Wrecked my Cavalier today

[Aalok]

I never really post here, but I read your guys suggestions all the time and my car had been doing great on mileage for the past year.

Well, today while I was coming home from school I stopped at my familiar stop sign, checked both ways and saw two cars coming from my left. Waited for them to pass and started inching out. I looked left again and there was a Jeep right next to me. She nailed the car right in the driver side fender hard enough to spin me around and have my trunk hit her again. I honestly never saw her until she hit me. I don't know if she was under the hill or following the truck too close or what, but I never did see her.

In any case, the Cavalier is pretty busted up and I don't think it will be getting fixed. I'm really not sure what to do now, since I feel like I ruined my rather good driving history. I've only been driving for 2 years and this happened, so I'm a bit upset. I mean, I don't know how quickly people have accidents but I tried to be a safe driver, it just didn't happen today, I suppose. Anyway, pictures after the jump. http://s44.photobucket.com/albums/f47/Aegrir/Accident/

Also, how bad is this going to kill my insurance and everything? Since I'm only 20 and driving for 2 years I figure it will be pretty bad. Nothing I can do now I guess.

[bowtieguy]

glad you're okay. 3 things...

1)learn from this experience
2)get yourself checked out--i prefer chiropractors over MDs since ALL collisions involve some degree of spine trauma
3)do not accept(deposit or cash) the first offer of insurance check--get a second or third opinion of the amount of the damage

best wishes

[Hateful]

Sorry about your wreck;you were getting some good mileage out of it.
I had something like that happen to my 01 Cavalier,but in a parking lot, truck moving fast and I couldn't see past the SUV beside me.I had 60K miles on it and it was totaled out at about $5000.Insurance did go up,but this made me shop around a little when I renewed, so I broke even on that. Generally after 3 years you're driving record is clean again.

[GasSavers_bobski]

I totaled my first CRX in a somewhat similar situation. It was maybe 9 pm on a weeknight, I was making a left turn from the middle of a 4 lane (2 in each direction) highway. The light at the intersection was flashing red, so I stopped and waited for traffic to clear. A state trooper had pulled someone over just up the road I was turning on to, so I was somewhat distracted. I looked up the road at oncoming traffic and saw two cars - one in the right turn lane and one in the right driving lane a ways up the road. I had plenty of time, so I pulled out and hit a Rav-4 about mid-way down it's length. I was doing maybe 10 mph, he was doing 50 or so. The impact stopped my car dead, or maybe threw it backwards a bit. The front driver's corner of my CRX folded the Rav-4's driver's rear suspension under and tossed it into a roll. The first time I saw the SUV, or at least registered it's presense was at the moment of impact, followed by it rolling down the road and coming to rest against a pickup truck in the right turn merge area.
I seem to recall a statistic from Driver's Ed... Something like 1/2 of accidents are caused by a driver simply "not seeing" the other car. I can believe it, and it's a very strange and erie experience if I may say so.

As bowtieguy said, learn what you can from this. My experience made me a much more paranoid driver... Probably a good thing, especially considering the size of the car I drive.

[JanGeo]

Well at least she hit you but another rule of thumb is that you see the road clearly and not just "not see anyone coming down the road". The only thing worse than what happened to you is having it happen to someone on a motorcycle which is why most states require headlights be on day and night for motorcycles. Sounds like she was moving fast and tucked in behind the truck plus had high ground clearance so you couldn't see it under the truck either. My biggest peeve with SUV's is when they part at corners and cross walks - they block your view and people tend to POP out from behind them. Get a copy of their accident report and it may clear things up a little with what they say happened. My last accident where I got rear ended while stopped from several seconds - on their report they said I stopped suddenly . . . well yeah I did the traffic ahead of me was stopped. What they didn't say was that they were really moving faster than the speed limit and locked up all 4 tires and skidded into me. I had plenty of room to stop without skidding. They also didn't change to the two lanes to my left which were clear and they couldn't even though they tried because they had locked their wheels and were skidding. Needless to say get to a Doc like I didn't because I ended up with a really bad whiplash that hurt for years without compensation.

[Aalok]

Yeah, I really should get a copy of the accident report, considering she said she saw me roll back at the stoplight to make sure the nose of my car wasn't in the intersection. Makes it weird that she'd notice me roll back but not inching forward to see again. Things just don't quite add up with what she told me, like how she said she slammed the brakes and swerved, yet the only marks from tires were at the impact zone where she she hit me.

Definitely agree with you bobski, with the amount of corners and intersections that are placed awkwardly I can understand how this sort of accident can occur kind of frequently. The guy living in the house next to the intersection says it happens about once a month.

Thanks for the support guys, I'm just glad that no one was injured and it was just the car. I can always replace a car, can't replace parts of me. Now I can just be an extra paranoid and cautious driver instead of simply cautious.