My much loved and faithful "Enery" took one for me yesterday. He's totalled and I'm beaten and bruised. A SUV decided to cross over two lanes to get into a McDonalds, the problem being I just happened to be driving 40MPH in the opposite direction and with out warning, her behemoth became an immovable object in my way. Metal and plastic crunched, air bags popped, glass shattered and smoke poured out. I managed to crawl out of the passenger side and Las Vegas' finest were summoned. After a short ambulance ride to the trauma center and multiple X-rays and CT scans, I was given some pain killers and went home with my wife. Now comes the inevitable fight with insurance companies and lawyers (she was given a citation). I'm not sure what I will do about a replacement at this time, still too shocked to be able to think straight . I'm off to see him today in the salvage yard to retreave some personals and his plates. The only thing I'm sure of is that my MINI, like a faithful bulldog, protected my life and I was able to walk-limp away.

 

Oh no! Sorry to hear about your accident, but we are glad that you're OK. Best of luck getting everything else settled.

 

Sorry to hear about your accident, but the important thing is that you walked away from it, im sure your MINI gave you many smiles and its last gift to you was saving your life!

 

I'm sorry to hear about your misfortune. Seems like a lot of that going around right now. I hope your aches, both physical and otherwise, go away quickly.

 

How did you not get out of your car and beat the crap out of the B***H

 

Oh my gosh - I know your heart is sinking about now...but I'm glad to hear that you are okay...

Donna

 

that really make me wonder. I'm sure it was the other drivers plan to cause and accident, and that she's sitting there all smug in the knowledge that her actions almost really hurt another person, and totalled a lot of hardware. I'm sure she's just itching to get behind the wheel of an other large vehicle so that she can take out another Mini ASAP!

Glad everyone is OK. It's a real bummer, but just a car. Hope all goes well and the insurance fight isn't too hard. With her having been sited, the fights should all be downhill. If you're not happy, just say no and dig in your heels.

Matt

 

Oooooooooooooooh! Stupid drivers!

Glad to hear you're ok, and hope you're in another MINI soon!

 

Doesn't change the fact that she clearly doesn't know what the hell she's doing and wasn't paying enough attention to driving. People these days seem to think that driving is a casual excercise. Sure it wasn't her intent to cause an accident, but the fact is, her casual attitude about driving and neglect of her surroundings could have killed someone. Intended or not, that sort of stupidity shouldn't be tolerated. I can't believe you'd defend someone like that.

 

Think she would consider it punishment to drive a MINI for the next year? Perhaps it would change her attitude about u-turns.

Glad you weren't hurt bad. Like people, if Enery, lived like a bright light and was snuffed out (vs. dim light for like forever), it was a life well lived.

 

My husband said something very similar to the woman who, while feeding a snack to a child in the back seat of her SUV, smashed into the back of my BMW earlier this year. I was too stunned to say any cross words to the woman, so my husband said them for me when he rolled up to the crash scene.

Driving is combat. You have to assume that all of the drivers around you are concentrating on something other than driving. Your safety means less to them than that all-important phone call/burger/coffee/cigarette/mascara stick/crying child.

vegasdan, I hope you feel better, and I hope you get a fair settlement.

 

Glad you're OK Dan. I was at Desert MINI last night and they have a bunch of 06s sitting on the lot for when your insurance gets everything sorted out.

Where was the accident?

 

I've had at fault accidents. While I was at fault, and I did screw up, it didn't make the sum total of my contributions to society worthless, nor is it, the sole act, considered in a vacuum, something on which one should judge wether I'm an insenstive jerk or a nice guy who screwed up.

What's up with all this self-riteous indegnation. Or are we all so perfect here that NONE of us has ever done something with our car that we're not proud of, that NONE of us has ever not seens something we should have and the like.

Sure, let's all get pissed off and shower wrath down on those when we don't know all the details. Maybe she did something stupid, anmd does with great regulatiry, maybe she's the best person any one of us can know, and she just had an off day.

But I don't really think our society benefits when the first reaction is knee-jerk, reactionary, does nothing to find more information, and just increases hostility and even contains an occational exhortation to an excallation to violence.

I'm happy there were no serious injuries. I'm happy that the only real hassle (so far) is that some time and effort will go down the tubes to get everyone back on track. But get real, no matter how good we are or aspire to be, accidents happen. They're not called "planneds" for a reason!

But don't you all think that society would be better served if our first reaction weren't anger or a call to arms, but more a fair and objective assessment of the facts and a rational path to resolution of conflict? Or has the fabric of our society decayed so far that all we have left is fist-fights on the side of the road?


Matt

ps, Rubyred, I'm not defending her. I'm just pointing out that comments like "How did you not get out of your car and beat the crap out of the B***H" don't really make a society that one can be proud of now, does it?

 

People say pretty much anything they want on the Internet. The bulletin boards over at Bimmerforums are packed with immature people saying immature things. It's just talk.

For what it's worth, I have yet to observe fisticuffs at any crash scene I've driven past. I did hear a news report of one crash that ended in a road-rage charge, but those reports are very rare in these parts.

 

sorry to hear. but glad to hear you made it out.

 

Personaly I think it does because it shows that SOME people aren't gonna sit there and let people doing something careless, like cutting across multiple lanes to help make themselves even more fat, get away with just sayin "Oops, did I do that." Someone sticking up for theirselves and/or their property WHEN they have the right to doesn't make this a bad society.

