Keep an eye on those mirrors

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Kaiser Soze · #11 Post by **Kaiser Soze** » Fri Jun 30, 2006 5:50 am

His words:

i'm sitting at a stoplight in naperville il. off rt.59 heading north to the tollway....

then this huge explosion occurred, i saw motion just before in the rear view mirror. i found out later that an 18 year old in a suburban creamed me at 50mph. my body went from 0-50 in a fraction of a second, you can see that my back and head BENT the seat back on impact. i totalled the car IN FRONT of me also. so after the impact, i went forward into the stearing wheel and was knocked out. i was in and out and remember the ambulance to the hospital. people tell me the camry saved my life... (would you believe my powerbook in the trunk SURVIVED!!! it was in a radtech soft case, in a gel bag, in a foam bag insert, inside a london fog bag.)

this happened in may '05, still pain in back, legs and neck...

i bought another camry, same color... and so did others who saw these pics.

CNF2002 · #12 Post by **CNF2002** » Fri Jun 30, 2006 6:01 am

That biker in the vid...anyone know if he was okay after? Looks like he was lucky to have stood up and be thrown to the side of the road instead of under the truck.

OutToLunch · #13 Post by **OutToLunch** » Fri Jun 30, 2006 6:31 am

I witnessed something like this happen at an insection. I was coming up to a stop light in the right hand lane (4 lane hiway) and there was already a car waiting at the red light in the left hand lane. A dump truck was in the lane to my left travelling at the same speed I was - that was until I started slowing for the light - which he did not. He hit that car at what looked like full speed - dunno if he tried to hit the brakes just before. I got this sick feeling in my gut cause I saw what was going to happen and there wasn't a thing I could do but hit the horn - and that didn't do nothing.

The car was pushed through the intersection and ended up stopping on the concrete median. The back end was squashed flat. There were two people in the front seats and one in the back. I think that guy got it the worst - the other two were at least walking around - he stayed in the car til the para's came.

I had called 911 and waited for the cops and ambulance to come. they had my number for a witness but I was never called. I don't think I had to be. It was pretty apparent what had happened.

I always watch my mirrors at intersections. I'm still not sure if I'd be able to recognize that the car isn't slowing down any in enough time to actually react and get the heck out of the way though.

#14 Post by **KarateChick** » Fri Jun 30, 2006 7:37 am

Holy - pretty freaking scary! Yes, I am quite nervous when stopped and watch my mirrors a lot (and stay in first), especially since some car screamed between me & another stopped car at an intersection earlier this season.

Fri Jun 30, 2006 7:46 am

Yikes...another reason not to kick it into neutral while at a light.

Chris8187 · #16 Post by **Chris8187** » Fri Jun 30, 2006 7:53 am

I've been wondering as well. Even if I look at my mirrors, how am I going to know if the person is going to slow down or not? How can you possibly know what is going to happen? Instead of trying to guess what the person behind me will do, I go to one extreme end of the lane to give plenty of room if the guy behind me is an idiot. Better to be clipped than rammed dead on is my thinking there.

#17 Post by **KarateChick** » Fri Jun 30, 2006 8:03 am

Chris8187 wrote:I've been wondering as well. Even if I look at my mirrors, how am I going to know if the person is going to slow down or not? How can you possibly know what is going to happen? Instead of trying to guess what the person behind me will do, I go to one extreme end of the lane to give plenty of room if the guy behind me is an idiot. Better to be clipped than rammed dead on is my thinking there.

Well Chris, in my case, I could see that the idiot coming up behind me was coming way toooo fast and was definitely not slowing down so I ended up moving over to the left - enough room for him to scream on through without even slowing. Usually when a car is slowing down behind me, I can see that it is.

Chris8187 · #18 Post by **Chris8187** » Fri Jun 30, 2006 8:04 am

So I guess I just do what you do except pre-emptively lol.

dieziege · #19 Post by **dieziege** » Fri Jun 30, 2006 10:09 am

You can usually tell if a car is braking by the nose angle... stays level = not doing much of anything... nose lifts - accelerating... nose goes down = braking. The worst is when the nose dives, then lifts, then dives, 'cause the driver is probably panicking and trying to figure out whether to swerve or brake. Bad situation there.

sharpmagna · #20 Post by **sharpmagna** » Fri Jun 30, 2006 10:53 am

I also have a habit of of flashing my brake lights when I see a car coming up behind me while I'm stopped. Hopefully the don't miscontrue my actions though...