My "used to be" RX8
 

Well I used to have a loverly Titanium RX8 for the past year. But on my way home to Kariong on the NSW Central Coast last Friday night it was one of the 34 cars trashed by a runaway semitrailer with no brakes doing 100kph+ on the Mooney Mooney Creek Bridge. I was part way across the bridge in the LHS lane. I have some pics taken on my mobilephone camera which shows what happens when a truck doing 80kph+ hits an RX8 doing 10kph in the rear and ends up over half way down the bridge in the centre lane facing on-coming traffic. Not happy Jan!!!

Still I can not complain as one person died when their car exploded when hit and many other cars were torn apart by the rampaging semi :(

So both my Hymee Enhanced Grill and Exhaust system were trashed!

The passenger compartment was untouched despite the enormous rear-end hit and the car being speared into a number of other cars when it was propolled over 50 metres down the road. All the window glass is perfect and both the main doors were easily opened. Amazing, much like the spinning ride that i had :eek:

Anyway, I hope that the insurance company writes it off as no car is ever the same after a hit like this, not even the great RX8. It was just over a yaer old, but they do a new for old up to two years old, heres hoping. Jeez I already miss my old RX8 a lot :(

Oh, BTW, I only sustained some minor scratches where my writ watch was torn off and some bruising and strained muscles. Very light damage to the driver, unlike the car!

Cheers,

Tony.

Bloody Hell.....glad you're okay mate :( .

Regards, Gomez.

Glad to here you are OK mate.

That is a very sad end for the first officially shipped RX-8 grill kit. L&L's was a "pick-up" Boom Boom!

Don't forget to claim the exhaust! You can get a MKII version :D I hope you get a new car. My Suncorp policy gives me a new one if this one is written of in the first 2 years.

Cheers,
Hymee.

BTW - Picture 1... The left hand tip survived much better then the left hand rear quarter panel!

OMG ... glad you are ok

Now you have a new car *I think so as the semi trailer will be paying the taps*, insurance company will bring you the car with the choice of colour.

One piece of fine art is gone. I am talking about Hymee's pipe.

EDIT: Since the semi trailer is totally at fault. You should get the insurance company to get the Hymee MkII for nothing! .... Hang on - I can see you have the MazdaSpeed bodykit on too ;)

Glad to see you're okay and still in good health.
Shame about the car, but hey, on the bright side, if they write off the car, you can get a Strato Blue to let the world know you've got an 05 spec. :)

bloody hell......... glad you are okay :)

we was on that freeway just one day before, coming back from brissy after picking up our "project drifter" :D lucky we went of thursday, our original plan was to go on friday :eek:

anyway, hope you get everything sorted from the insurance company. just a quick question tho....... do you/does your insurance have to pay for the damage you made to the car in front of you? im pretty sure they have changed that policy on that one...... (you know before the last car will have to cpoe everything...)

look on the bright side, you will get a brand spanking new 8 in a few weeks if it all goes well ;)

e

Taka.....you're a very naughty boy :p .

Go"paragon of virtue"mez.

Taka,

Thats no MS bodykit, thats a mangled Hymee Gorilla! :)

Ezzy

The accident was North bound but it would have held you up for a while south bound. As to the tap for tap between insurance companies - it does not apply here. Consider the semi hitting many car at the same time spearing them in various directions a setting some spinning so that no one knows where they started, who they hit on the way and how they got where they ended up! There is no working it out. The Police and RTA major incident investigation team spent 10 hours going through the "crime scene" taking photos and measurements, before any of the towies were allowed to take the first wrecks away at 5AM the next day. The F3 was not reopened until 7AM Saturday. So the semi gets to pay for it all - which leads to the really shitty part about this - it was said that the semi driver may have been unlicenced and the rig was uninsured, unregistered and unroadworthy! So he should have turned left at the start of the bridge and taken the 175M drop nstead of continuing down the left lane, and saved a person their life and all the rest of us a whole load of hurt. :(

Still the companies should sort out the mess betweenn themselves (pay for their own customers with no loss of no-claim as they were not at fault). Then I can look at the colour choice, yes I liked the Titanium a lot but will look at the new Blue. But definitely with the Hymee Enhanced bits!

