dos4who?

On my way to work this AM. Got 300 feet out the driveway (just enough time to get into 4th gear ) and I rear-ended a massive Ford pickup. Not a scratch on his bumper - did $2500 to my front end. $HIT!

I'm OK - I was actually sick when I got up this morning, so I just stayed at work until the rest of the staff showed up - then I went back home and spent most of the day in bed. A safe place to be, that bed...

~m

__________________
PII 266, 512 MB RAM, 10 Gig, 36x CD-ROM, 16x DVD, DeLorme GPS, 5.6" LCD Screen, Dschmidt power controller, Keypower ATX DC-DC Supply, PowerAmp Macro controller, Dauphin mini-Kbd.
Sony Head Unit, Sony Unilink input selector, rear deck Kenwood 6x9's, stock door spkrs... All in my '96 Civic, of course :}
BC ROCKS!!!

MP3Car.com

 

Aaron Cake

Hmm...Well, as long as you're OK.

What is it lately with everyone being in accidents or having vandalism problems?

__________________
Player: Pentium 166MMX, Amptron 598LMR MB w/onboard Sound, Video, LAN, 10.2 Gig Fujitsu Laptop HD, Arise 865 DC-DC Converter, Lexan Case, Custom Software w/Voice Interface, MS Access Based Playlists
Car: 1986 Mazda RX-7 Turbo (highly modded), 1978 RX-7 Beater (Dead, parting out), 2001 Honda Insight
"If one more body-kitted, cut-spring-lowered, farty-exhausted Civic revs on me at an intersection, I swear I'm going to get out of my car and cram their ridiculous double-decker aluminium wing firmly up their rump."

PaulzY

its christmas end of year holiday break etc.

everyone is either in a hurry or cant afford to buy their own presents

g60

Yikes! Glad your ok

Is your car repairable?
You weren't watching movies where you

__________________
>\\MP3G60//<

dos4who?

LOL!! HAH HAH HAH!!!

No, but it was stereo-related... I had just popped on the faceplate and hit "Source" for the radio, and AM News 1130 was tuned in.. All that "talk radio" just BLASTED in my ears, and I looked down just long enough to tap the volume down a few db's.... Looked up and... Awww.. $hit! The truck on the road ahead of me had stopped .. for NO APPARENT REASON! There was a car just at my rear-right quarter panel, so I couldn't swerve into that lane... Slammed on the brakes (in the pouring rain) - Thought..."I'm gonna hit... No I'm not... Yes, I am - S#IT!!". SMACK!


Yes, repairable... So far, the noticeable damage is hood, d/side headlamp ***'y ($400!), grille, rad support, d/side fender (ever-so-slightly buckled in 1 spot). Bumper *seems* OK - Airbag never went off... Damned good thing... That would have REALLY woken me up...

~m

__________________
PII 266, 512 MB RAM, 10 Gig, 36x CD-ROM, 16x DVD, DeLorme GPS, 5.6" LCD Screen, Dschmidt power controller, Keypower ATX DC-DC Supply, PowerAmp Macro controller, Dauphin mini-Kbd.
Sony Head Unit, Sony Unilink input selector, rear deck Kenwood 6x9's, stock door spkrs... All in my '96 Civic, of course :}
BC ROCKS!!!

Aaron Cake

No offense is meant by this, but people need to learn that the brake is not a panic peddle. Most accidents could be avoided by proper braking techniques, or simply avoiding the situation with the steering wheel. I think that driving schools really need to start concentrating on actually teaching this stuff...

__________________
Player: Pentium 166MMX, Amptron 598LMR MB w/onboard Sound, Video, LAN, 10.2 Gig Fujitsu Laptop HD, Arise 865 DC-DC Converter, Lexan Case, Custom Software w/Voice Interface, MS Access Based Playlists
Car: 1986 Mazda RX-7 Turbo (highly modded), 1978 RX-7 Beater (Dead, parting out), 2001 Honda Insight
"If one more body-kitted, cut-spring-lowered, farty-exhausted Civic revs on me at an intersection, I swear I'm going to get out of my car and cram their ridiculous double-decker aluminium wing firmly up their rump."

dos4who?

