Last night I had the entertaining experience of getting into a 5 car pile up on the middle of I-5 during rush hour. Luckily I was recipient of the least amount of damage.
The Circumstances
It was sunny and rainy. Lots of spray was being thrown all around by the various big rigs that were populating the highway.
The Incident
I’m driving along and see this big wall of spray in front of me as it dissipates, I see a couple of cars that have severely reduced their speed. I brake to avoid a collision, which luckily I am able to do. I take a quick look in my rearview mirror and witness the chaos that is going on behind me. I knew at the instant I looked I was going to get hit. The impact came. It wasn’t too bad and I was able to quickly drive my car off to the side of the freeway.
The Result
I exited the vehicle, went to the back expecting the worst. To my surprise the damage was minimal. The back right of my car got clipped – a smashed taillight and the real panel has a small dent. The car behind me had managed to stop but then he got rear ended by another car behind him which pushed his car into mine. Neither of those two were able to drive their cars home. They were both taken to the hospital. One guy had his neck numb up on him and the other had chest pains. I assume the chest pains were a result of slamming against his steering wheel. The guy who hit me managed to lock his keys inside his car when he got out to take a look at the scene. I let him hang out in my car as we were waiting for the copes to show up. It was odd/humorous at the same time. He was chatting on the phone talking about what a fool he felt like for sitting in the car of the guy he hit.
The Big Clean-Up
Not having my car totaled and no injury had its drawback in the short term. Everybody else had their cars towed away – so they either got a ride to the hospital in an ambulance or left with their respective tow truck driver. I had to sit there the whole time waiting for all the other people to get sorted out. I ended up spending an hour and a half by the side of the road.
Epilogue
I’m going to take the Benz in to the auto body shop across the street at lunch to get a quick estimate. I should get all the information (police report, insurance stuff) about the accident tomorrow in the mail. And then it will be off to talk with the insurance companies for the other parties involved. This will be interesting to see how this works out. With this many people involved I’m sure in will be entertaining/frustrating at the same time. With a relatively small role I played, it should be over quickly.
I’ll post a picture of the intense trauma my tail light went through later today.
Monday Update
I got one estimate so far today. Approximately $1,200 to fix the tail light and quarter panel. The tail light assembly runs $400 new. Ouch.
first the crash, then the Sonics get punched in the nose
tough day for uncle stinky sock
I accepted the sonics defeat as the ball hit the front of the iron. The season is done. No one expected them to come anywhere close to getting this far. The sad thing is, other than ridnour, collison, and lewis, everyone else is a free agent. It will be a difficult offseason especially since a majority of contracts may be put off until the new collective bargaining agreement is signed.
any updates on the benz / insurance claim? i’ll keep my eyes out for a used tail light if you still need one… the quarter panel doesn’t look too bad from the pic…
the benz is fully functional again. the other parties insurance covered it all. it took them a week to fix it. i got to drive and 05 outback for a week. that was pretty fun. it’s not often i drive a car that is less than 10 years old. i’ll post an update with the foto of the new and improved corner. the only drawback is the new taillight is way shinier than the old one. iscrubbed the old one for a while and couldn’t come close to the shine of the new one.