The long story short: Getting onto the freeway (163 North, at Washington, in San Diego) and am passing a Chrysler LH of some kind when the driver decides he needs to move over to my lane, without so much as a signal, let alone a look at his blind spot. No amount of my honking will convince him to change his mind, leaving me stuck between his Chrysler and a rock the size of a football on the shoulder. I hit the big rock.

The result:


Followed eventually by shamefully mismatched wheels:


The good news: In a visual inspection at Pep Boys (not a lot of options on a Sunday - though I now know Evans Tire and Express Tire have at least some stores open) there didn't appear to be any damage beyond the wheel and tire and it seems to drive okay considering it has mismatched tires up front right now. I'll get the alignment done when I get a replacement Goodyear tomorrow. Minis (2004 MCS) are made of sturdy stock.

Lesson to be learned: Don't bother honking, it does no good. I guess I should have just slammed on the brakes and hoped that left him enough room to do as he pleased. Defensive driving isn't enough - I have to drive as if everybody is out to get me!

P.S. Had to deal with AIG for the first time since they bought 21st Century Insurance, and they did not do well. I guess I should say their systems did not do well, because the 4 people I talked to were generally pleasant, but there's no reason I should have had to deal with 4 people in the first place. I doubt I'll be renewing my policy with them.

 

Glad to hear that yo are ok. That has to be the worst wheel I have ever seen. Did it hurt?

 

Mostly it just made me really, really angry. I saw the guy coming over, I saw the rock, I leaned on the horn, I tried to move over so he wouldn't hit me, but still not hit the rock, and I just ran out of options.

It hit really hard - I was going almost 70 - but the car still was drivable. I made it to a parking lot and saw the damage. I guess I should have stopped right away, but I wasn't thinking clearly. I decided not to stop on the freeway if I didn't have to. Fortunately there was an exit ahead and I caught a green light that made it easy to get to a parking lot.

You're right that it could have been worse, but I haven't been in the mood to look for bright spots about it!

 

Sorry to hear about your accident. The 163 is terrible any time of the year, and i'm sure with all the mall traffic it didn't help. Glad you didn't put your car into the wall.

 

Too bad you couldn't have gotten the idiot's plate number and reported them for dangerous driving. The kind of accident you had could easily have included other cars if you'd lost it when you hit the rock.

 

Wow! That's quite a bite. OUCH!

Here's to hoping for a speedy recovery!

Reading a few of these stories reminds me of our near catastrophe in October. Heading from Florida on I-75 to NC. Weren't even out of mid-Florida yet. Three lanes and we were in the fast one and passing. There was a little white haired lady driving in the center lane. There was a car in front of her but it was probably almost 3/4 mile ahead. My guess was that she was using cruise control and wasn't paying attention. Our front end was literally at her front door when I realized that she was moving into our lane. I don't know why, but there just happened to be a wide shoulder to our left at that part in the road! I didn't have time to honk... it was just that fast. We were lucky.

Thanks to my Miniola, I was able to do a manuever without losing control or hitting the concrete barrier. The loud rumble strip the ABS... ugh. Up to that point, I hadn't felt the same "bonding" with this new one (Miniola) and was actually sad that our other '05 MCSC was sitting at home in the garage and not on the road trip... but she earned her keep that day.

As we caught up with the old lady and laid on the horn she looked at us and smiled! She had no idea that she had literally run us off the road. I'm sure she was thinking, "Oh what a cute car!"... "I wonder why they look so angry?". Too bad I hadn't gotten a picture of that.

 

So I take it that was a runflat tire?
Big bite!

 

Not a run-flat - it was a Goodyear GS-D3. I was able to limp along for about a mile to a parking lot on it somehow.

 

I assumed it must've been RF too.

That's impressive! Long live the NRF!