Had an accident in my Miata. Selling it on Ebay if anyone is interested.

Hello all,

I haven't made a post to this board in quite some time, as I've been
busy and my Miata hasn't given me any trouble lately

Unfortunately This past Sunday I was enjoying a drive with the top down
when a deer jumped out directly in front of me. The road was slightly
wet, as it had rained earlier that day, and I smacked on the brakes and
swerved around him. However, the road was wetter than I thought, and
the brakes locked up and before I even had a chance to think about
pumping the pedal, I landed in a pretty good ditch.

I wasn't injured, save a burn on the arm from the airbag, and the deer
ran away unscathed, but the Miata has seen better days. I know we're
not supposed to solicit in this group, but I don't have full coverage
on the Miata anymore, and thusly this accident is not covered. I can't
afford to fix it outright, so I put it up on Ebay. I hope it goes to a
good home.


http://tinyurl.com/8mksq


If anyone here is looking for a fixer upper, or a candidate for a good
1.8 engine swap with a lot of goodies, take a look. Thanks for all the
help and support over the years, and I'll be back one of these days as
soon as I get another Miata!

Paco
Injured '97 Montego Blue

"Paco" > wrote in:

> I wasn't injured, save a burn on the arm from the airbag, and the
> deer ran away unscathed, but the Miata has seen better days.

I'm glad you weren't hurt, sorry the deer lived (miserable hoofed rats
do thousands of dollars worth of damage every year and kill quite a few
people, you're lucky!)

I hope you recover financially somehow, the car looks pretty badly
damaged.

Oh sad, so sad! I lost my first Miata to a red light runner this past August
so I totally sympathize. Glad you got out unhurt - best of luck with the
auction!
--
"Paco" > wrote in message
oups.com...
> Hello all,
>
> I haven't made a post to this board in quite some time, as I've been
> busy and my Miata hasn't given me any trouble lately
>
> Unfortunately This past Sunday I was enjoying a drive with the top down
> when a deer jumped out directly in front of me. The road was slightly
> wet, as it had rained earlier that day, and I smacked on the brakes and
> swerved around him. However, the road was wetter than I thought, and
> the brakes locked up and before I even had a chance to think about
> pumping the pedal, I landed in a pretty good ditch.
>
> I wasn't injured, save a burn on the arm from the airbag, and the deer
> ran away unscathed, but the Miata has seen better days. I know we're
> not supposed to solicit in this group, but I don't have full coverage
> on the Miata anymore, and thusly this accident is not covered. I can't
> afford to fix it outright, so I put it up on Ebay. I hope it goes to a
> good home.
>
>
> http://tinyurl.com/8mksq
>
>
> If anyone here is looking for a fixer upper, or a candidate for a good
> 1.8 engine swap with a lot of goodies, take a look. Thanks for all the
> help and support over the years, and I'll be back one of these days as
> soon as I get another Miata!
>
> Paco
> Injured '97 Montego Blue
>

Hey guys, thanks for the kind replies. Yeah, I was pretty angry the
next day when the sun came out and I could see the extent of the
damage. I live in rural WV and I see deer constantly, but have always
had time to slow down first. This one just came out of the bushes right
in front of me. Incredibly stupid, destructive, and as pointed out,
often deadly animals. Damned things.

Paco wrote:
> Hey guys, thanks for the kind replies. Yeah, I was pretty angry the
> next day when the sun came out and I could see the extent of the
> damage. I live in rural WV and I see deer constantly, but have always
> had time to slow down first. This one just came out of the bushes right
> in front of me. Incredibly stupid, destructive, and as pointed out,
> often deadly animals. Damned things.
>

I hit one a while back and totaled both my car and the deer. I didn't
hold any animosity towards the deer, it was just doing it's thing in an
increasingly human-populated environment, where the roads that they must
cross and the vehicles that hit them (or vice-versa) were added by
people long after the deer were here.

"Incredibly stupid, destructive, and as pointed out,
often deadly animals. Damned things."

All of the above statements apply to far more people that I have
encountered and/or heard about than to wild animals. :-)

Glad to hear that you are ok. Your accident could re-ignite a couple of
debates, since it involved attempted accident avoidance on wet roads
(ABS vs. non-ABS), and you have an airbag that deployed that apparently
offered you no protection but caused a slight injury instead.

Good luck!

Pat

On 2005-05-20, pws > wrote:

> and you have an airbag that deployed that apparently offered
> you no protection but caused a slight injury instead.

How did you decide that? For all we know, without the airbag he
might have ended up in the hospital or the morgue rather than
walking away with an abrasion.

--
Grant Edwards grante Yow! My LESLIE GORE record
at is BROKEN...
visi.com

Grant Edwards wrote:
> On 2005-05-20, pws > wrote:
>
>
>>and you have an airbag that deployed that apparently offered
>>you no protection but caused a slight injury instead.
>
>
> How did you decide that? For all we know, without the airbag he
> might have ended up in the hospital or the morgue rather than
> walking away with an abrasion.
>

The passenger compartment is completely intact. The only injury
mentioned in the original post was an abrasion to the wrist. If his body
and or face had impacted the airbag to the extent that it was offering
protection, especially from major injury or death, there would probably
be abrasions and/or brusises to other places than one arm. The one
person that I have personally seen that was probably saved by their
airbag in a high-speed collision had two black eyes and chest/neck
abrasions from hitting the airbag.

