This is the second time in the past 15 months I've been rear-ended by a young male at almost exactly the same spot on I-5 South on my way home from work.

The first time, a 17-year-old, not paying attention to the road in 8-lane, bumper-to-bumper rush hour traffic, rammed into the back of my 2011 MINI while I was stopped in traffic and shoved me a few feet forward. I was far enough behind the vehicle in front of me that I did not hit it. Luckily, no one was injured and the kid's parents had great insurance (Mercury) that totally treated me to a first class repair in every possible way. My MINI looked better than new after picking it up from Spectrum Collision in Irvine due to the perfect panel fit they did on the trim.

The second incident was June 20 last month and the circumstances were somewhat similar - leaving work, on I-5 South, bumper-to-bumper rush-hour traffic . . . So this 21-year-old male darts out of the carpool lane he's in illegally directly behind me and proceeds to drive aggressively and erratically, rushing my bumper and nearly hitting me 3 or 4 times within a half mile.

I had to hit my brakes due to the pickup in front of me slowing, although, I didn't hit them very hard. I was still braking, steadily slowing down when I looked in my rearview mirror and see the guy behind me was looking down, not paying attention - I knew what was coming next. He finally looked up, his eyes grew to saucer size, he grabbed the wheel with both hands, screamed and proceeded to bash into my rear bumper.

I was pissed.

We pulled over and it took every ounce of control I had to not throttle this guy - he was driving like an idiot and it was inevitable that he was going to hit someone. Anyway, he was trying to leave the scene after showing me his insurance info on a crumpled piece of paper. He had neither a driver's license nor registration with him. His beat-up '96 Dodge Neon had a lot of damage. He claimed he was just learning to drive stick-shift and couldn't control the car. CHP finally showed up, took my statement and sent me on my way.

This guy had AAA insureance and it was legit but was not the smooth experience I had last time with Mercury. I actually filed a claim with my insurance after a week and a half due to lack of responsiveness from AAA but they came through hours later with approval. By then it was too late to get a rental as my car repairs were completed yesterday. I picked it up this morning and Spectrum did their usual awesome job making the car look new again.

There was $1,800 damage last time and $3,300 this time.

Here are the pics:





His '96 Neon


Fixed . . . again








Guess we'll try it again on Monday.

 

So sorry for you and your MINI. Glad you are ok though. Good luck.

 

Dang...I would have probably tried to throttle him....I can't believe how many people are driving around looking down at their laps. Glad it was minor and you were able to get it fixed.

 

you were right though, that autobody shop did a great job. the car looks brandnew

 

Holy cow your tailpipes are clean! I might rearend you just trying to get close enough to admire them.

I'm sorry for your bad luck but glad you've come through both of the accidents healthy and with your Mini intact.

 

Mother of tailpipes... can you please tell me how you clean them? Ive tried a bunch of stuff and it never looks that clean. Also, the guys license plate spells "***" backwards

Hope nothing like that happens again!

 

Thanks for everyone's well-wishes.

As for the exhaust tips, that's a new muffler assembly they just installed; however, that's how they always look so I had to double-check with the shop associate to confirm a new muffler was installed. It's a bit hard to see in the pics above but the original was bent in the accident.

All I do to keep them so clean is wash them with the rest of the car when I wash the car on the weekend. I do use a scrub brush to clean all the black carbon from the inside of the tips and they look new every time I do that. I think that's the key to keeping them looking new - don't let the black soot build up on the ID. I also use Adam's Metal Polish on the outer surfaces.

 

OP,

Your MINI looks great once again.

 

oh man, i would be furious. i'm glad you were okay both times though, and it does look brand new!

i got rear ended in my last car (not a mini, a rogue) in a parking lot. the police wouldn't come and the guy's excuse was that he "wanted my parking spot" (i had just backed out and was about to start forward when he hit my rear passenger corner on the back). wtf! luckily he had the same insurance company as me (progressive) and everything went smoothly at no charge to me. so frustrating though!

 

I'm going to use this line!

 

I love this! Didn't even see that before!

 

shoulda had the CHP check his cell phone. If he was looking down I bet he was texting/emailing.

 

CHP was very tight with me - I think they were worried they had a problem on their hands with this guy since he had no license or registration. They finished with me ASAP and sent me on my way to deal with him alone so I'm assuming they gave him the third-degree after I left. There were two cruisers there by the time I left.

 

I don't think they can. I would never unlock my phone so an officer could look at it

 

I stopped a couple of weeks ago behind a rear end accident that I witnessed, gave the Driver who was hit my name and Cell #. A preoccupied driver is an accident waiting to happen.

Sorry you've had to experience this first hand, twice!!

 

they can pull the info with a device a lot of them have now. Your phone only has to be on.
A recent appeals court upheld that they don't need a warrant to dig into your phone.

 

Yikes! Almost got broad-sided by a big bobcat this morning. A pair of them were on the side of the road and one darted out as I passed them. I swerved hard and just missed him as he shot past the rear bumper. No contact though. Whew!

And, yes, my commute is mostly through some pretty rural canyon roads with lots of wild beasties, some occassionally meeting their fate with one of the commuters using this highway. Great driver's road, though.

 

Glad your okay. You do know cars stay cleaner in California. We deal with so much crap on the roads here in Colorado, especially the MagChlor in the Winter they put down on the roads to melt the ice.

 

Patches

What a nice looking Mini - WOW! Sorry about the accident.

I have a couple of questions? How do you get good at being in an accident. Now this may sound or seem odd. Let me explain.

I printed PDF accident forms that you can Google just in case. Been rear ended several times. Let just say I feel it coming.

Do you need a police report? I also fear the hit and run and if that happens what should you do? Maybe I should lower my deductible? It is at $1K.

I sit in lots of traffic in Atlanta. I see more and more people texting when we sit. I have an old flip phone and don't do that or quite understand it.

So say I am rear ended. Should you call the police? I mean a little damage or scratch can turn into $3K pretty fast. Some damage underneath you can see until car is on the lift.

I had $17K worth of damage to a pick up that was 10 days old.

The news states there are lots of rear end collisions that are car jackings. Another worry driving an S Coupe.

Maybe I think to much? But this really worries me.

To date I have been playing with a free App in my iTouch. Basically a DVR much like Blackvue. I use two hair bands that wrap around the passenger visor and turn on the app and place the visor toward the front. With a quick pull I can grab it to record whatever. If pulled over a simple push of the visor parallel to the passenger window and I am taping the traffic stop.

Once set I don't touch it until parked. It works fine so far and there are many Apps like this. Is it worth the effort? Not sure, but a nice mountain drive would be worth watching just for fun.

I chose the visor and cloth wrapped bands as it does not block my view. Not much view real estate in the coupe. But I see fine in it and sides.

Does anyone fear accidents? What to do? Or should my own insurance give me piece of mind? I have State Farm and been pleased with them so far.

Thanks