goetylsd

I got into a minor accident tonight. The HHR took a beating, but is still OK and driveable. I was driving on the freeway and a cop had pulled a girl over, and she stopped on the left side of the road. The cop told her to pull over to the right shoulder, and she did, without looking. The speed limit on the freeway there is 55 mph. I was in the right lane about 1-2 city blocks away from them going about 45-50 mph. I had kicked off cruise and started slowing down. She moved over into my lane when I was travelling about 45-50 mph and she was probably going 5-10 mph. I saw her moving over but I was already close to her and wasn't able to avoid hitting her car. I was standing on the brake pedal with the wheels locked up, blowing on the horn, and I was almost able to stop, but not quite. I estimate I hit her going about 20-30 mph. The impact seemed pretty rough, but the air bags did not deploy and I was alright. It wasn't nearly as bad as it could've been. I imagine if hadn't reacted as quickly as I did, I would have hit her going a lot faster and probably deployed my air bags and totalled my car. This did happen on the highway. I was originally going highway speeds minutes before. The impact was from my front left corner of my car to the right side of her car around the passenger door/front wheel area. My car and her car were still driveable from the scene of the accident, so he had us go down to the next exit and get off the highway. I was extremely pissed off after it happened. I was just fuming. I love my car so much and take such good care of it. I had just washed it earlier in the day. Why does this have to happen to me? To add further insult to injury, her car was practically unscathed. She had a dent in her door, and I have my front end bashed in. When the girl got out, she seemed like a sweet young innocent girl. She said she was sorry over and over. She said she realized it was her fault because she didn't look when she was moving over. I was nice to her and pretty understanding. I realize Sh** happens. I was just mad about the whole thing. He said he didn't assign fault and didn't write any tickets. I was kind of surprised he didn't say it was her fault. He said she should have looked before moving over, but she was following his instructions. He said that maybe I should have moved over on the right shoulder when going around them. I thought this was ridiculous. Give me a break. When was the last time you saw someone driving on the shoulder going aroud a cop car already one lane over. They were on the left shoulder and I was in the right lane. I said, "Oh, I didn't think you were supposed to drive on the shoulder." And he said, "Well you can, but you just can't drive down the road for 50 miles on the shoulder." I thought that was kinda a silly statement that I should've moved over more. I was a full lane away from them going about 10 mph under the speed limit. However, he said it will be up to our insurance companies to decide a percentage as far as who's at fault. He figured she would probably be about 80-90% at fault. We'll see. Here's some pictures of the carnage. Any ideas how much you think this would cost to get fixed?

Tyler

sleeper

Tyler-
Sorry to hear this. I know you really care for your ride. I'm no help on fix costs. I'd go to a reputable place & have it inspected for repair cost, & parts list. Go from there. Never know about the un-seen stuff..

Hope you get things sorted out, & Glad you & her are OK..

LawDog88

Looks like a front bumper and left headlight. To gmpartsdirect to find out.
Sorry aboput your loss man, glad you are OK!

843de

Sorry you had such a bad deal happen to you, its not even right to guess about the cost. You should hit at least two reputable body shops tomorrow to get estimates, I never go to just one because things can get missed. Also I'd specify only GM parts when dealing with your insurance company, stay away from pattern parts made offshore, they don't fit and they're nothing but trouble. I know that this sucks Tyler, but you're not hurt and that's more important than ruffled sheet metal. Try to calm your nerves and get some sleep, keep us in the loop with how you make out OK.

LawDog88

Left side headlight, fog light..? Am I missing something?
Left fender too.

sleeper

x 2

843de

Just by looking I'm seeing left front fender, left headlamp assembly, bumper, hood, and possibly the grill. He's torn up 1151, and that's before checking the underlying structure and impact absorption matrix behind the bumper.

LawDog88

That's affirmative.

goetylsd

Thanks guys for the kind words. I'm alright, I was upset before but I was still nice to the girl and the cop. I had never been in an accident before and I wasn't thrilled. I'm feeling better now, I know it will get fixed up and back to the way it was before, but it's just an upsetting situation. From what I can see, it will need a new bumper, new left headlight, new left wheel well, new left front fender, plus any hidden damage. It's broken up pretty good, I'm thinking there may be damage underneath. I guess I will find out when I get estimates. The grille seems okay, and my HHR doesn't have fog lights, just the black plugs. I realize you can't tell that from the pictures though. I will go around and get a couple estimates, and I guess I will contact my insurance and her insurance and get things started. I guess if you look on the bright side, it could've been a lot worse. I think about the members here who have had their HHRs in head-on crashes and serious accidents. In comparison, mine isn't that bad and I will have it fixed up and nice again soon. I can only imagine what the damage would be if I had hit her going full speed. Things could have turned out very different if that were the case.

Krash Kadillak

Goestlysd, you've got bigger problems right now than the car damage. Don't worry about that - insurance will take care of it, whatever it is.

Liability for the accident could be a big issue here, and I guaranty you somebody will try to assign some of the blame to YOU. A statement should be taken from that police officer RIGHT AWAY. IMO, he was a real weenie for not doing an accident report on what happened. (I think there could even be some responsibilty placed on the officer for not 'shadowing' the other driver as she was moving over....)

I've seen cases like this where the insurance company gets lazy in their investigation, and assigns blame to their insured, who 'hit' another party, when a full investigation would show the actions of the other party precipitated the collision. I would suggest contacting your insurance company, provide them all the details, and INSIST they get a statement from that officer; and that you will not accept ANY negligence in this case.