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  1. #1
    Hear my Saab a comin' nuclear944's Avatar
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    Past: 1989 SPG & 1989 900 N/A Sedan

    The Accident Thread

    About time we started accident thread. It doesn't have to be in a Saab.

    Tell us about a accident you have had, whether you witnessed it or were a passenger, or even the driver.
    -It has to be a "proper" accident, not just a dented bumper or blown tire.
    -it can be near miss, loss of control with near crash of reasonable proportions
    -you can include video or pictures of the crash
    -include data about injuries and other consequences
    -include car data and damage

    Since I witnessed one today, I'll start;

    Me and a friend of mine were driving back after a trip to a nearby mountain town. I am in a suzuki swift, he is in a borrowed 90's subaru impreza. He is a very inexperienced and careless driver. Typical teen "ricer". There are two passengers in the car with him. He is ahead of me and begins to drive fast and I lose him behind a corner. Continuing to drive normally, I look down to the next corner just in time to see him understeer and then oversteer, over-correcting, entering the opposite lane and smashing into the rock wall. First the passenger side front end, then the rear end directly. Debris scatter all over the road. I pull over in panic and turn on the hazards. The driver is conscious, but the passengers are knocked out but breathing.

    15 minutes later, they are on their way to the hospital and there are at least 10 cars parked on the side of the road.

    The car is a total loss, but the passengers are in the hospital in stable condition.

    I had tried to knock sense into him many times about his driving and lack of skill, but he did not listen. Hopefully this will be a permanent lesson. If someone was coming in the opposite lane...
    Not to mention the impreza's poor handling.

  2. #2
    Jay
    Saab Addict Hirsch's Avatar
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    07 93 SC Aero 6spd
    In the mid 90's I was gifted a 1980 Pontiac Phoenix 4dr hatchback. 2.5l "Iron Duke" 4cyl with a 4spd. They didn't make many Phoenix's with 4spd's and there a was problem with them. Something in the steering linkage was a couple millimeters to long causing the steering to bind up. It also had a habit of blowing the right front calipers.

    I used various things to stop it when the caliper would blow, but the real accident was a result of several factors.

    I was on KY 22 between Dy Ridge, KY and Owenton, KY, a snake path of a road in the best of conditions complete with blind crests and off camber downhill sweepers. A brief summer shower had put a glaze on the road. I was going down a right hand sweeper that changed camber about halfway through. The steering bound up and as I fought it, it snapped past the binding point, a little too hard. I was running about 60mph(to fast for the conditions) and started to slide to the left, I tried to correct, did a couple tank slappers and "got behind in my steering". The right rear clipped a guardrail and sent me almost head on in the the guardrail. I bounced off that on and then right into a concrete lip on a bridge. That was the deathblow. Bent A-frame and other suspension. If I could have driven home in a continuous left hand circle, I could've have made it.

    That one was my fault.

    In 89 I had a 79 Celica GT, great car, it was a blast. I drove the hell out of that car and it never stranded me. A drunk driver ran red light hit me square in the right rear axle, knocking the rear end totally off the car. Dude hit me hard.
    Quote Originally Posted by Frank Wulfers View Post
    Note to new members: choose your user name carefully because it will stick with you for the rest of your forum life.

  3. #3
    Saab Fan
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    27 Dec 2011
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    2001 9-5 SE wagon; 1992 900 S; 1987 900 EMS; 1979 99 GL
    It was around 1979 up in Lake George, NY and I was traveling home with my roommate from work in my 1971 Saab 99 4 door. Coming down the dirt road to the driveway the road bears left and has a slight incline to the left towards a small stream valley. My roommate had a 1975 VW Scirocco and was giving me a hard time about my Saab not being as sporty as his. Well, that couldn't stand so I sped up a little on the down slope, the back end broke away and I spun counterclockwise. As I'm spinning the right front tire digs into the soft dirt on the side of the road and the momentum caused the Saab to overturn onto the roof (maybe driving 15mph). Now we're sitting upside down in the car (it's still running) and we're hanging from our seatbelts. The Saab had a carburetor so upside down a little gas dripped into the front foot well so the car smelled like gas. Now my roommate starts freaking out thinking the car's going to blow up. He tries to roll down the window but since he's upside down he's rolling it up. Now he's really nervous and kicks out the passenger window and gets out (after unhooking his seatbelt and crashing to the roof). I shut the card down, get out and we go inside and call it a night. Next day a tow truck came and righted the car and we were able to open all doors and the hood. Minor damage to the roof and hood (due the car being on the roof in soft dirt) and I ended up selling it a couple months later for $1500. It was my first Saab and now I'm on my 5th. Still looking for the photo we took of it.

