The decision that almost changed my life.

Toyman01 wrote: There was no evidence that the other car ever hit the brakes.

ABS and Stability control eliminate the obvious signs of braking, so there a good chance of no skid marks on pavement even if the brakes were applied.

But regardless, the important thing is that your family is ok.

novaderrik wrote: one thing to keep in mind: if he had decided to go in that car, it would have left home a little earlier or a little later- or even made an extra stop for a candy bar or whatever it is that kids want these days- and not been at the place where the accident took place at the time that it took place and the accident would not have happened.. even if the difference was a few seconds, it's enough to have changed the outcome and this post would have never been made.

This. Just maybe don't watch Run Lola Run for a few days anyway.

Very glad all seems to be okay.

In reply to Mike:

I don't speak a word of German but I love that movie, and Ive never watched it with sub titles.

Wow... just wow...

Glad you and your son are ok! And life has a funny way of working out like that. I've had a few close calls and "what ifs" in my day too.

We had an elderly man pull out directly in front of us one day, my wife was driving. The impact was at around 30 mph and she didn't have time to hit the brakes. From the time he started to pull out to the time of impact I had enough time to say "oh shi" and get my hands up in front of my face before we hit. We hit him square in the drivers door. My wife's three month old Mitsubishi Lancer was a write off, neither of the front doors would open. I believe the gentleman was driving a Buick Park Ave. I don't know how he fared in the collision, after I got my wife out I went to check on him, the drivers door was shoved in about 8". I asked him if he was okay and he said he thought his ribs were broken. He was breathing all right so I didn't think he punctured a lung or anything. But I'm sure he was hurting.

Anyway, I can believe the 45 mph impact, it just seems like a lot of intrusion though.

So glad the family is OK. Side impacts are so tough, it's nearly impossible to build a car that could stand up to that sort of hit. 45-55 into the door......is just too much kinetic energy. When the ex took that sort of a hit head on in a sequoia it removed the engine from it's mounts. Ditto with brother in a Saab. Cars have room to work with for frontal impacts, side-on.....not so much.

Life is a game of seconds and inches, there is no way to prepare for them all, just do the best we can.

Looks like my friend's ZX2. He left a country road at 55mph when it transitioned from clear to snowy. Hit sideways into a phone pole without slowing down much. True to form, he hit on the codriver's side, just in front of the B-pillar.

His future wife was in the passenger seat.

She couldn't lift her arms over her head for about a month, and she had enough GI bleeding from the crash and some of the medications (blood thinners? i dunno, something) that she had all KINDS of colorful information about her poop over the following weeks that I will spare you guys.

Looks awful, probably not as bad as it looks.

Either way, it's good that nobody had to find out!

Toyman01 wrote: We were discussing how the Jeep Liberty would have taken the hit. Really the only advantage would be it sits above the impact. It probably would have landed on the roof, but the intrusion into the cabin area would have probably been less and the impact would have also been below the seat.

Perhaps. On the other hand, the side impact bar in the door ties the A- and B-pillars together, so to push it in you have to banana the floor and roof. A "low" floor hit wouldn't do that, it would just pull the bottom together and shove the seat over (good) and up (bad).

Stage rally cages in the US have a "stump bar" across the bottom for this reason.

KyAllroad wrote: So glad the family is OK. Side impacts are so tough, it's nearly impossible to build a car that could stand up to that sort of hit. 45-55 into the door......is just too much kinetic energy.

Look at the side crashes of the likes of Volvo's and Saab's. That's a good part of the reason we chose them.

Crashes do happen. Not a bad idea to consider how your chosen ride will fare in one.

The other way to look at it is that the time it took him to get in the car might have delayed the trip by the split second it took to make the whole thing a boring drive instead of a collision.

You can drive yourself nuts thinking about whatifs.

Somedays all one can do is just be thankful for being here with our loved ones. (Here on this planet, not this forum, although we should also be thankful for that. )

Lucky stars and all that.

I'm one who is hesitant to believe in most "divine intervention" or to think our god even gives a E36 M3, but there is more to the reason your son made the choice he did.

Glad Mrs. Toyman01 is ok . . .