There is a difference between causing an accident (losing control because a tire blew or someone ran you off the road) and causing an accident due to putting on your make-up or grabbing for a cell phone.

I agree with Ruby!

Glad to see that you made it out safely Dan. You know that this is a sign for another MINI!

 

If you cause an accident and are issued a citation, that means most of the evidence points to you having done something stupid. I for one will not tolerate a "oops" mentality when it comes to accidents. An accident that you cause should be a life changing experience, as you very well could have ended someones life with such a casual handling of such a large responsibility (driving). I'm not endorsing physical violence for sure, but I understand that sentiment.

If we were to approach this situation rationally instead of an immediate call to arms, that implies that this is just "something that happens", when in reality, it SHOULDN'T happen (accidents can still happen, but this was quite simply a case of stupidity and neglect), so being super duper knee jerk pissed about it I would argue IS the appropriate way to handle it. Hopefully the rash reaction would prompt her to really seriously think about what she has done and enact some real change to prevent it from happening again.

 

Technically, we don't know that.

I agree in that my assumption is that this was just another stupid driver and, though I never support violence, I would certainly have been visibly annoyed (if possible through the beating taken during the accident), but the Dr. is right: we don't have any real idea what precipitated the stupid behavior.

 

this isn't a court of law, its a web forum, and all the info we have points to the SUV driver having been oblivious that the mini was there. The cops seem to have agreed (issued her a citation). I can't even construct in my wildest dreams a scenario where an SUV crossing two lanes in front of a mini would have been an excusable act, did their steering fail and send them wildly careening accross the road or something? Unlikely. I'm open to suggetions though. . .

 

Thanks for all of your well wishes. Agro, it was just in front of the McDonalds on Charleston just west of the 15. A few comments about the other driver. I agree that accidents can and do happen. When I was trying to get out of my car, I yelled for help (the McDonald's security guard was there, he's the one who yelled my car was on fire) at least 4 other people were standing within 15 feet of the wreck. Only one person came forward, a homeless woman. She must have weighed 110 pounds wet. She yelled for some one to help her help me, as I was starting to pass out and stumbling. No one came forward. She took me by the arm and got me to the curb. She stayed by my side until the rescue unit arrived. The driver of the other vehicle must have completed her phone call (that's the only reason she couldn't have seen me) and finally walked over to the security guard, who by now must have been disappointed that the MINI and me were not going up in flames. I heard her ask him if I was the driver, I thought to myself I must be the obvious victim with blood on my hands and shaking like a leaf. She just stared at me and finally I looked at her and asked "Didn't you see me?" She said she did "look up the road to make sure it was clear". I said "Obviously, it wasn't". She never once inquired as to my injuries or if I was alright. I went out to the salvage yard today to pick up my plates, It looked alot worse than I remembered. But the passenger compartment was unscathed, with the exception of broken glass and air bags deployed.

 

By the way, I have the original set of 17" factory rims. One has a small rim rash, I'll let them go cheap to the highest bidder. You pay the frieght or pick em up.

 

Can you take pics of the car please? Glad you're ok.

Bad drivers like that don't deserve to be defended... they deserve to die.

She could have killed ANYONE. Was she high? I hear most people who cause car accidents in Vegas are either drunk or high.

 

Vegasdan, I'm glad you're all right. And this may surprise some of you, but I was put in a wheelchair for 9 months, had a leg shortened, and have a titanium plate in my wrist, all from a driver that wasn't paying attention.

A couple of points. Sure she sounds like a callous biatch, but "they deserver to die"? You've got to be kidding. The girl who put me in the hospital deserves to carry the burdon of what she did to me with her for as long as she lives. And she will. It's not fair, as I got a much heavier burdon to carry, so to speak, and I didn't get to choose to carry it or not. Most of life isn't fair either. But to die? No way, no how, not even considering she didn't have the resources to make cover the medical costs nor provide any sort of compensation for her act.

Guess what. I've cut in front of others that I hadn't seen. Heck, when I lived in Rochester NY, I pulled out in front of an old lady who's actions I'd misinterpreted and I totalled her buick! I'm not proud of it. Nor should it have happened. And yes, I should have paid more attention, or interpreted things differently, but I don't think I should have been shot, or ostracized, or banished to a desert. I'm sure I really put a crimp on the old lady's day. I'm sure that her life would have been much better had I not hit her car, nor sent it to the happy buick land in the sky. But I did. Can't change that. Most of the people I know stilll talk to me though....

Statistics. There are millions of miles driven every day. I'd put forth the idea that any system of that capacity CANNOT operate with a perfect track record. That doesn't mean that any given accident should be expected, or welcomed. But it does mean that some level of accidents are expected, and even though this amount is higher than it could be with more attentive drivers, we all know that accidents happen, wether by equipment failure or just cluelessnes.

I really hope that if any of you cause an accident due to whatever reason, that later on you remember the ideas kicked around in this little thread. And hope that CamilPilot isn't around locked and loaded, or your days will be numbered!

Matt

 

Supidity or not , just glad you are OK and Enery did his job well, still would like to see pics though

 

glad enery protected you. it is sad how lightly people take the responsibility of driving, given how quickly a mistake can change/ruin/take someone's life. but that's why you always have to expect that another driver may do something stupid. and hope that when you do something stupid (as we all have), someone else is expecting it too! sounds like enery isn't salvagable, but i hope he is reincarnated as a 2007 MCS...