Fess Up, first wrecks

The 'bubble burst' thread got me thinking. I am sure I am not the only one who has bone headed a car into something as a young person. It is easy to pick on the latest guy to do, but I am sure a few have our own stories. Fess up.

I'll start. First winter driving, 83 1/3 Mercury Lynx (Ford Escort), showing off doing handbrake turns on the snowy roads, I managed to hit a dry spot just right and put it on its side.

What have you got?

Teaching my wife (then girlfriend) to drive stick in my 1982 Toyota pickup.

She drove it alright, right into a tree.

First car, first winter, freezing rain, slid off the road 2 block from my house and hit a tree.

Fixed the car and wrecked it real good that summer going way way too fast and went off on a corner hitting a wall that ran parallel to the road.

I wasn't too bright as a 17 year old.

With my mom, brother, and 2 cousins loaded up in my mom's 2000 626, I hit a patch of ice and skipped across a ditch into a field that's often filled with farm equipment. Luckily, it was off season and the field was empty.

It taught me to adjust my speed to the conditions. No injuries, and I had the car fixed in about 30 minutes.

I have to say that I'm glad it happened early on and we were all uninjured. Taught me a ton about humility and that I wasn't invincible.

My first car was a 59 Morris Minor 1000. I was driving home from school and noticed a VW rolling out from a street that entered the street I was on from my right. I pulled into the left lane to drive around her. The lady driver looked up from what she was doing, saw me, and popped the clutch entering the lane I was in. I drove it into the left side ditch as a last effort to go around her. She drove into the ditch and caught my RF bumper and fender with her LF. We both hit the brakes at the last second so there wasn't much damage. As it turned out, she really didn't know how to drive a manual trans. and was looking down trying to figure out how to get it into first.

The lesson: ALWAYS assume that a driver will pull out in front of you. Especially when you're on a motorcycle.

The day before my 16th birthday, I put my Pontiac Grand Prix SE into a tree. I went through a yield, and there was a car in the way. Rather than hit the car, I threw it off the road and into a tree. (I wasn't real bright then, either, and I had no idea about how to drive a car).

In reply to Graefin10:

I go one up on that and expect that every driver is out to get me. Since I started doing that, I haven't had a single incident.

Now, I'm probably going to roll my Jeep today. Just watch.

My first car wreck was backing a truck into a New Holand stack wagon.

My first driver was a 1981 Plymouth voyager, it was a 3/4ton van. My first accident happened when I pulled into a gas station, ran in grabbed a mello yello, ran out jumped back in looked into my mirrors and backed out of my space. Unbeknownst to me a guy in a brand new 1996 escort had pulled in behind me; so I backed up and pushed his new car across the parking lot. The damage was quite extensive, two blown tires and the side of the car was all pushed in it was totaled. He had to exit the other side; I just did not see him. Pretty minor damage to the van, used a pinch bar to bend the bumper back out. I am particular to this day about using all my mirrors during normal driving.

Had my license 3 days when I traveling in my Torana up a heavily grooved dirt track, one car width wide, came upon a Corona wagon coming the other way, turned the wheels but they dug into the ruts and I locked the fronts, sliding into the front of the only other car in 30 miles.

I like to think I would do that differently now.

I plead the 5th.

T.J. wrote: I plead the 5th.

Tell it all brother, tell it all.

Never had one that was my fault, but my first wreck was a head on with a car on a one way, one lane, curved bridge. She was trying to use an off ramp as an on ramp. Totaled both vehicles.

Working on a friends 84 GTi at the shop where I worked I took it for a test drive. Rounding a tight bend I slowed then the brake pedal went to the floor and I tried to catch it. Fish tailed off the road into a small tree and bent the rear beam and some sheet metal. Got it back to the shop and on the lift. Found the right front brake hose cut from his earlier off road excursion (reason it was in the shop). I had an extra rear beam so we simply swapped it in and punched out the sheet metal. Replaced the brake hose. All was fine!

I grazed a tree and put a crease in dad's fender within an hour of getting my license on my first ever solo outing.

My first car.. a heavily modified Superbeetle.. I fishtailed on dirt and slid rearwards off of the road and into scrub brush (that kept me from doing rear first into the local reseviour) No damage to anything but my pride and wallet to get it pulled out

I was driving my 2nd hand me down car at the time, a bitchin 92 Chrysler Town and Country minivan.

