A very sad day :(

[countryford]

I was on my way home from work today in my baby (1974 Gran Torino), when some idiot pulled out in front of me and I hit his Dodge Ram 3/4 ton truck. Totaled my girl. Bent the frame on it. Luckily I wasn't hurt to badly. Just a knot on the head, scrapped nuckles, and bruised knee. I took pictures of the after effects of my car, but my cell phone isn't wanting to upload them tonight, so I'll try tomorrow. But here is what she looked like before. I almost cried. I've had her for over 4 years and have put well over 50,000 miles on her. May she rest in peace.

 

[conate]

sorry to hear that...

that's awful. Glad you're ok though.

 

[westyslantfront]

Hi Justin. I am sorry to see your Torino go. Most important was that you did not have any severe injuries.

Ross

 

[tomturbomatic]

Glad you are safe.

 

[jmm63]

Hi Justin, Glad you are ok!! Your story is almost like how my 76 Gran Torino meet its end. My brother borrowed it to go to the store and some idiot in a pickup truck ran a red light and my brother broadsided him. I couldn't believe he got out of the car considering how much damage there was. The engine was even pushed into the passenger compartment a little. I cried when saw her at the impound yard. But no one was hurt seriously, and thats the important part. I'll see if I can find a pic of her and scan it in, I loved that car. Glad you are ok, now go out there and rescue another good old Ford!!!
Jim

 

[rp2813]

Well Justin, at least you walked away from the accident. The Torino isn't done yet. Now she's going to help her brothers and sisters stay on the road. Hope you find a fun girl to replace her with.

Ralph

 

[nurdlinger]

Dodge Ram 3/4 ton truck

There must be 10,000 of these running around Tucson, most driven by very aggressive folks. It was a Dodge Ram that ran a stop sign last year and totaled my Windstar van.

 

[iheartmaytag]

Take comfort in the fact that your girl, though no longer as sound of body as she used to be, will continue to live on in others of her kind through "organ" donation.

I do pitty you for the next few days of having to deal with insurance adjusters. If you will use liberal amounts of lube it doesn't hurt so bad, cause they gonna get you. Hold out that your girl was a classic. It helps if you had some apprasials B.C. (Before Crash). At least you do have pictures to prove she was a looker.

BTW-It's not only Dodge PU's that will get you. The drunk that got me was in a Ford F-150. My Jeep was a 98 with only 60K on it and I still took it up the poop-shoot with him 100% at fault.

 

[retro-man]

Hey I am not aggressive

Well I guess that depends on what I am doing. My Dodge Ram pu is in the body shop this week getting a new bumper, tail light assembly and left rear quarter panel and a new tailgate. I was stopped at a red light and of course a teenager talking on her cell phone came up behind me and plowed right into me in her toyota. She almost made it up into the bed of the truck. She had to been doing at least 30mph. She said she never saw me. Totalled out her car. I told her good thing I stopped her caused she would have been killed going through the red light and would have been hit broadside. Interesting though I have a 2007 hyundai sonnata for a rental. Not a bad car. I am impressed with performance and handling. Can't wait to get my truck back so I can see whats going on up ahead of me.
Jon

 

[hydralique]

Sorry to hear about this . . .

I've been thwacked by a Dodge truck too, about 15 years ago on a freeway. The traffic stopped and the truck didn't, at least not until it hit the '66 Corvette I was driving. How can you miss seeing a green convertible with the top down on a sunny January day? The Corvette ended out getting repaired, but with no help from the driver of the truck. The truck was two years old and had been paid for with cash, then the driver cheaped out and cancelled her insurance. Duh!

 

[panthera]

My parents'

horrible accident was caused by an absolute asshole driving a great big Dodge Truck. I am beginning to wonder if folks shouldn't be required to prove their driving ability before they drive anything bigger than a tricycle.
Asshole claimed:
a) He didn't see them (fcuking gigantic Buick, you can't see a fcuking gigantic Buick?)
b) My dad - who the intersection camera showed had been stopped at a red light for 27 seconds - supposedly stopped suddenly and he only saw my dad slam on the brakes at the last moment when
c) Asshole hit my parents going between 47-60 mph.
I like big pick-ups and they are great fun to drive. But they don't make your dick any bigger or your driving abilities any better. Lots of folks drive them because they like them or need them for their lives or work. But one hell of a lot of compensating assholes are out there driving them when they shouldn't even be out in little Ford Fiestas.
That said - I am sorry your beautiful car was destroyed. If you don't mind some advice from a family that got shat on because some members (the fundamentalist Christians, of course) were too chicken shit to stand up and fight the bastard insurance companies: Get yourself the nastiest bastard lawyer you can find, the kind who turns old women and their barefoot grandkids (his own) out into the snow on Christmas Eve and sue the jerk and his insurers till they say uncle.
After what we went through - and are still going through, if you are a "nice guy" in the US today after such an accident, you will end up having to pay for *his* damages.

 

[iheartmaytag]

Panthera I will have to disagree

But they don't make your dick any bigger or your driving abilities any better.
Big vehicles don't make you drive any better, but you do have more of a false sense of security riding above everyong eles. I think this is what makes some Truck and SUV drivers drive more aggressively.

