General Panda accident today

[harry monk]

I was pasing a row of stationary cars today when 1 pulled across into my lane as I was along side it. The car panda ended up hitting metal railings and ended up almost on top of them, only 1 rear wheel was still on the road.
There is extensive damage to the car including the engine, and I believe it may be a write off. What I am impressed with is there was no damage at all to either footwell or inside the car, so driver & passenger are well protected. Both air bags went off, and I only sustained whiplash injuries.
I hope I get a decent price for the car so I can replace it with another panda - fingers crossed

 

[tarbyonline]

Glad to hear that you are more or less OK apart from the dreaded whiplash. What sort of damage was done to the other car? Unfortunately sounds like major damage done to the Panda so probably beyond economical repair but at least the shell did its job! Hopefully you will be able to replace like for like!

 

[harry monk]

The other car, a celica only had damage to its front wing where it hit me. Most of my damage was caused hitting the railings.

 

[LeanMeanRacing]

That's a nasty sounding collision and I am pleased to hear that you are okay.

Did the other driver admit fault?

 

[doctorchris]

Wow, Stu, that's scary. Pleased you're OK.
Where did that happen?
I find that, at the moment, drivers in Sunderland are so careless and thoughtless, I just don't know what's in their heads when they're on the road. Even worse when you're on your bicycle.
Good excuse to get a brand new 1.1 Active from FiatSupaSaver, though!

 

[trackdayqueen]

Blimey, sounds nasty.

No one else has asked yet, but come on get the pics up!

 

[panda4x4x4x4]

glad you are not too badly injured

 

[harry monk]

Chris, it was on Newcastle road just beside Minories garage, I was on my way home. The other car driver had a 9 month old baby in his car, fortunately the baby seat was properly fitted and all it did was wake it up.
The driver did admit responsibility to the Police.
Drivers in Sunderland are becoming more aggressive and drive as though they don't have a minute to spare.
Don't have any pics of the car, as was taken to hopsital as a precaution, but the Police officer told me this morning the engine had been pushed back in the engine bay, all the nearside as well as the front in badly damaged, and the rear has damage also.

 

[JD82]

Driving now is just an excercise in accident avoidance. Glad to see you're ok .

Always amazes me how well these little Pandas do considering their size.

 

[trackdayqueen]

Driving now is just an excercise in accident avoidance. Glad to see you're ok .

Always amazes me how well these little Pandas do considering their size.

Tbh I'm never amazed. Technology and progress has come a long way since the 1960s when cars had various injury inducing features like keys right in front of your knees and steering wheels designed to impale you and the like.

Even in an 80s car you'd be surprised what you can walk away from. In fact years ago when I was racing and obviously had all the safety gear and rollcage, you never worried about accidents because you could walk away from pretty much anything. I t-boned another car at 85mph mid bend and just about walked away from it, save from a little whiplash, so low speed impacts are pretty unlikely to result in any injury save for a sore neck.

My last big road accident in 2002:

50mph into a motorway lampost, thought I'd show the more infamous pic of me standing where the lampost was:

 

[Trefor]

My last big road accident in 2002:

50mph into a motorway lampost, thought I'd show the more infamous pic of me standing where the lampost was:

Yowsers!!! It is definitely best to hit things like that head on and not sideways, which would fold the car around the tree/post.

Is the fairy liquid on the roof to help you polish out the dent?

 

[trackdayqueen]

Is the fairy liquid on the roof to help you polish out the dent?

LOL! It's actually to disperse all the oil as there was a litre in the front when I hit the lampost.

 

[JD82]

When i look at that it amazes me how you were not injured even more. There must have been quite a lot of G forces involved in that.

Its an 80's early 90's car too . I am guessing its an MR2 its hard to tell from that mangled wreck as the back is chopped of the photo.

 

[trackdayqueen]

When i look at that it amazes me how you were not injured even more. There must have been quite a lot of G forces involved in that.

Its an 80's early 90's car too . I am guessing its an MR2 its hard to tell from that mangled wreck as the back is chopped of the photo.

All I had was the obligatory whiplash and some bruising from the seat belts. It was a MK1 MR2. It's a 1987 car that came from a 1984 design. Yes it was a very hard hit with an immovable object.

Seriously don't be amazed even 80s cars are not bad when it comes to big impacts, it's just newer cars have better side protection and crumple zones etc. It would have to be a very severe crash not to walk away from it in my estimation.

 

[JD82]

It looks like from the photo you had a very good sense of humour about it

 

[trackdayqueen]

It looks like from the photo you had a very good sense of humour about it

To be truthful, I was absolutely gutted (I'd spend 7K on that car modifying it) and my neck was killing me, but it did make a noteworthy photo that cropped up in quite a few places including wrecked exotics.

At the scene: