rwolfcastle80

I was in my first and hopefully last accident in my 8 yesterday. Here's the story, I was heading to work on a 4 lane road, about 2 minutes from my work there's an exit ramp with a HUGE stop sign at the end of it that forms a T intersection with the 2 lanes heading west. Well this 70 year old woman in a mercedes decides that the merging land must have a 90 degree angle in it as she ran the stop sign and swung all the way over into the far left lane where I was going about 50mph, barely had time to slam on my breaks before my front right corner slammed into here drivers side as she wasn't even all though way straightened out yet. Initial damage is cracked front fender, smashed passeneger side headligh, badly and scraped passenger side wheel well, and one completely screwed up rim on the front passenger side, not to mention some slight bend in the frame behind the headlight. I'm guessing about 3-4k worth of damage, to the mazda and about 10k at least to her benz. Why does the county not force people over a certain age to retake a driving test every year.
Oh for those that live in Richmond Virginia, it was the exit ramp off of 295 that leads to Nuckols road, Avoid this intersection fellow richmonders. Your RX-8 will thank you.

evilbada1

that sux...old people can't drive...

mysql101

...because old people vote.

Elara

Ugh- that's part of the reason I don't go that way to work- too many morons on 295 heading into Innsbrook. I'm so sorry you got hit like that...

carnut

Sorry about your wreck -- sounds like 3 to 4 thou may be on the low side for an estimate. I'm always amazed how much minor damage can cost to repair! If she drove a Mercedes, she should be insured.

affenage

sorry about your misfortune! I had similar though not as extensive damage to my 8 - front side panel, wheel, bumper etc - total damage is going to total out between 6 and 7 thousand. (and it was 8 weeks in the shop). I hope Mazda is paying attention to some of these side front impacts - the amount of damage is too severe in my opinion...

rotarymagic

This is true to an extent. For the good of the country, a retest policy must be put into law.

Starting at a certain age, lets say 65-75?...people are retested, and I mean retested every year for the rest of their lives.

liqiud

Amen... a re-test policy would be great...but it has to be a driving test, not a written test.

BTW, got any pics of your accident?

rwolfcastle80

No pics, I may go by the bodyshop tomorrow to take some after work. After all, knowing insurance companies I'll probably have a couple of weeks before they even give em the green light to start.

mmmdowning

Man sorry for the damage.

RX8-TX

I've been asking myself that question for a long long time already.

Truss

$3-4k is a very low estimate for that kind of damage. Be careful as this gets sorted out. Chances are her insurance company will try to find some way to pin this on you. Did the police file a report on the accident? If so, get a copy so you know exactly what it says.

A lot of people get burned in situations like this. Remember: her insurance co. doesn't give one $#!+ about you. They want to avoid paying anything, and that means making your insurance company pay for it. Make sure your insurance company doesn't roll over and admit any fault on your part, otherwise you've got a claim on your record, which can only hurt you down the line.

Find the best body shop in the area to repair your car and make sure it's aligned to your specifications when they're finished. You stand to lose a lot of value in your car if this isn't done right.

Good luck.

T.

Farsyde

not only should there be a retest policy, but a friggin common sense policy. So many old people are driving hugh CV's and Buicks that they can't even see over. Last time I went to the DMV i literally watched an 80 year old lady walk head first into the glass door, then after 5minutes to walk 10 feet to the counter knocked over two velvet rope posts, without stopping, finally making it to the counter only to be givin an instant renewal of her liscence. I don't care how many old people vote, if you can't walk then why on earth would you want to drive a 3 ton battering ram!!

rwolfcastle80

Thanks for the advice. Fortunatlely I had a witness who was behind her and saw the whole thing, he stuck around and verified my story, so she received a ticket from the cop, not sure for what. I'm gonna call the insurance company today, someone told me if I mention it, I should be able to force them into giving me a check for the depreciation the accident will cause, can anyone verify this?

phook

But look at it from their point of view. If the old can't kill a few young people, where will they get those donor organs they need?

Nubo

Elderly drivers are not necessarily the most dangerous group.

For Example

In that sample it was not until drivers passed their mid-20's that they become safer than those over 65. Insurance rates bear this out.

I know some younger folks have a certain underlying dissatisfaction with elderly drivers that has more to do with the tendency of older drivers to drive more slowly. That is, they don't speed. That's a sure way to be judged defective in our society.

