Spotted at Work: Car Accident Edition

"JQJ213- Now With An Extra Cylinder!" (jqj213) 06/23/2014 at 13:39 • Filed to: spotted, spotted at work, crash, collision, accident, Camry

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Well we had some rain the other night at work. Rain + Florida drivers = crashes. Tonight was no exception. Bare with me as I explain what happened since I was somewhat of a witness here. I need your help to try and explain more to me!

First, sorry for awful pics, I was still working so getting pics was not easy at all. So, look closely at the red arrow. That is a dented beige Camry (yes, it is always a fucking Camry). Supposedly, Camry was backing out of the spot. They mixed up the gas and brake pedal (typical old person excuse) and hit the Jimmy.

The Jimmy then moved into the Suzuki. As you can see, there was either a good amount of force involved, or that Suzuki is not really strong. The whole door is dented in, and the rear window shattered.

Now, Mr. Jaguar Fit (thats for a different discussion entirely) is EXTREMELY lucky. Somehow, the Suzuki missed him by literally inches. I don't know if they could've gotten any closer.

Here's where my confusion is. How the hell did that Camry build up so much speed IN REVERSE? How the hell did the Jimmy move so much? All of these cars were in the parking spaces fine before the wreck. Did the water have anything to do with it? It just seems odd that there was this much damage from mixing up gas and brake pedals.

As always, thanks for reading and helping.

cabarne4 > JQJ213- Now With An Extra Cylinder! 06/23/2014 at 13:43

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Trick question. Nobody knows how shit happens in Florida.

Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. > JQJ213- Now With An Extra Cylinder! 06/23/2014 at 13:46

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Reasonably high power + automatic= instant acceleration and hard hit.

spanfucker retire bitch > JQJ213- Now With An Extra Cylinder! 06/23/2014 at 13:47

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BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

sm70- why not Duesenberg? > JQJ213- Now With An Extra Cylinder! 06/23/2014 at 13:51

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If the person in the Camry had accidentally stepped on the brake instead of the gas, then panicked and pressed it harder (which happens to old folks a lot), they would've easily gotten up enough speed to do that. Look what happens when people do that when parking in front of stores. They often plow through half the storefront.

OPPOsaurus WRX > JQJ213- Now With An Extra Cylinder! 06/23/2014 at 13:52

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Scenario A: those damn floor mats

Scenario B: Repeated jabs to the gas instead of the brake.

JQJ213- Now With An Extra Cylinder! > sm70- why not Duesenberg? 06/23/2014 at 13:55

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yes, but was in reverse. Arent most cars limited in reverse?

JQJ213- Now With An Extra Cylinder! > Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. 06/23/2014 at 13:55

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But this was reverse, there isnt that much speed in reverse, especially since its a limited speed

JQJ213- Now With An Extra Cylinder! > cabarne4 06/23/2014 at 13:56

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Youve just won this post!

jariten1781 > JQJ213- Now With An Extra Cylinder! 06/23/2014 at 13:56

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If they thought they were hitting the brakes they would have probably kept the pedal down and continued right on shoving for some time.

Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. > JQJ213- Now With An Extra Cylinder! 06/23/2014 at 13:57

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I'm not sure how long reverse is on these. All I know is cars with a short reverse will pick up speed insanely quickly and also there are some cars that can hit highway speed in reverse. So it could easily have got some speed up.

deekster_caddy > JQJ213- Now With An Extra Cylinder! 06/23/2014 at 13:58

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You can go really fast in reverse. IIRC it's got about the gear ratio of 2nd gear, so sometimes you can get up to around 40 (or more) in R.

I had somebody do this in the 90's - they were in an Audi S5000 and we were screwing around in a parking lot. My car was parked perpendicular to theirs - he backed up at full throttle, didn't realize my car was there (I was completely in a parking space) and he nailed the back corner of my bumper. I had my '73 Buick LeSabre.

He dented the bumper on it's side and pushed back of the car 3-4 feet over. Back of the Audi was pretty friggin demolished, a lot like the back of that Camry pictured.

No other damage whatsoever, but I still have that dent in the back bumper of my car. It's a great story to tell when people ask about it.

spanfucker retire bitch > JQJ213- Now With An Extra Cylinder! 06/23/2014 at 14:15

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Not really. I could scare myself sometimes in my old Toyota Matrix if I wasn't careful with the throttle modulation in reverse. I had it "kick" on me a couple times when I was still learning to drive and the acceleration really surprised me.

Thankfully, I know which pedal is the brake.

sm70- why not Duesenberg? > JQJ213- Now With An Extra Cylinder! 06/23/2014 at 14:21

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Yes, but 35 mph is fast enough to do this

Slave2anMG > JQJ213- Now With An Extra Cylinder! 06/23/2014 at 14:42

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Limited by the gear ratio and engine redline. Reverse is usually the same ratio as first so you can do the same speed in reverse as in first gear. A Camry moving at 20-25 mph has a TON of inertia and kinetic energy, certainly more than enough to move that Jimmy around.