N Sperlo wrote: I'm one who is hesitant to believe in most "divine intervention" or to think our god even gives a E36 M3, but there is more to the reason your son made the choice he did.

every moment of your life is a choice- do this or do that- and it affects every moment and thus every choice that comes after it... there is no need to drag supernatural or divine beings into it, sometimes the choices pile up to good outcomes and sometimes they pile up into not so good outcomes.

Toyman01 wrote:

Man, that picture bought back memories of my 87 Mustang hatchback that I got T-boned in back in 1994. Looks similar to that aftermath. Passenger was inside my car completely. Dash cracked in halves in several places and pushed towards drivers side. Front windshield cracked everywhere but I mostly was hit by spraying glass from the shattered passenger window. The rear view mirror flew off with a piece of the front windshield glass and hit my forehead It caused a laceration. My passenger seat was completely sheared off the floorboard and was pressing me onto the driver side door. I had a big subwoofer in the back that was big with two 15 inch sub woofer speakers under the cargo cover in the hatchback. It shattered the glass of the hatchback. Hwy patrol officer said I was very lucky to have survived this wreck. He took me home when I did not want to go to the hospital. My mother actually cried and then fainted when she saw the car in person the next day. My Dad was in disbelief and said I should have been dead or in the hospital. Shocking thing is I went back to work the next day barely 8 hours after the accident.

Fast forward two years later in 1996, I got T-boned on that same road barely 1000 yards away in a Audi GT.

Glad to hear that your wife is ok and your son was not a part of the accident.

Don't think of it like your kid almost died. Think of it as your kid miraculously lived. Every day you get with him is an extra-special double-bonus.

Go buy him pizza and ice cream to celebrate that he's alive.

novaderrik wrote:

N Sperlo wrote: I'm one who is hesitant to believe in most "divine intervention" or to think our god even gives a E36 M3, but there is more to the reason your son made the choice he did.

every moment of your life is a choice- do this or do that- and it affects every moment and thus every choice that comes after it... there is no need to drag supernatural or divine beings into it, sometimes the choices pile up to good outcomes and sometimes they pile up into not so good outcomes.

Maybe Toyman put's his faith in Someone you guy's don't. Maybe he wants to bring Him into it. Be more open minded. I'm happy for you Toyman that you were given more time with your son!

Sitting here and reading all of this... honestly I want the car out of the yard. As much as I loved my two months driving ot... seeing it is freaking hard and I've only been able to get near it twice. Every time I've gotten in a car since it was dropped off, I've have my hands shaking for the next 15 minutes until I could calm down.

The other driver has a broken arm that's required surgery and all kinds of things. She also has several tickets for speeding and reckless driving. I've had several people that said she had to be flying but she didn't get a ticket this time. It was my stupid goof and my heart aches at how bad it could have ended up.

I'm thinking it would have taken at least a double NASCAR door bar do prevent intrusion into the passenger space. These photos now have me re-thinking the front half of the cage for my track car. Thank you!

WildScotsRacing wrote: I'm thinking it would have taken at least a double NASCAR door bar do prevent intrusion into the passenger space. These photos now have me re-thinking the front half of the cage for my track car. Thank you!

Build the cage to whatever specs are used for the type of racing that you're closest to.

In stage rally where point-contact side hits similar to this are the thing to watch out for (trees/stumps/poles/etc), NASCAR style bars are verboten. Tubes must be straight so that they work under tension immediately. A NASCAR style bar would bend at the point contact, rotating away from the front hoop and main hoop, allowing a foot or more of intrusion before it was actually loaded in tension, at which point the bars will probably break in the middle or break off at the ends from the extreme bending.

They work great if you're guarding against grinding a wall or being bumped at ~30mph relative velocity by another car, which is the normal crash mode in NASCAR.

Cages have to be designed for their intended use.

IIRC the latest and greatest for track cars is stage rally style straight tubes, with a force-dissipating foam core between the door skin and the roll cage itself. It has a proper name that I can't think of at the moment, but it looks great.

If I counted all the "I should be dead" moments, well...

Very glad everyone is OK, what a hit. I have noticed in the 30 years I have been driving a number of times when if I had been a little earlier leaving someplace things could have been very different and it always make me think.