And BTW---Yea it is bigger too, I'm positive.

 

[panthera]

Oh, sure,

I get what you're saying, just it is an illusion. Me, whenever I have to drive a big truck, it is like...holy shit...this thing is way big.
And the reason it seems like you got more in your, er, pants, is 'cause your billfold's a lot smaller than it used to be after tanking one of the monsters up.
My partner let me drive one we borrowed after we picked up the thumper, Westy Slant Front dryer and MobileMaid out of a basement with a seriously nasty turn at the bottom. It was fun, hell yes.
I don't know. The decision to stop teaching kids driver's ed in school a few years back is coming back to to bite us in the ass. This No Child Left Behind bullshit has done enormous harm to the educational system in the US. I can see why folks might not appreciate the value of music and art class, PE and folk dancing. But cutting driver's ed and family living - the only time red necks in my family every heard about share and share alike - seriously hurt socialization. You can't drive like the jerk who totaled our friend's beautiful Ford or ruined my parent's life unless you really don't give a fcuk about other people.

 

[rp2813]

Keven, your final sentence in the above post says it all. I have rednecks in jacked-up trucks (many older and not all Dodges) driving down my street on a daily basis and I can assure you, they don't give a rat's ass about other people, they are too busy compensating with pedal to the metal as you've mentioned. I've been tempted when stopped at a light next to one of these losers to advise them that it's too bad about their dick but the potential for getting my head blown off by one of them keeps me quiet.

 

[iheartmaytag]

I've been tempted when stopped at a light next to one of

ad about their dick.

That is a little dangerous. You are probably correct to err on the side of caution.

Not everyone that drives tall vehicles are stupid little pecker people, however. They just forget that when they have something that big, there is a hell-of-a-lot more there to slide when you get in trouble.

The reason I bought my first Jeep was because I was tired of being the smalles guy on the road. I previously had a Dodge Shadow. After I got hit head-on by a drunk I found it hard to get into a small car. I was a little shell-shocked. The doctor told me if I had been in a small car he wasn't saying I wouldn't have made it, but I would have been more beat up and broken than I was.

The rest of you believe it's bigger--don't you?

 

[perc-o-prince]

It's all in who's driving too!

Let me paint the picture.

I drive a school bus. A freshman was added to my route earlier this year, and I was picking him up on a semi-side street. He waited at least 10' back on a side street until I pulled up.

Mother, who usually waited in her car near him until I picked him up at about 6:40am wasn't happy. She contacted the school. Since the kid was in some "special needs" classes, the mother was able to push that it was unsafe for him to wait on the side street off of the semi-side street where there was too much traffic (at 6:40am??? WTF???). So, now I had to go up the side street to a sub-side street (dead end/cul-de-sac) to pick the kid up. With me so far? Hang on... it does get to a point.

I saw the kid downtown (Mayberry RFD looks like NYC compared to our downtown) on his bike several afternoons. This meant he had to ride about 3/4 mile on the dangerous semi-side street, all alone, with even more traffic at 2-3pm than at 6:40am. What'd the school do? Shrug their shoulders.

Well, and here's where it ties into the current thread, he left his wallet in the bus last week. Of course I opened it to see whose it was, and lo an behold, what did I find??? A LEARNER'S PERMIT! This supposedly special needs kid, a 16yo freshman who can't wait off the road for a bus, but can ride his bike on the same road, is able to get behind the wheel of a ton-plus automobile!!!

Tell me what's wrong with this picture???

Chuck

 

[frontaloadotmy]

Justin

Sorry about your 1974 GT. I like those 70's cars too.
It is a good thing you didn't get real gacked. Good Thing
you have "Red Bird" to comfort you!!!!

 

[panthera]

Chuck,

Lot's of stuff is wrong with it, but before we get all huffed up about it, something occurs to me.
A friend of mine in the US is too handicapped (no, not "challenged", there is nothing he can do about it short of major advances in cybernetics) to drive. Back when we were kids, not a big deal - but by the time we got into our early 20's, not having a photo ID was a serious problem.
He solved it for many years by getting a learner's permit. Had his photo on it, was legit as ID. Today, of course, even my assbackwards home town of Fort Collins has photo IDs for people who can't drive. But back then, it was the only solution.
Oh, yeah - passports. Well, the local 7-11 wouldn't take mine and even today I have in-duh-vi-duals tell me a passport is not a legal form of ID all the time.
Just thinking out loud here.
Now, what should really be scaring you is: Who do you think is teaching the kid to drive but that charming mother? That should be your real worry!

 

[Cybrvanr]

I have heard staticstics say that 1 out of every 4 vehicles on the highway is being driven by an unlicensed driver. Taking away driver's permits does not keep people from getting behind the wheel...people just don't care who they kill or injure when they get behind the wheel. The sad part about it is that generally speaking, we as a society brush off highway deaths and injuries. We are still talking today about the 34 kids that killed at VA tech, everyone is outraged, and everyone wants something done. but hardly a word gets mentioned about the 37,000 people that get killed on our roads. There's no public outcry, there's nobody picketing congress, heck you are doing good if a car crash even makes it to the back page of the newspaper!