I do agree that drivers licenses should be much more difficult to obtain and keep current. But the testing should not be predicated on age. There are dangerous drivers in every age group. There's little consolation for the victim whether the accident was caused by a young hotshot doing something "cool" that still exceeded their excellent senses and reaction times or whether it was an old lady who just couldn't cope with normal driving tasks anymore.

Deslock

The Class D license is absurdly easy to get in the USA. In my state you need to answer only 7 out of 10 questions correctly; I say require 90 out of 100. And tighten up the road test.... if more than 50% pass on their first attempt, it's not difficult enough.

As far as testing every year; I agree. But make it so *everyone* has to do it. That way you'll bypass any ageism arguments and ensure that more people have the proper respect for the power (as in mass and energy) that they yield while behind the wheel.

TitanMSP

I agree younger drivers can be just as dangerous as older drivers however you cannot test for arrogance and brash stupidity.

The ONLY reason there is no retest law is because the AARP is the most powerful lobbyist group in America.

Old people protesting drivers licensce retest laws is like alcoholics protesting DUI laws.

kbull

Making it more difficult to obtain a license may hinder a few hotshots from getting on the road early. And while there are dangerous drivers in every age group, driving skill clearly falls off with seniority. If we retest everyone every year, the DMV will be even more swamped than it already is. Maybe every 10 years between 20 and 50 years old, then every 5 until 60-65, then every year after that. Not as punishment to our elders, but as protection to everyone else on the road. The story about the lady walking into things as she went to get her license renewed is no single incident. Anyone remember the senior citizen who plowed through a produce stand in LA a year or two ago, killing a bunch of people? I was at the DMV earlier this year, and I saw them giving a license to some poor old guy who was blind in one eye and couldn't use his right arm. Actually, he may not have been able to use his entire right side- maybe he had a stroke or something. While I feel terrible that he had the bad luck to have this kind of thing happen to him, I don't think it's a smart idea to give him the right to command a 3k+ lb death machine. I definitely think licenses should be tougher to maintain.

Elara

Richmond is a dangerous place for 8s right now...my car just saved my butt.

Coming down *** (main road in our office park)towards Nuckols (where rwolfcastle80 got hit) on my way to work about 20 minutes ago, going about 45, some dipsh#* making a left onto *** from one of the little righthand side streets carefully watched the car 100 ft in front of me go by, looked at me, and pulled out RIGHT in front of me. All I could do was think " G$# D#$% Son of a bitch is going to kill my car and I'm going to get out the car and kill him" in those few 10ths of a second when I knew I was going to hit him.

Instead, the brakes actually stopped me incredibly quickly, and I managed to swing enough to the right that I was parallel to the moron, missing him by inches(kinda like this: // in the middle of the street). Even had enough sense to hold down my horn at him for a good long time. And he just looked at me like I was crazy. WHERE are these idiots coming from???

However, I was really impressed with the brakes on my car- I thought for sure I would skid since I hit the brakes so hard, but the car never once felt like it was out of control.

rwolfcastle80

Glad to hear you were able to avoid it. I got the quote on mine yesterday. $4400 to fix it, $1 for every mile I've driven the thing....

Elara

ouch..her insurance is covering it, though, right? Do you know how long it's going to take before you get it back?

rwolfcastle80

Yeah, her insurance is covering it, they said approximately 3 weeks about 7-10 days for parts and the rest to fix it. In the meantime they gave me a Dodge dakota, pretty nice truck except it's got no freaking cd player.

Truss

Glad everything seems to be working out. Pretty funny that you got a Dakota. If it's got a V8, it can teach you a thing or two about power on oversteer!

Enjoy the rental until you get your baby back. Driving a truck will make you that much more impressed once you're back in your 8.

T.

picosrx8

Sorry for your misfortune. Sounds like we had almost identical crashes. But my estimate was $8000. I had all the damage you described plus the wheel was hit so hard the suspension all snapped. Im on the 5th week without it and they still arent done. Many of the parts were backordered for about 2 weeks and everything has to be shipped from Japan. Mazda hasnt made an surplus of repair parts for this car yet. I hope yours has a speedier recovery than mine. On the bright side...(1) there are no repro parts for this car yet. Youll get all new OEM. and (2) It will keep a months worth of miles off the odometer! Check out the SE regional forum June WPB thread for pics. They were taken last friday.