  4. #4
    Renato Piereck
    Spreading the Saab virus rpiereck's Avatar
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    24 Jul 2011
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    '00 9-5 Aero SC, 87 900i 8v
    I have never been in a car crash, but seen a few close by (close enough to get sprayed with broken glass), and was the first at the scene at a horrible crash on the I-75 where a semi rear ended a Scion.

    My only crash has been in a US Army helicopter: It was 15 August 2000, I was in the backseat of an Army OH-58C chopper when the pilot did a right descending turn and overbanked the aircraft. We fell from 300 feet to the ground pretty quick. The pilot managed to turn the aircraft at the last minute and we went in sideways instead of nose first, which actually saved us. The skids got caught on a creosote bush and flipped the aircraft sideways. My seat belt opened and I was physically ejected from the aircraft, landed on my belly, helmet saved my face. The pilot was just shocked, no physical injury. The copilot was unconscious and had a 6" gash on his arm. I had to pull out the copilot from the crashed aircraft because the pilot was freaking out, also had to put out an engine fire and call for medical evacuation. Damn pilot who nearly killed us and was useless now, I had to yell at him to help me with the unconscious copilot. I was a private and they were officers. It felt good yelling at officers. In the end they said I had no back injury (not then) although it hurt a bit, and a broken foot.

    10 years later I has a burst disc on my back (L1-S5) and had spinal surgery. First thing the doctor asked me was if I had ever been in a car crash, I told him no, but yes to helicopter crash. He mentioned that many spinal damage cases are caused by a crash years ago, and he recommends people never to do a settlement for a crash because years later they might need post accident surgery.

    The day after the crash



    Tail rotor got tossed forward of the aircraft


    Main rotor landed 25 feet to my left


    That's my helmet on the ground by the left, I took it off where I landed


    The pilot was on the right seat, almost no damage. The copilot sits on the left, it was a miracle he didn't loose limbs as he lost the fuselage around him


    In the end the US Army lost an old, obsolete aircraft, the copilot was OK and just needed some stitches. The pilot was ok and denied for two weeks that he screwed up and almost killed us. None of our pilots wanted to fly with him again and he soon left our unit. I nursed a broken foot and got a rather insignificant medal for what I did.


    The copilot and I became very good friends and despite the Army rule of non-fraternization between officers and enlisted we used to hang out, BBQ and rock climb together. We're still buddies, he's flying for Northwest now and I'm still in the Army, 12 years later.
    Now: '00 Saab 9-5 Aero Combi - '89 Peugeot 205 CTI - '91 Peugeot 309 GTI
    Gone: '87 Saab 900i - '95 Saab 900 SE Turbo

  5. #5
    Mike
    Moderator Shazam's Avatar
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    Wow, that's crazy! Glad to hear everyone survived and you made it without too many problems.