I know there is no malice intended there, Aaron... But from anyone else, I would have considered that a "dig".

But as for the driving school aspect, basic training (ie: Young Drivers of Canada) just covers the basics. I agree that it's unfortunate that to learn "real world" driving skills, your choices are limited:

1 - Expensive professional driving courses
2 - Spend a year/season on the track
3 - Life lessons (Drive, crash. Drive, crash... learn by your mistakes)

4 - Other, situation-specific opportunities.. For instance, I was fortunate enough to live out near logging-truck roads, and I did a couple years' back-road driving before I was old enough for my license. It wasn't exactly legal at age 14, but avoiding logging trucks at high speed while going around blind corners, putting the pickup truck in the ditch a few times and hitting the odd tree sure helped a lot with my car-handling skills. As much as I hated living out in the sticks (Mackenzie, BC. In case you didn't know where Mackenzie is, Prince George is the a$$hole of the world, and Mackenzie is just 120 miles up it)... Anyway, as much as i hated it there, I will always value that "backwoods driving course".

Sorry for the long post - I'm actually home today.. Sore back.. probably from the accident.. Going to see Doctor Crunch in 1/2 an hour. Gotta run.

PS - Last night I updated the photo in my member profile...for anyone who cares to see my family...

~m

__________________
PII 266, 512 MB RAM, 10 Gig, 36x CD-ROM, 16x DVD, DeLorme GPS, 5.6" LCD Screen, Dschmidt power controller, Keypower ATX DC-DC Supply, PowerAmp Macro controller, Dauphin mini-Kbd.
Sony Head Unit, Sony Unilink input selector, rear deck Kenwood 6x9's, stock door spkrs... All in my '96 Civic, of course :}
BC ROCKS!!!

dos4who?

Pics are now up... I never thought that my main picture-posting fest would be about my damaged car... :{

Many thanks to the nice ICBC claims agent who slipped me a disk with these photos :}

http://members.shaw.ca/thewindsors/images/

~m

__________________
PII 266, 512 MB RAM, 10 Gig, 36x CD-ROM, 16x DVD, DeLorme GPS, 5.6" LCD Screen, Dschmidt power controller, Keypower ATX DC-DC Supply, PowerAmp Macro controller, Dauphin mini-Kbd.
Sony Head Unit, Sony Unilink input selector, rear deck Kenwood 6x9's, stock door spkrs... All in my '96 Civic, of course :}
BC ROCKS!!!

MP3Car.com

 

Aaron Cake

Re: Damaged Car: Ouch! At least it's fairly easily repairable (assuming no engine damage).

Re: Driving: That's true, there are very limited options. Performance schools are very expensive, and most people aren't willing or interested to put in the money and time. However, in some places (most places?) in Europe, advanced driving classes are mandatory, and provided by the government (correct me if I'm wrong here). But let's face it, out governments don't care about our safety, and most people don't care about driving. Just look around, and this is fairly obvious.

What a lot of people don't realise is that the many car forums are a great place to learn about driving. As long as you find a forum geared toward performance (ie. RX-7 Forum and not Toyota Tercel forum) you can learn a great deal.

Spending some time with a new car in an empty parking lot is also a great idea. You can safely push the car to it's limits and learn how it behaves under extreme conditions.

However, the track is of course the best place to learn. Having spent quite a lot of time at the track myself, I can say that there is no doubt that it helped my daily driving. Since I go on-site a lot, I do a lot of driving every day, and the stuff I see just makes me cringe....Anyway...

__________________
Player: Pentium 166MMX, Amptron 598LMR MB w/onboard Sound, Video, LAN, 10.2 Gig Fujitsu Laptop HD, Arise 865 DC-DC Converter, Lexan Case, Custom Software w/Voice Interface, MS Access Based Playlists
Car: 1986 Mazda RX-7 Turbo (highly modded), 1978 RX-7 Beater (Dead, parting out), 2001 Honda Insight
"If one more body-kitted, cut-spring-lowered, farty-exhausted Civic revs on me at an intersection, I swear I'm going to get out of my car and cram their ridiculous double-decker aluminium wing firmly up their rump."

MP3Car.com