Wrecked on I-40 - anyone near Brinkley, AR?

Helping my friend Jeremy move from SC to CA. We hit ice on a bridge west of Brinkley; that was fine, actually, until the idiot in front of us slammed on his brakes and started spinning. Jeremy let up on the gas to put some distance between us and his trailer broke loose on the ice and spun us around. We hit a guardrail and a semi hit the trailer (or the semi hit the trailer and pushed us into the guardrail - Jeremy thinks the first and I think the second. Funny, for being in the same car). Best of all? The jackhole who spun and started this whole mess recovered and took off.

Anyway. My brand new VW Touareg (seriously, had it less than 10k miles!) looks like mostly cosmetic damage, but wouldn't mind putting it on a lift and making sure before we try to go anywhere. The semi broke both axles on the trailer; need to figure out whether we're renting a UHaul or ABF box to get whatever's recoverable of Jeremy's possessions to CA. UGH.

PM me if you're nearby and have a lift I can borrow. :)

Thanks, -Carlota

That is rough, are you both OK?

Contact your insurance agent ASAP.

In reply to aussiesmg:

Thanks! A little bruised/shaken up, but mostly okay! Definitely filing the insurance for it. Just frustrated for Jeremy that the trailer with all his stuff is destroyed. :(

Wow, that sucks! Glad to hear you are both mostly OK! Hope the rest of the trip is smooth sailing.

Glad y'all are okay. Good luck!

Nothing helpful to add, but happy to hear you all are ok!

I'm not sure how I could help, I'm about 100 miles west of you in Conway. I just went out to check the mail and about bit it. Our side streets are still skating rinks.

We've got a spare bedroom, if ya need a room/bed/shower/etc.

I know some folks in the Brinkley area, but none that are in the automotive field. They're all row crop farmers or in related sales. There ain't a lot in Brinkley.

• Lee

Glad y'all are ok, be safe. Wish I was closer so I could help.

bigdaddylee82 wrote: They're all row crop farmers or in related sales. There ain't a lot in Brinkley. - Lee

Those farm places may have axles.

spitfirebill wrote:

bigdaddylee82 wrote: They're all row crop farmers or in related sales. There ain't a lot in Brinkley. - Lee

Those farm places may have axles.

not exactly a parking lot repair, especially when all the springs and mounts probably got taken with them. sounds like trailer is totalled.

Wow, sorry to hear about that. Too far away to help.

Long way from home, Glad your both o.k though.

ditto to the last post. Glad you're OK, sorry that's about all I can offer

I saw the I 40 bit .. and thought … hey can I help ? then I realized it was 600 mi away hope things work out

Just checking in, all okay?

I got an email, I'm sure Doll will pipe up sooner or later, but they worked out a deal to leave the trailer at the tow yard for a while, to be fixed later, and were on their way home as of about 24 hours ago.

• Lee

Just checked the map. Unfortunately I don't have any family in the area, so glad you got that taken care of.

Glad you're ok.

Thanks for all the warm thoughts and offers of help, folks!

Fortunately, the tow truck driver has a warehouse and we worked a deal to store the trailer for a month or two until we can figure out insurance and what to do with it all. Will probably just hit uship.com and see if we can find someone to somehow transport the busted trailer as-is if it's not that much more than renting some ABF boxes ($2-3k) or a one-way U-Haul truck ($1700) for getting Jeremy's stuff to CA.

It turned out to be a good thing that we left the trailer behind; we spent hours crawling through ice in Oklahoma and ran into a nasty snowstorm in Arizona that would have been impossible with a trailer.

We're home safe and sound now; will upload pix of damage. I think we can actually repair the trailer...we have the technology and the GRM spirit of not letting anything die a timely death!

In reply to dollraves:

Glad to hear you are home and safe

Pix, as promised. The trailer pix aren't great due to lighting. That dent in the side is about a foot in at its deepest. Both axles are broken; the red liquid is from the semi's radiator (it didn't drive away, either).

The damaged trailer, shot 1:

Shot 2:

It held up really well - good thing the semi wasn't going very fast. Looks totally fine from the other side:

And DEET (the Touareg) took it like a champ:

Jack it up, put new axles under, bolt-bolt-bolt, tow home.

Glad you're OK. And that was about 200+ miles from me.