R.I.P. HR414....sad story

[chitlins37]

I am amazed that you were able to walk later that day after seeing those pics. I am glad for you and your family you're on the mend. You had a beautiful car.

Damn, "a huge gust of wind.." There but for the grace of _____ goes all of us.

Thanks for the kind words.

Yeah...I was probably stupid for even taking it out. Weekend of Mar4th was the first "Nor'Easterly" in N. Va area...50-70mph winds at its worst. We had been cooped up without power all weekend and Sun afternoon the power came back on, sun came out and I just didn't even think about the wind. Or my aging PSC2s either for that matter...they were still holding corners pretty damn well under normal conditions and were due to be replaced beginning of May. Only 6k street miles on them at time of the accident. Sure as heck recommend to anyone running them to replace at 5k miles no matter how good they look/feel.

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[mustang1]

That was a bad one. Recall what the debris was ? Was it cold outside? Passenger side looks like it lost a lot of space, particularly leg room, with might be small overlap crash. How about the side airbags ?

 

[Lost]

Dibs on the brakes!


(Just kidding!)



I too, would like to know what the debris was.

 

[kskpsu]

Just wow. As all have said and will say, thankfully you are OK, that's all that matters. I remember looking at your car with admiration when cruising the forums and trying to determine if I was going to get an R. Thanks for the motivation, and hopefully we in turn can motivate you to get back on the horse someday.

 

[chitlins37]

It looks as though this unfortunate incident took place 11 weeks ago tomorrow and would suggest from both a physical and mental standpoint these last couple of months has not been easy for you and your family but it sounds like that you are making great progress in both areas.

Thank you for posting your story/pictures as I would think that it was probably not very easy to post as I had a similar situation happen to me in November 2009 involving a brand new GT500.

Best wishes on your continued recovery and hope that going forward you will stay part of our forum and who knows might be another GT350/R owner once again.

:cheers:

You are correct about it being an ordeal. I did not and will not elaborate much on the legal and/or medical stresses but to sum it up a state trooper who was less than interested in what actually happened showed up first to the scene. No witnesses except me to what really went down and I still had to get a lawyer to square things up (which she did...big time .

I will def be around the forum. Not real sure what will be next but this is a great community of car guys n gals. May need to draw on some of the collective experience as I move (slowly) towards the next purchase.

 

[Nicky Pass]

Holy shit! The car can be replaced (hopefully no ADM!).

Be grateful you are ok! I see blood on the air bag!

 

[chitlins37]

That was a bad one. Recall what the debris was ? Was it cold outside? Passenger side looks like it lost a lot of space, particularly leg room, with might be small overlap crash. How about the side airbags ?

It was not that cold...around 60F degrees or so. No clue what actually got under there....I definitely remember the wind gust and what I'd describe as the sound of a wall of sand pelting the Xpel on the driver side just before things went sideways. What I'm sure did not help is I was going uphill and a slight bend to the left. Made the 1 move I felt I could and then lights out until they lifted me into the ambulance, in and out during the next couple of hours while they fished glass out of my wrist/hand and did the other scans.

They had to cut the passenger door off to get me out. Tree impact was front-right side head-on I believe...one of the pics shows that really well. I do not remember seeing side-airbags triggered.

 

[PP0001]

You are correct about it being an ordeal. I did not and will not elaborate much on the legal and/or medical stresses but to sum it up a state trooper who was less than interested in what actually happened showed up first to the scene. No witnesses except me to what really went down and I still had to get a lawyer to square things up (which she did...big time .

I will def be around the forum. Not real sure what will be next but this is a great community of car guys n gals. May need to draw on some of the collective experience as I move (slowly) towards the next purchase.

Great to hear that you will continue to be around and that your legal issues are behind you.

In my case where I wrote off a brand new 2009 GT500 I was so distraught as to what happened and what could have possibly happened to other their parties (had my brother in law in the passenger seat along with oncoming traffic) I ended up selling what HP cars I had at the time as it hit me pretty hard. Just pure stupidity on my part with respect to cold tires and lots power on a cool Fall day.

It took me 1 1/2 years to get over my issue and once I did the Mustang bug got a hold of me again in a big way and I have never looked back since the Spring of 2011.

Hopefully your transition will go smoothly over the next while and we will see you back in another GT350/R as you had a pretty cool ride.

:cheers:

 

[EF300]

If the rims, rear spoiler and seats made it you should sell them to recoup some of your cost for medical bills. You can probably get a lot of money for those three items.

 

[TDC]

So glad you made it out of that. Tree strikes are no joke as almost all the crash energy is absorbed by the car and driver. Be well and I wish the best for you.

 

[Amac8487]

Wow... Glad you made it out OK with somewhat minor injuries given the situation.

 

[lemers]

Was the transmission and cooler damaged?

 

[chitlins37]

Was the transmission and cooler damaged?

Not sure....unfortunately what is left of the car belongs to State Farm or whoever they sold it to (not sure how all that works). Getting a settlement payment made to USAA by State Farm was one of the few smooth things in the aftermath. It was a ridiculously low $56k, but they paid fairly quickly and I had "total loss" loan protection so I signed off on it.

 

[offcamber]

That was an extreme impact and trees are non-forgiving.
You are blessed to be alive.
It’s nice to get a 2nd chance after something like this.
All the best to you moving forward.

 

[Demonic]

Eye-opening of course and glad to see you’re ok again.

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