Car crash!

[Smoof]

To keep it short:
On my way to work this afternoon, I hit an unmelted patch of ice/slush on the highway, lost control, spun out and hit another car that had done the same (that is, spun out and was sitting on the side of the highway). I fucked up my knee pretty good, it's really swollen and painful, can't really walk on it. Messed-up my car pretty bad, pretty much sheered off the passenger side front wheel and did some body damage. I'm not too concerned about the body damage, more just getting it mechanically fit again. Not that I could drive it anyway, since my knee is too fucked-up to press in a clutch.

Guy in the other car was okay it seemed. He said he was okay, but I ended-up smashing his frontend up a bit.

Yeah, sucks, but oh well. Take it in stride is all I can say and is all I'm doing.

[Press Ninja]

Damn man, at least you're relatively ok. It doesn't give me hope for the next few days, though, we're supposed to get about 6 inches dropped on us, yay spring?

[davboy6]

well the plants can use the water.

[Ox]

Smoof, hope you got checked out. Knee injuries can be treacherous, much better to get that sucker X-rayed now.

[Dr. Quasius]

Smoof, hope you got checked out. Knee injuries can be treacherous, much better to get that sucker X-rayed now.

I agree. You may have some broken cartilage in there that can wreak havoc later.

[davboy6]

He probly already did get checked out.

[Smoof]

I haven't gotten it checked out yet. However, I'll probably be going at some point in the next few days. I'm going to see how it feels tomorrow and probably go from there. Then, Sunday I'll have my sister look at it; she's a doctor, so I'll get her prognosis and then go from there on Monday. Well...probably Tuesday, because I have a Logic midterm on Monday.

I'm not too worried about it just yet. My initial inspection (though I'm no trained professional) is that it's just some serious bruising. I can still move it, it's just really tight and swollen. It doesn't hurt when I press on it and my bones seem to feel okay at the moment. But yeah, I'll be getting it checked out soon.

[Bad Buddha]

I'd have a doctor look at it if you ever want to have your insurance take care of any long term issues. Like Ox said, knees are delicate joint and can get screwed up in a multitude of ways. Torn ligaments, torn cartilage and torn tendons are just the start.

Get it checked and get that on your medical record! Often the bruising and swelling can hide more serious problems.

[Squidbot]

I'd have a doctor look at it if you ever want to have your insurance take care of any long term issues. Like Ox said, knees are delicate joint and can get screwed up in a multitude of ways. Torn ligaments, torn cartilage and torn tendons are just the start.

Get it checked and get that on your medical record! Often the bruising and swelling can hide more serious problems.

This. Very much this. In the past I have sustained injuries that appeared trifling at the time but were actually indicative of more serious problems. I'm not saying that's the case here, but as they say "Safe than sorry".
I am glad you're still in one piece though :)

[Shjinta]

Quick Derail. When I saw the thread title I thought it was Digust who had smashed his car. Guess not.

Honestly. I feel for you. I've had 2 bad accidents. One involved a guy with broken brake lights in a section of highway tunnel with no light. I ended up hitting him because I honestly couldn't see, Pushed my head hard into the windshield due to me leaning forward trying to see where I was going.

Accidents suck ass. I hope your knee is alright.

[BlackPete]

Do not not not not not NOT underestimate joint pains. I cannot emphasize this enough.

I made that mistake a couple of years ago while skating... one time I lost my balance and threw my arm out to support/stop myself from falling, and I felt a slight pop in my shoulder when it happened. No pain, nothing like that... just a slight pop, the kind you'd get when moving a joint/knuckle after a long period of inactivity.

Well. The next day my shoulder was feeling sore but at least I could still lift my arm, swing it around etc... no big deal..

The day after that, it got worse. Hm, that's funny, but again it wasn't severe enough to hinder me...

Third day, it hurt so badly that I couldn't even move my arm, much less lift it at any kind of an angle. I couldn't even go to sleep that night because I was too busy gritting my teeth to keep from screaming, and that was when I finally checked myself into the emergency room at the hospital, who loaded me up with codiene and some other strong drug that I forget the name of...

It turned out to be a torn rotator cuff that eventually healed over time, but that was a pretty sobering lesson to NOT take anything for granted.