I'll admit that I should have used the word "possibly" instead of
"apparently" since I was not there at the accident. Looking at the
pictures, while the car is torn up, it does not look like a collision
that would be likely to cause serious injury unless the occupants were
not wearing seat belts. Saying this, I am also aware that some people
die in what appear to be fairly minor accidents while others have walked
away from extreme wrecks without a scratch.

Of course, dropping into a ditch presents a very good possiblilty of a
rollover, which is one reason that I consider a good rollbar a more
important safety feature than the airbag in the miata.

So Paco, what is it? Do you think that the airbag helped any or did it
just hurt your arm?

Pat

> Your accident could re-ignite a couple of
> debates, since it involved attempted accident avoidance on wet roads
> (ABS vs. non-ABS)

When I learned how to drive and took my test (in Germany, in the 1980s) one
of the things we practised was taking our foot off the brake when the wheels
locked during an emergency brake. It's quite simple to do really, and has
come in very handy on more than one occasion. Granted, having the car do it
for you is a pleasant added extra, but I wouldn't consider it vital.
Personally, my vote goes for spending the extra money on proper
driver-training.

Eric

Eric Baber wrote:
>>Your accident could re-ignite a couple of
>>debates, since it involved attempted accident avoidance on wet roads
>>(ABS vs. non-ABS)
>
>
> When I learned how to drive and took my test (in Germany, in the 1980s) one
> of the things we practised was taking our foot off the brake when the wheels
> locked during an emergency brake. It's quite simple to do really, and has
> come in very handy on more than one occasion. Granted, having the car do it
> for you is a pleasant added extra, but I wouldn't consider it vital.
> Personally, my vote goes for spending the extra money on proper
> driver-training.
>
> Eric
>
>

Avoiding brake lockup is a good practice, especially during corners, but
the ABS on a car is doing more for the driver than simply duplicating
the effect of releasing the brakes during lockup.
Speed sensors monitor each wheel and apply a different amount of
braking force to each wheel as needed to maintain control. This is
something that we, as humans, are incapable of doing without
technological assistance, even if we could somehow work 4 brake pedals
at the same time to achieve the optimum braking force for each wheel.

As far as proper driver training, that is something that we do not have
in the United States unless you go to a fairly expensive driving school,
something that very few teenagers do.
While getting my driver's license they taught us the road rules and a
few safety tips, but not one mention of counter-steering, weight
transfer, avoiding brake-lockup, the difference between RWD and FWD, or
anything like that. I also think that every student should be required
to learn to control a spin-out on a skid pad before they are let loose
on the roads.

pat

> Avoiding brake lockup is a good practice, especially during corners, but
> the ABS on a car is doing more for the driver than simply duplicating the
> effect of releasing the brakes during lockup.
> Speed sensors monitor each wheel and apply a different amount of braking
> force to each wheel as needed to maintain control. This is something that
> we, as humans, are incapable of doing without technological assistance,
> even if we could somehow work 4 brake pedals at the same time to achieve
> the optimum braking force for each wheel.

True. Though again I must say I'm not convinced of the necessity of all of
this; in my 20 years of driving I've had to make a number of emergency stops
and all were fine. Probably largely to do with the fact that I always (try
to) leave enough distance between myself and the car in front etc etc.
Having said that, I suppose by the same token you could argue that seatbelts
aren't necessary if you drive safely, and I *am* pleased that my car has
seatbelts, and I do wear them. I guess it's a matter of where you draw the
line...

> As far as proper driver training, that is something that we do not have in
> the United States unless you go to a fairly expensive driving school,
> something that very few teenagers do.

In Germany you don't have a choice - you *have* to take driving lessons, and
yes, they're fairly expensive. There's no such thing as being taught by your
father or whoever as is the case in the UK and, I think, in the US. In
Germany you have to take at least 25 driving lessons (I think that's how
many it was) with a qualified driving instructor. Of those 25 hours, x
number (5, I think) have to be done after dark, another 3 or so on a
motorway, and so on. Basically, they try to prepare you for any possible
driving situation. Because I did my lessons in the winter we also practised
skidding and controlling the car on snow and ice, though that wasn't
compulsory - I guess simulating that in the summer just isn't
possible/practical.

I still find it frightening to think that most of the other drivers here in
the UK (where I live now) have never had any proper instruction (they've
mostly been taught by their father/mother/great-grandfather etc), and until
they passed their exam were never allowed to drive on the motorway. That
boggles my mind: "You're not allowed to drive on the motorway until you get
your license; but once you get your license you're allowed to go 70mph,
faster than you've ever driven, on a fast motorway without any supervision
or help". Very scary.

Eric