Hi all,
Had a bit of a tangle with the new cable guard rail, just south of IA210 on I-35 S yesterday morning. The roads before this point were ok- There was blowing snow, but conditions were ok enough to be going 60-65, while maintaining good distance behind others. When I crossed the 210 overpass, I saw the sheen of the highway, (before it was semi dry) which I knew this section of highway can get pretty bad and icy, so I let off the gas and didn't do anything stupid. There were two cars in front of me, running side by side. A Jeep Liberty in my lane, and a Toyota Corolla in the other. I was in the left lane, which had been the better of the two.
Unfortunately for me, the person in front of me (in the Liberty) decided to freak out, and she jabbed her brakes, sending her into a slide. This caused the guy in the Corolla to make a jerky motion, sending him sliding I was about 150 yards back (in retrospect, probably should have been farther) but was suddenly faced with a "what the fvck do I do" moment. I tried to feather my brakes, but that wasn't happening. I had no traction from any of my tires, not even the snow tires up front. I got car to yaw to the right so the front end was pointed at the ditch, but was still going too fast to where I was comfortable taking the ditch. I decided (in the few seconds I had) to try to keep it on the road, once I was around the cars in front of me.
What happened next sealed my fate- I was on the shoulder, and my back tire hit the drop-off. This sent me into a rallye-racer-esque slide, that I almost had controlled, when I went into the guard rail fence. I was still going probably 50 at this point, as there was no stopping or slowing down on that road. I fishtailed about 3 times before taking out 3 posts and getting the front end of my car banged up to hell. The fence put me back on the road straight, almost as if nothing had happened. I pulled over to scope the damage, and it was pretty brutal, at least to the cosmetics. The car was still running and driving, sans a shredded drivers front tire. A state trooper came along and asked me what happened. He said something to the effect that I made his job a lot easier by missing those two people, and that I shouldn't feel too bad about my car, because that liberty was 1/4 mi up the road in worse shape than my car. I'll admit, knowing that the person who caused this chain reaction got their share of the sh*t-pie did make me feel a bit better. I was also glad she was ok.
There was a major injury accident 1/4 mi. behind me, and one 1/2 mi. ahead of me, in front of where that Jeep went in the ditch. I'll take what I got!
I had it towed to work (The trooper authorized a tow for me during the tow ban, which I thought was nice of him), where I promptly pounded out the fender, put a different tire on, and screwed the bumper back together. The car runs and drives like it always did, the alignment is actually a little better now..
If anyone has experienced these guard fences- don't, if you can help it! They do a good job of absorbing impact (I felt no impact, just watch all the plastic go "Kablooie!") they really tear up your car. The aluminum posts snap like tooth picks, and the cables redirect you. Lots of controversy about these things here in the area, and rightly so I think. Had it not been there, I would have been in the center median, with an intact car. However, at greater speed, they are needed to keep people out of the opposite lanes. Its give and take- The funniest part is that if you hit these fences, you get billed! While I agree that destruction of public property is the responsibility of the person that did it, me avoiding a 3 car accident by hitting it seems like I get punished no matter what. My insurance company will take care of the property damage, but I don't like the principle.
It's just a car- While I don't like that it got banged up, the fact I still have a running driving car after all that is a-ok with me. I don't care how ugly my junk is anyway.
These are the "after" pics, I still have to upload the ones from right after the crash from my phone.
Hope y'all are having a better week than me! 8)
Andrew
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Andrew
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