Natasha Richardson learned that lesson the hard way as well, although I haven't heard anyone die from a knee injury...

[Generation ABXY]

Guy in the other car was okay it seemed. He said he was okay, but I ended-up smashing his frontend up a bit.

What, like afterwards? That was pretty rude! :eek: Joking aside, good to hear you made it through relatively unscathed.

[Kielaran]

To echo the others, get it checked on. I screwed my knees up playing soccer. Someone else's knee hit me below the kneecap, instantly atrophying the tendon. By the time i started at the physical therapy clinic, they said my knee was working at 30% capacity. Even worse, favoring that leg made me put too much strain on the other knee, causing a fair amount of problems there. Just make sure to get checked out soon and I hope all goes well.

[Smoof]

Indeed. It will be checked out today. From the looks of it, it's getting better already. It hurts much less, I have more range of movement and I can put more weight on it than I could yesterday. It certainly still hurts, but it feels much, much better than it did.

My sister will be checking it out today when she gets in from Chicago.

[Disgustipated]

Quick Derail. When I saw the thread title I thought it was Digust who had smashed his car. Guess not.


Jackass. Thanks a lot for believing in me! :o

[Talanvor]

Jackass. Thanks a lot for believing in me! :o

Honestly I had the same thought too.

Anyway Smoof, you and the other guy's okay, most important. I'm wondering what the liability is on this kind of thing, did you have full coverage?

I've been in two accidents, one my fault the other not and neither major. But I've decided I should carry full coverage, rather than leave it up to chance.

[Smoof]

Both the drivers in the accident only had/have liability. So, I'll probably be paying for repairs to my car out of my own pocket.

[Shjinta]

Jackass. Thanks a lot for believing in me! :o

Psh you know I love you.... Not in the Mag Gnome way though.. No offense Mag.. it's just..that...Oh...I'm just making things worse as I try to create meanings over meanings.. I'll shutup.

[Disgustipated]

Both the drivers in the accident only had/have liability. So, I'll probably be paying for repairs to my car out of my own pocket.

Wow, that fucking sucks! Sorry to hear that... :\

This whole tale makes me glad I'm getting new brake pads installed today.

[Shjinta]

Wow, that fucking sucks! Sorry to hear that... :\

This whole tale makes me glad I'm getting new brake pads installed today.

Which won't last :P See, in order for them to work.. You need to use them. And for you Dis, I see you saying fuck it and hitting the gas to make the crash look even more epic. I mean, why halfass it right? :P

[Talanvor]

Both the drivers in the accident only had/have liability. So, I'll probably be paying for repairs to my car out of my own pocket.

Depends on who the insurance companies find at fault, but since you hit him... technically(?), I think you'll need to cover your own. Well, you'll hear about that soon enough.

[Disgustipated]

Psh you know I love you.... Not in the Mag Gnome way though.. No offense Mag.. it's just..that...Oh...I'm just making things worse as I try to create meanings over meanings.. I'll shutup.

Yeah, that'd be best. *shakes head*

Which won't last :P See, in order for them to work.. You need to use them. And for you Dis, I see you saying fuck it and hitting the gas to make the crash look even more epic. I mean, why halfass it right? :P

Hah, actually I've been perfecting the art of braking + cruising up to stop lights by engine braking and doing light braking. :p

[Smoof]

So, my sister examined me tonight and said what I have is a sprained joint capsule. She recommended I do what I'm doing now and just ice it and use crutches for a while.

It's getting better and better. I can walk a bit better now, though it's still tough and I'd prefer to use crutches. But good to hear that I don't have anything I need to go to the hospital for.

[Kielaran]

That's good news. Hopefully if you baby it, it will get better fast.

[Smoof]

Got some funny news today from the shop where I dropped my car off.

$6300 to repair it.

Hahaha. What a load of shit. They're blatantly trying to rip me off.

[Bad Buddha]

Messed-up my car pretty bad, pretty much sheered off the passenger side front wheel and did some body damage.

Got some funny news today from the shop where I dropped my car off.

$6300 to repair it.

Hahaha. What a load of shit. They're blatantly trying to rip me off.
Rebuild the whole front end & suspension, check for bent frame, new front fender, radiator, grill, new hood, lights housings & lenses and assorted mounting brackets and fittings. Plus any engine component damage.

