Hi All,

Last night, on my commute home from work I crashed my MINI. It was on I-25 Northbound - just south of Denver and traffic was very heavy. I had just passed one accident, was coming up on another and took my eyes off of the car in front of me for a second only to look at the accident on the shoulder. When I looked back a second later, cars in front were screeching to a halt. I slammed on my brakes and felt the ABS engage. I knew I had no hope of stopping in time and I hit an '03 Alero fairly hard. Pushed him into a Jeep Wrangler in front of him. My foot came off the brake when I hit and I hit him a second time! Geez. I've had no accidents in over 10 years. Never had one that was my fault in fact. I thought for sure that my MINI's face was going to look pretty bad. We drove to the shoulder and got out and looked. I couldn't see any damage! Turns out a turn signal lens is cracked, the license plate is bent and I can see a small crease in the bumper, but that's all. There may be structural damage underneath, but I can't tell. Guess I'll have to get it checked out.

I got a ticket for causing the accident. "Following too closely". Bummer of it all is that I just put my snows on, perhaps I might have been able to stop with the runflats...ah well.

 

Ouch!

Sounds like your MINI took the hit pretty well though.
Most importantly, glad to hear you're alright.

 

How fast did ya hit???

 

I'm sorry to hear what happened, Lee....but accidents sometimes DO happen. That's great that there doesn't appear to be any really severe damage....how did the other cars look?

I am surprised that the bumper held up so well after all that talk of how it doesn't hold up well in lower impact accidents.

I am glad you are ok!

 

Bummer Lee!

Glad to hear the dammage wasn't worse.

Here's a repair thought for you. Check with Schomp. Maybe. Just maybe they've put an aero kit on a Mini with your color and they have a spare bumper floating around.

 

Sorry to hear that!
Glad you are OK.

I brushed a lady's rear bumper(SUV) last week in my suzuki swift (Don't have my baby yet). She slamed on her brakes as we were getting onto the freeway. Niether car was damaged except for a little scrape on my bumber. This was my first accident ever. Hope it is my last! Sold my Swift on Monday...better get my Winnie soon! hope I hope I hope :smile:

 

Dnvrmini: Sorry about the accident, but indeed, glad that you're ok and your MINI is (mostly) too!

To echo others' questions...1) about how fast were you going?; and 2) what type of snows do you have? Re. the latter, I'm always interested in traction of various tires.

 

I'd be curious to know how much damage there is, As you probably heard all of the hoop-la the media was sure to single out the MINI for poor performance in the 5 mph crash test= $800 damage. I thought it was odd they would pick on MINI, 'm sure many others faired worse. I'll bet you try hard to avoid yielding to "morbid curiousity" from now on. Next time just lean on your horn to remind the guy in front of you to do the same! It's maddening how many slowdowns are caused not by the accidents, but by rubberneckers. I'm firmly convinced that they should put up portable curtain walls around crash scenes! Glad you're ok though!

 

Sorry bud.

Was there snow on the ground?

R

 

Thanks for all the support guys. Much appreciated.

I think I was going about 55mph when I slammed on the brakes and hit him at 15-20mph or so.

I have Bridgestone Blizzaks (WS-50) and I was surprised at how much the ABS had to work with them. I think my Goodyear runflats would have gripped more before the ABS had to engage. I did tromp on the pedal pretty hard.

The Alero didn't look too bad, though I saw that the rear bumper was misaligned where the whole unit meets the rear fenders. Maybe it took the blow and saved my MINI from more damage. The hood of the Alero had a pretty good dent where it hit the Jeep. The Jeep didn't show any signs of damage that I could see.

Thanks again for the kind words!

Lee

 

Lee,

When you get that turn signal lens replaced (it's an entire two bulb assembly BTW, not just the lens) definitely check the impact absorber (or have it checked if you're not going to swap out the lens yourself).

I replaced one of those lenses on my MINI after a stone broke the lens on my trip to Canada. It's not crazy difficult, but you would have to have some experience with bumper removal, and be careful of the wireharnesses which attach to the bumper cover.

Dave

 

Good to hear that you are okay. I was wondering what the person who was driving the Alero said to you when you talked. I would have been so upset if someone just hit my brand new car. Did your air bags go off? If so, which ones?

 

The airbags had better not have gone off. Given that the bumper isn't even pushed in or damaged, I would be concerned about an airbag malfunction if they had gone off.

 

Glad you the others involved are o-kay and that your Mini made it through with minor issues. What a difference a second makes. I have had blizzaks before. Did you flat spot them?


_________________
cb


Greta...DS "S", premium, cold, 17s on all seasons, DSC, fogs, lapis blue leather, chrome mirrors

 

>>Good to hear that you are okay. I was wondering what the person who was driving the Alero said to you when you talked. I would have been so upset if someone just hit my brand new car. Did your air bags go off? If so, which ones?


Nope, no airbags went off. (though they did in a bad dream last night - I was trying to drive with the bag in the way..I was so glad when I woke up!)

The Alero was an Avis rental - the guy was from out of state. He didn't care at all - except for the hassle I suppose. I was lucky that the other people were mature and calm.

I opened the bonnett this morning and couldn't see any sign of anything awry behind the bumper. Hopefully, I will only have to replace the signal lens!

Lee

 

That is called "being caught in a gawk"
Accidents attract accidents just like hospitals make people sicker

More or less
Buzz

 

That stinx. I would have the dealer make sure there is no chasis damage. I live in Denver. So, I know what it's like to be on I-25 in traffic. I've been trying to actually keep some following distance in front of me regardless of how pissed the person behind me is.

Your accident was a secondary accident: An accident caused while trying to get through traffic caused by an accident.

Owen