good to see that 90's safety technology still serves its' purpose. And don't discount luck and divine intervention, either.
Salanis
SuperDork
10/25/09 9:28 p.m.
Glad to hear. Probably time to invest in a Street Survival School for your son. Give him a nice chunk of skill to replace the expended luck.
I hate to say it, but, if it were me, I would probably tag the moron if it would have been safer for me than swerving and hoping.
Cut off you say? I would have PITed the bastard.
I did spend a while wondering about the hit-the-moron plan (I mean, it has an obvious attraction), but my wife pointed out that we have no way of knowing who/what was in that car (besides Captain Genius), or the one(s) that would have piled into the back of our son afterward.
Street Survival is an excellent plan. Anybody know if it's offered near Toronto? (If that's a laughably noob question, cut a Dad some slack on a tough weekend.)
Lesley
SuperDork
10/25/09 10:13 p.m.
Ian Law has a really good school
http://www.carcontrolschool.com/
I've taken many of his courses, from accident avoidance, advanced slalom, track school and winter driving. Excellent courses, I think they should be mandatory for anyone getting a license in Ontario.
Next time hit the moron. Then it's moron's fault, and not yours/your kids. Good job on him for missing everybody else and kudos to the Taurus for working as advertised. Ford's always seem to do well in crashes, I'm here today thanks to the sacrifice of an 88 Thunderbird. It was also an A: hit the moron who ran the red light or B: swerve and I did B. I still clipped him a little (he kept going) but I ended up ass-first into a ditch and did a flip through the air. Cops found me a half mile away running after the moron without a scratch.
Many years later in my 92 SHO a moron ran a red light and I had no choice as it was A: head-on into semi or B: hit the moron. I went with B and the SHO barely got hurt. Crash survival is honestly one of the main reasons I went with the P71.
joey48442 wrote:
DrBoost wrote:
I invented sex.
I invented dr boost.
Joey
I love it when my favorite inventions learn to type.
P71 wrote:
Ford's always seem to do well in crashes,
the cars, yes...
I freaked out when I found out how bad the trucks faired in tests...
http://www.iihs.org/ratings/ratingsbyseries.aspx?id=327
The 97-2003 F150's are death traps.