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Cliffnotes – Lost control doing 40 on the freeway with minimal damage to Z. I got into a car accident on the last weekend in January. Honestly I got very lucky. I had just gassed up at Chevron and entered the freeway for a week long vacation and before I even got all the way out of the entrance lane I lost control. I was in a line of a bunch of cars just entering the freeway and everyone was going slow like 40 or so and there were no cars on any of the lanes next to me so I decided I would hop on over two lanes and start going 60. When I look over my shoulder it was wide open, then I look forward again and the car in front of me was RIGHT in front of me. They must have slowed down from 40 at the exact moment I turned my head because I never saw brake lights. I thought I could slam my brakes and possibly rear end them or I could swerve out of the way. Now that I think about it I should have just hit them in the ass. I’ve done a swerve exactly like this before except it was to avoid a skunk, going 60 on the back roads. The only difference this time was my car was completely full of stuff as well as my newly built inverted sub box, that probably weighs in @ around 65 lbs., in the trunk, with near bald rear tires. All the factors were against me. When I jerked the wheel left, the rear totally broke loose. Then, because I have never experienced lost of control like this while not accelerating, I jerked the wheel back to the right and totally over compensated. I did this two more times after that. Each time loosing more and more control until I gave up and let it smash right into the side of a truck, T-bone status. Thought I was gonna die. Thankful to God I didn't, and no body was hurt. Damage is very minimal considering what the truck looks like. The bumper even looks re-usable except for one crack, which I am considering filling in and sanding smooth.
One thing that was messed up is the right hand side head light. It is aiming higher than it use to and I was wondering what parts play a roll in its angle of shine. The flat surface it sits on no doubt would be in question. However I remember somebody posting a picture of their headlight assembly having a piece of plastic that was broken on the side and someone else replied saying that theirs was like that as well. So quit possibly this area prone to cracking could be the culprit if it does in fact affect the aiming/adjustment of the light. Did that make sense? What other things could affect the headlight? I could try to just adjust it like normal and if it is able to go back to where it needs to be, then I’ll just forget about it.
Anyway here are the pictures.
"Old technology is OK as long as it works, right? All the "ox cart" comparisons don't hold water as far as I'm concerned. We've been using wheels, for example, for thousands of years and I have 4 of them on my Z. Why? Because they're simple and they do the job well."--John P./ August 03, 2004 at 3:44 PM
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Car Accident Pictures (long, big pictures) - 