    I've been in one accident. I was probably 6 or 7 years old, and at the time my dad had a '88 Mercedes 300e that he loved to death. Cruising down a clear highway one winter night in the passing lane he hit black ice and we went spinning like a top. Bounced off the left guard rail (one of the cable guard rails) which sent us spinning into the guard rail on the right side (again, cable) where we spun/skidded to a stop. I was in the front seat (no air bag in the front), and the cables and torn into the wheel-well so I could see outside from the front bottom of the door. My brother was in the back seat. We were all ok, no scratches or bumps, just some scared kids and a pissed off dad. I remember my dads thermos coffee cup flew out of the cup holder and landed perfectly on the door arm rest right next to me. Not a drop anywhere. When we went to get out of the car to wait for the police to show, I managed to drop the coffee on my lap spilling the hot stuff all over me. I went from a scared kid about to cry to screaming, crying and scared kid whose crotch was burning.

    In the end the car could still drive as we only had a short way home (we had been following my mom in her mini-van) with only one working taillight and no headlights, so she held the lead. They totaled the car, but my dad bought it back and had them fix it. They ended up cutting the body in two, and stitching on a different rear-end. My dad was amazed at the job they did. His only complaint about the entire repair job was someone put the tiniest cigarette (heat gun maybe?) burn in a virtually hidden spot in the corner of the headliner.

    Another good part is we got pulled over by a different cop after the crash on the way home. He asked my dad if he knew his headlights were out.

    I'll have to find a picture of the car.
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  6. #6
    Saab Addict SaabKen's Avatar
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    30 Jul 2010
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    2006 9-3 2.0T SportCombi "Mattie"; On SAABatical: 1993 9000 CSE 2.3T "Matilda"
    Wow Rpiereck, I doubt many of us, if any, can beat that story. Count your blessings you and the others walked out of it alive.

    I've had just minor fender benders since I started driving in 1985. Nothing catastrophic. But one amusing incident ......


    2003 - wife and I were on the local highway on our way to our monthly Saab club meet. We were in the HOV lane nearest the center divider. I was about 30' behind a large sedan and cruising along around 65mph when all of a sudden the sedan veered to the adjacent lane. I instinctively braked hard, thinking he was trying to avoid a pile-up in front of him. As he moved out of the way, I now see this wheel+axle (missing one wheel) about 100' ahead slowly wobbling and rolling towards me. The kind used on a small towed U-Haul trailer. I'm like "f*** !" and in a blink I too veered to the right adjacent lane. But as you know, at that speed I'm travelling more than 80'/second and the closure rate with the oncoming axle even greater. By the time I'm barely halfway into the next lane, the axle/wheel hit my 9000's driver's side rear door, making a weird gouge/crunch/scrape sound that I'll never forget. The broken end (wheel-less) of the axle hit me instead of the wheel end, which might have been a good thing as the wheel would have caused more impact and damage. After about 1/2 mile I was finally able to get to the shoulder lane and pull over to figure out this whole scenario. As it turns out about a mile back a pickup towing a small trailer lost its trailer wheels/axle completely while in the HOV lane. One wheel hit the center concrete barrier and miraculously came to a stop. The pickup guy also miraculously managed to immediately veer towards the shoulder lane (crossing 2 lanes in the process) while pulling a wheel-less trailer. One can only imagine the fireworks display of sparks from that. The one-wheeled axle (which I later called "Axle of Evil") slowly made its way down the HOV lane, but with light traffic in that lane only a few cars were approaching it and they all managed to get out of the way. Except me. But later at the accident scene, emergency personnel felt that the axle's impact with me made it come to a stop and therefore prevented further mishaps and possibly a pile-up.

    My insurance adjuster was quite amused at my story, not that he didn't believe me (there were plenty of witnesses and corroborating reports on the same incident) but just that he thought it was a miracle nothing worse came out of this whole thing.
    Last edited by SaabKen; 25 April 2012 at 17:07.
    "Nulla tenaci invia est via"
    SAAB CLUB of WESTERN CANADA (SCWC)

  7. #7
    Jay
    Saab Addict Hirsch's Avatar
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    07 93 SC Aero 6spd
    Quote Originally Posted by SaabKen View Post
    Wow Rpiereck, I doubt many of us, if any, can beat that story. Count your blessings you and the others walked out of it alive.
    Yeah, I think getting thrown from a helicopter is a thread winner.