Sounds like it's in the ballpark to me.

Surprising how quickly it adds up, especially when you add in the labor charges. It's quite easy to "total" a car these days! :(

[TrackZero]

I haven't gotten it checked out yet. However, I'll probably be going at some point in the next few days. I'm going to see how it feels tomorrow and probably go from there. Then, Sunday I'll have my sister look at it; she's a doctor, so I'll get her prognosis and then go from there on Monday. Well...probably Tuesday, because I have a Logic midterm on Monday.

I'm not too worried about it just yet. My initial inspection (though I'm no trained professional) is that it's just some serious bruising. I can still move it, it's just really tight and swollen. It doesn't hurt when I press on it and my bones seem to feel okay at the moment. But yeah, I'll be getting it checked out soon.

I sat here and thought "why don't you just go get it check out". Then I realized you'd have to pay for it. ;(

[Bad Buddha]

I sat here and thought "why don't you just go get it check out". Then I realized you'd have to pay for it. ;(
I thought, "Oh! He's having his personal MD fly in to check his injuries." ;)

[Smoof]

Rebuild the whole front end & suspension, check for bent frame, new front fender, radiator, grill, new hood, lights housings & lenses and assorted mounting brackets and fittings. Plus any engine component damage.

Sounds like it's in the ballpark to me.

Surprising how quickly it adds up, especially when you add in the labor charges. It's quite easy to "total" a car these days! :(

Only the passenger side needs fixing. A front fender is $50, radiator (though I don't think I need one) is ballpark $100 used, hood/bumper $150, I already have lights and then the suspension for the passengerside is about $400-$500 with labor. There really shouldn't be THAT much in need of repair. I hit hard, but I don't think I hit THAT hard. I'm gonna go check it out today and have them break it down for me, as well as take pictures of the car.

[Inspector Fowler]

I don't mean to be a dick, but you had insurance, right? Because they should be covering both the repairs and any medical costs related to the accident. Sure, you'll get dicked on your premium, but that's better than $6000 on a credit card and a fucked up leg you don't get fixed up.

[Inspector Fowler]

I sat here and thought "why don't you just go get it check out". Then I realized you'd have to pay for it. ;(

You do realize that you DO pay for it, right? In taxes? Or if not you, somebody else? Not to derail the thread, but since you took the first shot ;)

[Kielaran]

I don't mean to be a dick, but you had insurance, right? Because they should be covering both the repairs and any medical costs related to the accident. Sure, you'll get dicked on your premium, but that's better than $6000 on a credit card and a fucked up leg you don't get fixed up.

He said he just had liability insurance, so he is really shit outta luck on getting his car repaired for free. Injuries are another beast and I am not sure how they are handled on liability insurance.

[Smoof]

My injuries are taken care of. My sister is a doctor, she checked me out and said I'm good. Well, behind the sprain in the knee, of course. Which sucks, wish it would go away, because I'm damn tired of using crutches. Though I have a knee brace now which will let me walk on it a bit.

As far as my car goes, I went to inspect it yesterday and yeah, it's pretty much a write-off. The frame seems okay, but the entire front end is shifted just a bit, which would have to be repaired. Just with that and the mechanical, I'm looking at about what I paid for the car, then it still needs body damage repair.

Disappointing, as I loved that car. But, I guess I'll just have to start looking again.

[Bad Buddha]

Disappointing, as I loved that car.
What kind was it?

[Smoof]

It was a '94 Honda Civic EX 1.6L Vtech Manual

Out of all the cars I've owned:
1986 Ford Bronco 351 Auto
1993 Ford Taurus SHO 3.2 Manual
1995 Ford Thunderbird 3.8 Supercharged Manual

The Honda was my absolute favorite. It was comfortable, clean, solid, everything worked as it should and it got 33MPG each time I filled the tank up. Really makes me sad that it's fucked.

[Bad Buddha]

It was a '94 Honda Civic EX 1.6L Vtech Manual

Out of all the cars I've owned:
1986 Ford Bronco 351 Auto
1993 Ford Taurus SHO 3.2 Manual
1995 Ford Thunderbird 3.8 Supercharged Manual

The Honda was my absolute favorite. It was comfortable, clean, solid, everything worked as it should and it got 33MPG each time I filled the tank up. Really makes me sad that it's fucked.
Wow! That list contains some pretty heavy hardware. Sorry, dude!

