[RickM]

Thursday my daughter entered the roadway (travelling around 5 mph) when a fullsized pickup (going around 65) came out of nowhere (her words) and ran over the hood of the insight. The little car just sort of squatted down and the front end along with half the engine/transmission was cut off of it.
The pickup was totaled and noone was hurt. Being a Honda the doors all close and no glass was broken. The air bags didn't even go off. The insurance company asked me over the phone about the airbags, the windshield and the dash (it's perfect) and told me they were confidant it could be fixed and I was exagerating. They are going to look at it Monday.
I have a new one on order and will let you know when it gets here.
In the meantime I'll take some pics and post them
One second earlier and she would have been t-boned by the pickup and it would have been a different story.
Still shaking,
RickM

 

[Rick]

Ouch, glad everyone was ok.

 

[Delta Flyer]

One of three Americans are in a serious auto accident. I hope that was your daughter's one. I fear rear-enders just like this one.

 

[Sparky5501]

and told me they were confidant it could be fixed and I was exagerating.

Actually that's not too unbelievable. There's actually very little sheet metal or structural members up front that can't be easily replaced. The entire engine and trasmission is easily replaceable. Hopefully the insurance company will decide to Total it. Cos, replacing the car will probably cost less than rebuilding it. When I had just my front end fixed it cost $5500. That's 1/4 the worth of the car.

BTW, I'm glad to hear no one was hurt.

 

[Guest]

Hi Rick M:

___I am not as concerned with the Insight as I am with your daughter. Please make sure your daughter is Ok over the long term. Ask her plenty of questions over the next few days just in case there is a longstanding issue that hasn’t arisen yet. From your description, she received nary a scratch thanks to that 1 second. That sure was a close one and I am glad to hear she is alright.

___Good Luck

___Wayne R. Gerdes
___Hunt Club Farms Landscaping Ltd.
___[email:218tlk5c][email protected][/email:218tlk5c]

 

[Guest]

Hi All:

___RickM sent me some pics of his smashed Insight. I am so glad his daughter wasn’t another 3 ft. forward or it may have been a lot worse by the looks of his MB CVT.

___Matthew, thank you for hosting them. I only linked the thumbnails so as not to abuse your sites bandwidth to much …

___Good Luck

___Wayne R. Gerdes
___Hunt Club Farms Landscaping Ltd.
___[email:fwabf5ei][email protected][/email:fwabf5ei]

 

[RickM]

Thanks, Wayne
it's now in the basement and waiting for me to get another wreck to donate parts to its front end. It will live again
~Rick

 

[redgiki]

Pictures...

Wayne, feel free to make them hyperlinks so that people could click through to larger images if you use the hosting again I have 40GB of transfer per month, and I'm barely breaking half a gig usually. It's all good.

Those interested in a larger view are welcome to visit the Gallery at http://barnson.org/misc/gallery/view_album.php?set_albumName=album06

 

[Will M]

Judging by the way the hood is wrapped, it looks like the car was hit from the passenger side. Was she making a left turn into the road, or crossing the road that the truck was on?

Just curious.

I lost my grey 2000 Insight when an SUV made a blind left turn from the oncoming lane to hit the Insight broadside while my wife was driving alone. In this case, the Insight was doing about 25mph (going straight through a green traffic light) and the SUV was doing about 5mph (making a left turn from the oncoming lane, crossing the median and a lane of traffic to get to the lane the Insight was in). The Insight skidded away without a lot of obvious damage; mostly a crunched driver's side fender and mashed the front of the driver's side door. The driver's side door opened and closed fine when I saw it in the junk yard. The hood wasn't damaged and the back edge was not misaligned with the intact windshield. Half of the driver's side headlight survived. The tire was flattened and the wheel was deeply scratched with a chip out of one edge.

There's debate over whether or not the frame was bent, but that became moot when the rather enthusiastic rescue team took the Jaws of Life to the passenger side of the car. I'll never know for sure whether the car should have been totalled before they made that choice, but I completely agree that the car was totalled AFTER they made that choice.

Anyway, a couple thousand dollars later, I have a very red 2003 Insight. I did a review in a local zine that described that Insights are now available in three colors:

Invisible-Grey, Night-Camouflage-Blue, and My-God-That's-Red. Next to my very red Insight, fire engines seem to be painted in subdued Earth tones. I didn't make this choice for ego support. I figure I want people to see the glow around the corner before they see the car. I want them to be so out of control noticing my car that they'll hit somebody ELSE while staring at my very red Honda.

My 1992 Civic has over 215,000 miles. It is also very red. Nobody has hit it yet. I'm wagering that this does for SUVs what deer whistles are supposed to do for deer. Likely neither device works, but hey, my very red Hondas both have deer whistles on them. If it were legal, they'd both have always-on rotating yellow lights and fog horns.

I'm glad your daughter was unhurt. I hope the insurance company comes through for you and you enjoy your new Insight.

 

[RickM]

She was going straight across at a few mph, did not see the truck as it came from the right. She did not get hurt at all, just shook up.
I actually got a few dollars more from the insurance company than I paid for the car. They seem to sell for around $16,000 new at most of the dealers I talked to (if they have had them for a while) and you can find a few in the $14,000 range. The insurance company never asked what I paid for it. They said if you bought a lease vehicle they would take the purchase price less miles for the value in a claim, I'm glad they didn't do that. I bought the car in August and by the time of the accedent had over 15,000 miles on it, the insurance company estimated the miles because they weren't sure about how to get it from the car after the battery was disconnected (the tow driver cut the battery cables). After I bought the salvage and took it home I hooked up the little battery and the 144 volt showed a nearly full charge.
Looking for a wreck now to fix this one.
Rick

 

[Berk]

"Blind" spots & mind tricks...

To quote RickM's post: "She was going straight across at a few mph, did not see the truck as it came from the right."

At just the wrong angle of view and lighting, the roof pillar posts can effectively block out enough of an oncoming vehicle, that the mind, in a casual glance, won't recognize & register the remaining portions of the available view as a threatening vehicle. Teach our younger drivers to move their heads side-to-side a bit when visually clearing the different approach paths.
And give thanks for those busy guardian angels!

 

[henry]

Glad to hear your daughter was ok.

I just got crunched in my 2003 Silver Insight yesterday by an SUV (Chevy Trailblazer). I'm a bit shaken, but fine. The insight's now sitting in my front yard waiting to be towed to the collision repair and to get the verdict on whether it's repairable or not. (It doesn't look nearly as bad as the images of your daughter's insight and naively it looks totally repairable to me.)

 

[Berk]

Collision repairs

Oh Dear. Don't let the insurance company try to dictate where to have the repairs accomplished. They frequently want you to have it done at the cheapest shop around. Remember: It's YOUR choice where to have it repaired - not theirs (they just pay the bill - and there's no law that says it must be one of the lowest bidders). It's your car and you deserve to have it returned to as near-new condition as possible. If a quality shop isn't available that's had Insight experience, I'd suggest a Porsche / Mercedes & exotic car repair shop. The Mercedes has included aluminum panels on various models through the years, and Porsche owners are notorious for being VERY finicky about who does their collision repair work.
You're likely to be best served by those who are accustomed to doing careful work. Good luck. Berk