I had just dropped my sister and her boyfriend off at the movies, was driving away. There was a main travelway with rows of parking on either side of me. I was fussing with the stereo, but traveling a reasonable parking lot speed with my lights on (it was evening time). A car with another young driver came flying out of one of the side rows of parking (aka he did not slow or yield at all to check if there was anyone coming down this "travelway") and I pummeled his right rear door and quarter panel.

We both ended up being "at fault" because it was a private parking lot. He told the officer I didn't have my lights on which I did, I pointed out that he did not yield which would have been customary, but I guess that didn't matter. I still maintain I was not at fault but maybe if I wasn't looking at the stereo it could have at least been avoided or the damage reduced.

Not long after my van was fixed, I hit a deer at 60mph and totalled it.

That's been my only accidents.

'72 Mustang Grande. Backing out of the alley by a friend's house. Had another friend in the back seat turn around & say "nothing behind you". Moments later, WHAM, right into a telephone pole. The lower 1/4-panel behind the wheel fell off as one big chunk of bondo and newspaper.

One winter driving my '88 Jetta I took a decreasing-radius on-ramp heading to work. The road was clear of snow/ice and I was trying to drive the racing-line. Unfortunately the road wasn't clear of salt and gravel. I spun off the outside into the snow, dropped it into 1st and stayed on the gas. Managed to hop back onto the road after the car behind had passed, and carried on to work. Still, in hindsight it could have been bad.

Of course, if I listed every bonehead thing I've done behind the wheel we'd be here a week!

Let my tires get bald and hydroplaned into a trailer.

Installed Addco sway bars on my 65 Mustang. Went for test drive and learned the hard way about about throttle-induced oversteer in a neutral car. Big tank slapper into a split-rail fence bloodied my rear quarter panel. Lived with the cosmetic ugliness for the rest of the years I owned it, as a reminder.

My '89 Escort GT, about 3 months after I turned 16.

At a relatively hard-to-see 4 way intersection (only 1 way had a stop sign), I pulled out in front of a truck and got T-boned, thankfully in the passenger side, directly between the wheels.

The tint kept the glass from breaking, hit the fuel pump reset switch and drove it home.

My next car was my '88 300ZX, I paid my own insurance, it was incredibly high in 1998.

The family's tow vehicle, '94 Chevy 1500, when I was 17.

Came around a 145 degree blind bend on gravel (too fast), met a school bus, decided to try to make the right ditch (left side was trees), missed the bus, hit a culvert, blew the front right tire, rim dug in, rolled to passenger side. Scuffed the pass. side pretty badly, tweaked the front suspension. We rolled it back onto its wheels and drove it home though.

No wrecks since then.

The first wreck that I was the driver I was 18, and I simply slid on ice into a curb on the passenger side...at 35 mph...with the wheel locked full left.

Thrashed the wheel, control arms, and twisted the subframe. Dad was not happy. But, ya know what they say, any accident you can walk away from is a good one.

There was also a time at college - snowstorm in Cincinnati. I am parallel parking on a hill side street, theres about 8" of snow on the streets. Im about 3 car lengths down from the crest of the hill. A car came screaming over the crest, and with the snow, there wasnt hope at all of him missing me. He said his dad told him that he needed to keep it pegged on hills in the snow, or he'd slide down (dads an idiot ). ripped the bumper off his camry, put a scuff in the bumper of my cavalier.

16, Dads 90 Grand Am with 190K on OE shocks (he's not one for maint outside of oil changes). Curve in a dirt road with DEEP washboards.
needless to say the back started bouncing HARD and slid around. Nose of the car pushed into the dirt embankment. I can still remember the car standing on it nose for a second or two while I prayed for it to fall backwards. No such luck. landed on the Passenger side A pillar, lowering it 4".

That was a long 2/3 mile walk back home to tell dad and get the tractor to pull it home.

No ticket, but parents took my license for 6 months in front of the cops that actually showed up.

z31maniac wrote: My next car was my '88 300ZX, I paid my own insurance, it was incredibly high in 1998.

Tell me about it. My first purchase was an 88 Saleen when I was 17 in 1999. Insurance was about $400 a month and the payment was only $140.

I wrecked that car leaving work in a huff. Launched from first and as I shifted into second the rear end grenaded. I did everything in my power but it went around into a curb. Four rims, four tires, new brakes and a new rear end were needed to fix it. Insurance totaled it out for $5K more than I bought it for and I sold it to my mechanic who had it road worthy before I had cleared the title back from the insurance company.