Tony.

all the best tony, i know its painful waiting for an insurance claim.... :(

e

I would back you up to claim one.

My friend did his Porsche a car park accident by hitting his front bumper head on. He paid the $450 insurance excess and the difference in price from the old front spoiler to a "face lifted" one (I think only $200) and he has a face lift. To my amaze that is perfectly legal and insurance is willing to do it as long as you are paying the price diff of the parts.

I wouldn't do it to my 8 as the intake is very close in the front.

Just out of interest, who are you insured with tonym?

Eeeegads... I'm glad you walked away from major damage and that the 8 took the bullet instead.

-BV

Tonym

Sorry to hear of your misadventure , your RX8 held out quite well under the circumstances .

Hope you get a new replacement car in 05.

What do insurance companies do with the wreck ???

Maybe its worth buying the wreck if the price is right .

cheers
michael

Can I have the wheels if they are not damaged?

Typical.....Taka at the corpse before it's even cold!

Total carnage :eek: :eek:

I was wondering which airbags went off? I can see the passenger airbag in one of the photos, but what about the drivers side and some of the other ones?

Not many people have had an airbag go off in their face before. Did it help?

Glad you are OK. Taka beat me to the wheels...

so sorry to hear that
i hope your ok
i guess you will get a brand new one when insurance pays out
Do you think you can sell things of the car ??
interested in the seats lol.....

Phil and I will take the front cut. Consider it a deposit on your supercharger :)

Cheers,
Hymee.

Tonym, sorry to hear of your misfortune. I was pissed off after a rear ender with my MX5 3 weeks ago but looking at your damage mine does not compare. Glad to see you only suffered minor scratches.

Truck driver should be up for criminal charges if he was unlicenced and in an unroadworthy vehicle. Should have used the arrestor beds (assuming that stretch of road has them).

Isn't it funny, a misadventure always brings the vultures out.

Oh, by the way, can I have the rotary accents............LOL!

Yikes! Glad you're okay.

Pretty amazing that the entire cabin is still intact. That's some good engineering.

That's just plain nasty. Good luck with the insurance and I knew I had seen a rx-8 on the news.

And the exhaust :)

I don't know what happens to the car if it gets written off, its insured with the NRMA and they do the new for old up to 2 years old, so I hope this happens,
Yes it is good engineering, and all the airbags deployed except the drivers side curtain and seat-side airbag - so 4 out of six. This makes sense as the car was hit from behind first, then speared forwards into other car which deployed front 2 bags, then in spinning it hit on the left rear again which deployed the 2 passenger side bags. I'll post some interior pics when I shrink them for your group edification :)
The only questionable thing was that the driver's seat collapsed fully backwards on the initial rear-end hit, so when the front bags deployed I was not facing the driver's one. I don't know whether this is a good or bad thing - possibly good for the driver to be prostrate and low if the car rolls, but probably bad for rear seat passenger if there is one. I'll ask Mazda about this.
Hymee, you can have the "front cut" if it goes on the market, but the engine/transmission did the "rear dive" thing and the gear stick is very short and a long way back now :O

Tony.

Sooooooooooooooooooooooooo Sorry.. I hope it all works out for you.. glad you ok..

tonym, the seat falling back is a bad thing........no back protection, and basically you need a seat for the seat belts and airbags to be efficient.

Mazda should be made aware of this as this IMHO is a defect.

Wonder if MA is listening :eek:

AMG, yes thinking it through I agree with you this should not happen and I will raise this question to Mazda Aust asking for a comment on this issue.

Tony.

Is it just the pictures, or did your entire back of your car get crushed, while the other car barely scratched it's bumper?

Good to hear you are mostly OK Tony, and I feel very sorry for the other people injured and killed in this tragedy.

We are also on the Central Coast and insured with NRMA (best price by far) so I will be interested to know how it all pans out with the wreck and getting a new car. I would love to see another blue (even if it is not 'Winning' ) - on the Central Coast !

