Sigh. What a crappy week. I took a job driving semi-local delivers (under 1,000 mile long trips), delivering tropical fish since I got laid off about 8 months ago. Pretty decent job, I work 2 days a week and can pretty much more or less pay the bills with that.
Anyways, up here in Minnesota/Wisconsin we're getting pelted with the biggest snowstorm of the winter (which is sad, but another topic altogether). So Phil gets to drive in it. Yay!
Anyways, I was in a small truck today, just an E-350 cargo van, nothing huge, but not entirely tiny either. You see these things all the time, like the telephone company vans, only a bit larger.
So the roads suck, probably a nice 1-2 inches of snow on the major highway I was on (pretty much an interstate, although not classified as one), with only the right lane plowed at all, and wet instantly freezling sleet coming down. I.e. slippery stuff!
I was going 60mph (in a 65) which was about all I could stomache in the right lane, and I see this car come up from behind be fairly fast, and he starts to try to pass me. Gets up in front of me, and then when he's starting to cut back over into the right lane (the one that's plowed, remember), he loses it and starts to wobble. I see this and instantly start braking as hard as I could w/o losing it myself (which is NOT much on basically almost-ice with an empty cargo van). He does a couple 360's and ends up on the righthand shoulder (very unplowed), and I'm thinking "great, he'll just ditch the thing and I won't hit him! cool!". Of course not. He for whatever reason (either couldn't control it, or tried to keep it on the road for whatever stupid reason), gets back on the road somehow in time to do a 180 so his front-end is directly facing me. I'm still braking as hard as I can and trying to maneaver as well into the left lane to try to avoid this guy, but of course he comes halfway into the left lane as well! Doh!
So, basically realize I'm going to hit him, and just slam on the brakes to try to take down the speed as far as I can. I hit him almost directly front-on, and it was a pretty hard jar (around 20-30mph I guess). Now we're stopped in the middle of a freeway so I immediately kick it to get into the center median, but the guy just sits there?! I had to freaking wave at him to get him to move his car out of the middle of the road, when theres two 18 wheelers behind us not more than 300 yards away by that time. Yeesh.
But, to make a long story short his civic was undrivable, and questionably totalled. The entire front-end was ripped off (bumper, lights, etc.) just exposing the radiator which was also smashed in up against the engine. The hood of course was all curled up. So, an essentially totalled civic.
The entire reason I posted the story is this. My van had a single DENT and a small one at that, on the front bumper. That, and some paint rubbed off his car onto the bumper within that dent. It looked like someone took a softball and threw it really hard at like a door panel, just a freaking dent! I could have hit a pole like that, and wouldn't have had to tell anyone because no one would noticed for a long time, it was that small.
I still can't believe the truck at most needs a new bumper, and the bumper is barely damaged at that. And the civic was almost completely totalled. Yeesh. If I had been in my bigger truck, I bet there would only be some paint scratching, and that's it.
Moral of the story is not drive like a moron in bad driving conditions. There was a reason I wasn't going the full speed limit (and why others were going even less than I was), and why he was the only guy on the road doing 70mph+ or thereabouts.
oh well, added an additional hour and a half to my trip time, but other than that I should be 100% okay. The trooper didn't even have me stick around, he said the tire tracks/skid marks showed pretty clearly what happened and just had me write a statement and leave.
Second not-at-fault accident to date. I have a penchant for these things or something, I must be carrying around a very strong magnet.
Ah well, waaaay to tired to post coherently. Peace. 😉
-Phil
Anyways, up here in Minnesota/Wisconsin we're getting pelted with the biggest snowstorm of the winter (which is sad, but another topic altogether). So Phil gets to drive in it. Yay!
Anyways, I was in a small truck today, just an E-350 cargo van, nothing huge, but not entirely tiny either. You see these things all the time, like the telephone company vans, only a bit larger.
So the roads suck, probably a nice 1-2 inches of snow on the major highway I was on (pretty much an interstate, although not classified as one), with only the right lane plowed at all, and wet instantly freezling sleet coming down. I.e. slippery stuff!
I was going 60mph (in a 65) which was about all I could stomache in the right lane, and I see this car come up from behind be fairly fast, and he starts to try to pass me. Gets up in front of me, and then when he's starting to cut back over into the right lane (the one that's plowed, remember), he loses it and starts to wobble. I see this and instantly start braking as hard as I could w/o losing it myself (which is NOT much on basically almost-ice with an empty cargo van). He does a couple 360's and ends up on the righthand shoulder (very unplowed), and I'm thinking "great, he'll just ditch the thing and I won't hit him! cool!". Of course not. He for whatever reason (either couldn't control it, or tried to keep it on the road for whatever stupid reason), gets back on the road somehow in time to do a 180 so his front-end is directly facing me. I'm still braking as hard as I can and trying to maneaver as well into the left lane to try to avoid this guy, but of course he comes halfway into the left lane as well! Doh!
So, basically realize I'm going to hit him, and just slam on the brakes to try to take down the speed as far as I can. I hit him almost directly front-on, and it was a pretty hard jar (around 20-30mph I guess). Now we're stopped in the middle of a freeway so I immediately kick it to get into the center median, but the guy just sits there?! I had to freaking wave at him to get him to move his car out of the middle of the road, when theres two 18 wheelers behind us not more than 300 yards away by that time. Yeesh.
But, to make a long story short his civic was undrivable, and questionably totalled. The entire front-end was ripped off (bumper, lights, etc.) just exposing the radiator which was also smashed in up against the engine. The hood of course was all curled up. So, an essentially totalled civic.
The entire reason I posted the story is this. My van had a single DENT and a small one at that, on the front bumper. That, and some paint rubbed off his car onto the bumper within that dent. It looked like someone took a softball and threw it really hard at like a door panel, just a freaking dent! I could have hit a pole like that, and wouldn't have had to tell anyone because no one would noticed for a long time, it was that small.
I still can't believe the truck at most needs a new bumper, and the bumper is barely damaged at that. And the civic was almost completely totalled. Yeesh. If I had been in my bigger truck, I bet there would only be some paint scratching, and that's it.
Moral of the story is not drive like a moron in bad driving conditions. There was a reason I wasn't going the full speed limit (and why others were going even less than I was), and why he was the only guy on the road doing 70mph+ or thereabouts.
oh well, added an additional hour and a half to my trip time, but other than that I should be 100% okay. The trooper didn't even have me stick around, he said the tire tracks/skid marks showed pretty clearly what happened and just had me write a statement and leave.
Second not-at-fault accident to date. I have a penchant for these things or something, I must be carrying around a very strong magnet.
Ah well, waaaay to tired to post coherently. Peace. 😉
-Phil