Keep on icing that knee and take some ibuprofen. Take care

[Smoof]

I should also mention the Civic was a sedan. God, I love sedans. It was nice going from owning a Thunderbird for about four years to owning a completely unmolested (all the other cars were modified in some way, by either me or someone else) sedan that I could carry people in.

Oh well. I have some money I saved-up in the case of a rainy day, which looks like this is it. I'm looking into 98ish Civic Sedans now. Hopefully I can find one I like.

[Inspector Fowler]

I guess I also should know that insurance varies from state to state. Here you are required to have medical insurance, and they recently required that you have even more medical insurance to cover you in case the other guy is uninsured.

And I'm too afraid to go without comprehensive. My wife wants to take it off her car since it's 11 years old, but I'd rather pay the money.

[Smoof]

Figured I may as well toss out an update:

Been looking at cars since I started this thread, but nothing has really turned up. I looked a '98 Civic Sedan, but didn't care for how it drove. An 89 Civic Hatch Base, which I liked, but the owner wanted $1000 (!) for it and wouldn't take my offer of $500, even though the car had 190k miles on it and was basically a beater. Also looked at a '95 or so Nissan Altima, which was a heap of shit. '96 Accord which was in nice shape, but the owner didn't take my offer on, though he called me back today.

But, I have my Civic at my parents house now and yesterday I dropped by their house after school to spend the night since my laptop was coming today. Since the Civic, as of Tuesday, now sits in their driveway, I decided to see what I could do. I wrenched on it for about 2 hours or so and took off both fenders, the bumper, but left the hood on. So far, from looking at it like this, damage looks fairly minimal. Underneathe the fender that was hit is actually straight, the only part that is bent/shifted is the aluminum inside the engine bay where the fender was bolted in. From the looks of it, I may be able to bang some of this back into shape and easily swap on a new front end for a minimal amount ($260 or so). I'm planning to remove the wheel/tire when I get a chance (would have today, but it was rainy and cold) and see what kind of damage I did in there. Right now, I estimate all I might need is an upper/lower control arm and I should be good to go.

It looks like I may be able to fix my car myself for under $1000. The thing is, I'm wondering if I can do it or if there's more damage than I can see. It looks as though I should be able to do this with minimal hassle, but I'm unsure. Which is also why I'm debating on calling the guy back with his Accord and buying it off of him for $2500. I think I at least need to give my car a shot though. I just don't want a bunch of parts I ordered going to waste because I can't get them on.

[Johan]

I'm wondering...if there's more damage than I can see.

Probably is. Very likely.

On the bright side, I'm a natural pessimist, so things could be fine. But they're not.

[Dr. Quasius]

Hey Smoof, now that it's been a couple of weeks, how's the knee?

[Smoof]

Better to the point that I forgot to even mention it! I've been wearing a knee brace for a good few weeks now and I think today I'm going to go without it completely. I still get a bit of pain now and then, but otherwise, I'm pretty good.

[Dr. Quasius]

Better to the point that I forgot to even mention it! I've been wearing a knee brace for a good few weeks now and I think today I'm going to go without it completely. I still get a bit of pain now and then, but otherwise, I'm pretty good.

That's good to hear. Knee injuries are nasty things and I'm glad it worked out for you.

[Smoof]

Looks like tomorrow I shall have a new car. a 1996 Honda Accord. I'm looking forward to it, though I'm less keen on how the car drives overall versus my Civic. It doesn't feel as tight, but after driving a few 1996+ Hondas, I'm convinced they just feel this way in general. Anyway, I'm looking forward to it. A bit less gas mileage and harder to park in my neighborhood (downtown Denver, space is very limited), but I actually fit in it better (I'm 6'2") than I did the Civic and it's already got a stereo with MP3 plug, so I don't have to worry about getting mine installed.

I decided to buy it today after checking out my Civic. I was checking for major damage when I discovered that luckily, the transmission case wasn't cracked or broken, but the unibody is about 1"-1.5" off. One side measures 42.5" and the other 40", so my front end is quite a bit off. It was a little disappointing to see as I love my Civic and wish I could still have it, but oh well.

If this post was hard to understand, it's because I'm drunk.