As far as I know the insurance company takes ownership of the wreck when they provide a new car.

As for wanting anything off the wreck - it is all structurally unsafe now - even the wheels - most car companies advise replacing alloy wheels in the event of a serious accident - like this one. So just walk away and remember it fondly.

I am also concerned about the driver's seat reclining - MA might need to explain this - perhaps it is the fault of the electric motors ? Has anyone with electric seats (in any car) had this happen to them ?

Years ago my wife's Corolla was rear ended and it happened to the driver's seat then too but that was a 1982 model car and things have hopefully come a long way since then.

Regards
Jeffneil

tonym,

I saw that on the news, looked nasty, good to hear this car is made well. I feel sorry for any smart car in the same situation.

isn't now a god time to tell the NRMA you had sway bars, springs, flywheel, and other goddies on the car so they can have them ready on the new car ;)

Jason - I don't know if the car that the RX8 was up against was one that hit my car at any time during the wild spinning ride. The major impact on the rear occured probably 30-50 metres up the road from this spot and we both ended up facing the wrong way when we cam to a stop. So no the rear end damage wa not caused by the crummydore :)

Jeffneil - mine is the "S" version - no fruit :) So standard seat with no electrics, I don't know if the leather seat is different structurally. I'll post some interiors soon for all to see.

Tony.

tonym,

Glad to hear you are OK. Interesting but disconcerting info about the seat.

Hope you sort out the insurance and you're back in a new '8 soon.

sco

Dont think NRMA will write it off for you..They are shocking at this in my experience..

Did the air bags hurt you?? A friend of mine had a minior accident and he got more hurt from the airbag than anything else in the crash.

Regards
Phillip

god bless it..

u r ok :) ... are u still shocked from the whole thing....?

hope you are recovering ok, from the whole event...

can i quickly ask you mate

1) what happened exactly (in a nutshell if u wish)

2) how many airbags went off... and did it hurt....?

Wow, great to hear you are ok!

Hell of a ride by the sound of it. Best of luck with the new one? Will you stick with the Titanium?

What happened ...
 

daz1300

1) what happened exactly (in a nutshell if u wish)

Well, ya see, I was traveling home and there had been a relatively minor accident on the north side of the Mooney Mooney Creek Bridge (the big one just before the Gosford exit, about 5 mins from home) and all the northbound traffic was doing 10-20kph because of all the rubbernecks. Anyway I had moved to the LHS lane at the top of the hill going down to the bridge and I had made it about 80 metres onto the bridge (it is about 350-400 meters long) when I heard much loud banging and then I was hit from behind with an enormous force which speared me forward into the car in front then into the centre lane into another car and then much hitting and spinning and there I was about 70 metres further onto the bridge in the centre lane facing the oncoming traffic. I did not get to see much as my drivers seat had collapsed and it was mostly noise and motion being tossed about.

What had happened was that a semi had come over the hill in the left hand lane doing the normal 120kph and rounding the bend had come on to all 3 lanes of solid traffic doing around 20kph (this was backed up all the way to the other side of the bridge). He started braking and went into the breakdown lane with his horn going and his brakes on fire all the way down to the bridge, gaining speed. Now you see, there is NO BREAKDOWN LANE on the bridge. So he could choose to go off the bridge (175 metres down!) or ride the traffic which was doing 20kph. Well he made it all the way to the other end of the bridge (350 metres) before he stopped, taking out everything in the LHS lane along with other cars around him. He stopped with a large Toyota Navara Crew Cab Ute embedded under his front LHS up to the ute's cabin. One of the first cars he hit exploded and burned and there were other cars totally trashed, about 30 odd, plus many others with some damage. his happened around 5.40PM Friday night and they reopened the F3 at around 7AM Saturday morning.



2) how many airbags went off... and did it hurt....?

4 of the 6 deployed - none with the heavy hit from behind , the front 2 when the car was speared froward into another and then the passenger side 2 deployed with a third glancing hit to that side rear. I did not feel the "bag explosion" from the front bags as I was then flat on my back on the collapsed seat. But I can say that the explosive used really stinks.