    Do near misses count?
    Quote Originally Posted by Frank Wulfers View Post
    Note to new members: choose your user name carefully because it will stick with you for the rest of your forum life.

  8. #8
    Renato Piereck
    Spreading the Saab virus rpiereck's Avatar
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    '00 9-5 Aero SC, 87 900i 8v
    Quote Originally Posted by SaabKen View Post
    As it turns out about a mile back a pickup towing a small trailer lost its trailer wheels/axle completely while in the HOV lane.
    That's the problem right there, towing stuff at high speeds. I love it how here in Germany any vehicle towing anything is restricted to a max speed of 100 km/h, could be a Cayenne Turbo towing a 911 GT3, it has to go 100 km/h. In the US I can't count the number of times I've seen pick up trucks towing RV trailers and what else around 100 mph. A few times I've seen trailers swaying left and right due to high speed and cross winds; and those trailer tires are seldomly rated for high speeds!
    Now: '00 Saab 9-5 Aero Combi - '89 Peugeot 205 CTI - '91 Peugeot 309 GTI
    Gone: '87 Saab 900i - '95 Saab 900 SE Turbo

  9. #9
    Saab Addict SaabKen's Avatar
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    2006 9-3 2.0T SportCombi "Mattie"; On SAABatical: 1993 9000 CSE 2.3T "Matilda"
    Quote Originally Posted by rpiereck View Post
    That's the problem right there, towing stuff at high speeds. I love it how here in Germany any vehicle towing anything is restricted to a max speed of 100 km/h, could be a Cayenne Turbo towing a 911 GT3, it has to go 100 km/h. In the US I can't count the number of times I've seen pick up trucks towing RV trailers and what else around 100 mph. A few times I've seen trailers swaying left and right due to high speed and cross winds; and those trailer tires are seldomly rated for high speeds!
    Especially when the pickups are wide-ass dualies and the driver can't see the trailer even with extended side mirrors.
    "Nulla tenaci invia est via"
    SAAB CLUB of WESTERN CANADA (SCWC)

  10. #10
    Jared
    The young one J-Rod's Avatar
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    2003 Saab 9-5 ARC ( and care-taker of a '98 900SE)
    Well, I've got a couple. I've never been driving during one, but been a passenger. In our old Suburban, we came up over a hill to see a car get plowed from behind. We hit the brakes and stopped just in time. Another car pulled up behind us. When the car in front of us hit the car in front of it, it shoved it into on oncoming traffic, where an old F250 plowed it head on at about 55, which spun the truck around to hit the front drivers side of our Suburban, hard. Nobody in our car was hurt (the airbags didn't even deploy) but there were some pretty bad injuries in the others. The occupants of the truck had to be cut out, but they ended up okay. All other cars in the wreck were totaled, but our Suburban was repaired.

    I know the rules are no taps but this one was interesting. I went to Subway with my brother and a couple of his friends in his Mazda, and while we were backing out of the space my brother bumped a Toyota truck behind him. We all got out to see if it did anything, and turns out my brother knew the daughter of the owner of the truck. They started talking for a minute and one of my brothers friends started saying, "Uh, guys, get in the car....GET in the car! Get the F**K in the car!!" at that point we looked over to see a guy frantically trying to get into a Tahoe next to us with a guy running after him starting to pull what looked like a knife. We wanted nothing to do with a knife fight, so we got the heck out of there. Turns out, the guy going after the other guy was the dad of the girl my brother knew, who went there to confront her boyfriend....

    On my way home from Florida, a Silverado pulling a trailer lost control and the trailer caught the side of the road and rolled it and the truck, the trailer wrapped around a tree and the truck kept going....Everyone looked to be okay (there was a family standing outside the truck)

    Passing through Cinci, we came up on a ton of traffic, once we got up to it, a Focus laid mangled 500 feet off the road with a white blanket over the passenger compartment, and the motor was about 700 feet from the car.
    I don't drive fast...I fly slow

 

 

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