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Accident on I-94: my Mazda is a total loss
Posted by: Thierry in Cars, Our newsVoir cet article en
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Well… 2 days after visiting the auto show, my car is dead.
I was coming back from work last Thursday evening, on I-94 in Michigan. Roads were really slippery because of the small snow falling on the concrete road surface and the fact that MDOT is not putting any salt or sand on the roads until it gets REALLY bad. I saw 3 or 4 accidents on my way, on my side of the highway only.
About 10 km from home, I was being pushed a bit byt a dark Jeep. Decided to play it safe (I could tell it was slippery even with my winter tires) and move over in the middle lane and let that car pass. Right after passing me, the Jeep lost control, hit the concrete median wall in the middle of the highway, rebounded off it and aimed straight at me. The direction of the jeep was aiming more towards the rear of my car, so hitting the break was not an option. I tried to press the gaz pedal a bit to clear her. I almost thought I succeded when at the last second, the Jeep bumped me on my rear driver side corner, sending me into a spin. I did a few 360’s, crashed my front end on the concrete wall in the middle of the highway and the passenger side rear corner.
After the car stopped, I had a hard time bringing it to the curb it was so damaged. All my coolant on the ground, had to push REAL hard to open my door since my front bumper was wrapped around my door on the side.
The Jeep that lost control was then T-boned by another car.
The driver of the Jeep was a pregnant women - one would think that in these conditions she would drive more carefully. Within minutes, we had a big circus going: 3 police cars, 2 fire trucks, 2 ambulances and 2 tow trucks. All highway lanes closed but one because of us…
Anyway.. it took forever to get home: waited 1.5 hours for a taxi that took all the US money I had left on me to bring me back in Canada).
The day after, I went to the impound to look at my car and take my belonging out. Here are a the pictures:
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Since I had a lot of mileage on the car (159 000 km) it is clear that it is a total loss. I am now waiting on the insurance to appraise the value of the car before I get out something else. I feel like I am going to get screwed… The black book says the value is between $1000 and $3000 only, while similar high mileage models are on www.trader.ca for 7000-8000$.
It really sucks: that car was still driving very nicely, reliable, it was all paid for, it was triathlon and dog friendly… I am now going to be back with car payments. Oh well…
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Jan. 31 2011 at 7:41 pm
Salut mon grand! Eh bien, c’est sûr que c’est bien dommage pour ton auto mais tu aurais pu être blessé sérieusement!
Question assurances, j’ai eu 2 expériences de perte totale pour lesquels ça s’est avéré positif et j’ai obtenu beaucoup plus que si j’étais allé échanger ma voiture dans un garage. C’est peut-être différent en Ontario?
Laisse-moi savoir et donne m’en des nouvelles………….Papa.
Jan. 31 2011 at 8:21 pm
Bonjour! Oui, j’ai été très chanceux. Pour la valeur de la voiture, chez un concessionnaire comme échange elle valait pas plus de 1500 à 2500$. Par contre, dans les petites annonces, pas possible d’en trouver à moins de 7000$. Alors tout dépend de ce à quoi on compare…. Je ne sais pas quelle référence ils utilisent….