I have included a pic of the interior as well as a couple of better ones of the rear. Notice how no glass was broken - amazing!

I will find out whether the NRMA does wrtie it off by the end of this week - fingers crossed!

Tony.

https://www.rx8club.com/attachment.p...chmentid=32019

There is the write off right there. There is NO WAY :eek: they can repair this. Be prepare to run in another car, Tony.

You will hate me saying this, the wheel looks ok though :rolleyes:
The Hymee pipe only have a few dents - that is sugoi! :eek:

God it hurts to see an Rx8 in that condition........ :eek:

At least you'll be getting a new one soon Tony.

The sad thing is that I'll probably see your car "rebirthed" and doing the rounds around my neighbourhood (Bankstown) in a matter of weeks. :)

that will be a write off, the parts are too exxy and looks like a chassis damage.
start looking for a new colour mate :D

e

Crash story from Sydney Sun Herald
 

daz1300

The story from others - taken from Sunday's Sun Herald with pic of semi.

Tony.

Lucky escape Tony.

At least you are alive to worry about replacing the RX-8 - unlike the poor woman whose car was incinerated with her in it.

Perhaps you should contact Mazda Australia and see if they are interested in collating information from the crash and your mangled car?

You are 100% right, I am extremely grateful that it is only my car that is broken and not me. I really feel sad about the poor woman in the Hyundai and the others seriously hurt, my problem is inconsequential in comparison. They were only going home from work like me :(

Just take a look at what used to be some sort of car that came off far worse than mine - no question here about write-off, and the poor people inside this! :eek:

I will contact Mazda Aust to see if they want to look at the car before it is "fixed" or written-off. In the latter case they will have to work through the NRMA.

Tony.

:eek:

Surely there are only two chances that car won't be written off - Buckleys and none.

I suppose they could get a good front cut and fix the front 1/2, and a good rear cut to fix the back 1/2 ?

FFS - There would have to be chassis deformaton. Surely that can not be an economical proposition to repair? If they don't write that off and replace it with new as per their policy, I give you a grill kit for free.

The exhausts looks even better in those rear end shots. I might advise people with the stainless systems to remove the rear bar just to show them off a bit better!

Is that interior picture showing the seat - is that as far as it reclined, or has it been lifted up slightly? The worrying thing about the seat going back is the seatbelts are basically useless and you can "submarine". I saw a Mini get hit from behind by a gravel truck one day, and the seat collapsed back just like that.

Hymee,

Yep, in the holding yard shown in the photo I had to adjust the seat back up from its position in the crash against the cushion of the back seat, to get at some of my belongings that had "migrated" around the cabin. I forgot to return it for the pic. I to was worried that this would end in submarining in a front-end hit that followed a heavy rear-ender. Fortunately this did not seem to happen to me. Perhaps the front-end hit I had was not severe enough given that my car was spinning at the time? ;)

I'll hold you to the free grill if they don't write it off, as I'll need something to make me happy with this result. Yes I will be buying another Hymee MkII Exhaust as well.

Tony.

Tony,

What a tragedy - glad you made it through OK.

Let us know if MA responds re the seat issue.

Cheers,

Pappy.

I'd be guessing that in the next few months we'll be receiving safety recall letters regarding the seat.

I'd expect the seat to buckle if my car was hit up the arse by a semi at 120kph. Don't hold your breath waiting for that recall, AMG!

Gomez.

Really sorry to read that you were involved in the accident Tony, also condolences to the family of the woman who died - very sad.

Why-o-why in Australia don't we have warning signs above the freeways/motorways advising of accidents/slow traffic ahead?? These work VERY well in the UK. The Mooney Mooney bridge is so damn dangerous for cars going down - let alone trucks, heavy vehicles should either be forced to slow down (low gear - and stay in the slow lane) or not be allowed to run during peak hour. Accidents like this will happen again and again until they do something about it.

Good to see the RX-8 held up pretty well, there has to be at least $30,000 worth of damage to your car. All going well they'll write it off.

I'm sorry to hear about all this, but glad to hear you are ok, tonym. Sad someone was killed, but amazing there weren't more