What Was Your First Automotive Accident?

"HFV has no HFV. But somehow has 2 motorcycles" (hondasfordsvolvo) 09/22/2015 at 20:10 • Filed to: None

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What was the first time you did something you didn’t mean to do in a car, that caused damage to your car or the thing you hit?

For me it was about 3 months after I got my licence, in my 92 Camry, my first car. I was showing off in a snowy parking lot doing e-brake slides. but I hit a patch of ice, and did a complete 180 and found myself going 25 mph backwards. I didn’t stop until my rear bumper hit a concrete block wall. Just like this one. it just divided the McDonald’s parking lot I was in, and the hotel parking lot next to it, it was about 8 feet tall.

I was so scared. I was still living with my parents, and I was like “oh crap, what is my Dad going to say when he sees that my rear bumper is smashed in?!” That was until I got out to look at the car. There was zero damage to the car, well, maybe a bit of cracked paint. The wall however didn’t fair so well. about ten of the blocks were cracked. For a good 3 years I laughed every time I saw that wall.

and here is a picture of what I wished my Camry looked like, when I was 18.

Oh and the next accident after that? I was backing up my Tacoma, and hit a tree. I didn’t know the tailgate was down, so I thought I still had room. Put a pretty nice tree shaped dent on the top of the tailgate.

Supreme Chancellor and Glorious Leader SaveTheIntegras > HFV has no HFV. But somehow has 2 motorcycles 09/22/2015 at 20:16

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It was August of last year. I worked at a summer camp (day starts at 7 ends at 6) about an hour from my house and I had gotten very little sleep the night before. I ended up knocking out for probably three seconds in stop and go traffic on the highway and my car smashed into a pick up truck.

The guy was shockingly chill about it and didn’t want to call insurance. He said it was because I was only 19 and it’d totally fuck me, maybe he was hiding something, I don’t really know. I ended up borrowing $500 from my parents, paid for his new bumper, stripped my car of any parts worth some cash, junked the rest and repaid my parents.

Scary__goongala! > HFV has no HFV. But somehow has 2 motorcycles 09/22/2015 at 20:16

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A tiny fender bender. Happened senior year of HS. The 3rd in front of me wanted to pull into the middle school just down the road from my HS I had just pulled out of. They couldn’t cross the other lane fast enough so they slammed on the brakes. I was paying attention and barely stopped in time. The girl behind me wasn’t so she rear ended my family’s beater 99’ Malibu. All it did to the car was transfer some paint but it pushed in and partially crushed the front bumper of her Galant. She tried to tell the cop she slide on some gravel but he didn’t buy that for a second.

Amoore100 > Supreme Chancellor and Glorious Leader SaveTheIntegras 09/22/2015 at 20:17

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Pic got Kinja’d...

TA4K > HFV has no HFV. But somehow has 2 motorcycles 09/22/2015 at 20:18

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Actually about 3 weeks ago, (about a year and a half after I got my licence, I’m on my full licence now), I thought the car in front of me at an intersection had pulled away, so looking for my gap I rolled forwards... Into thier tow ball. It had hooked itself under the opening for the lower grille so when she drove away to move out of the road it took my bumper off. Duck taped it in place and continued to meet my mates at maccas, drove back to school and bolted it back on. Otherwise I have deliberately bumped into mates but nothing damaging.

Supreme Chancellor and Glorious Leader SaveTheIntegras > Amoore100 09/22/2015 at 20:18

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good i don’t want to look at my smashed integra anymore...

My citroen won't start > HFV has no HFV. But somehow has 2 motorcycles 09/22/2015 at 20:24

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Citroen C4 Pallas was too large for the puny city centre parking lot, huge scrape occurred.

McMike > HFV has no HFV. But somehow has 2 motorcycles 09/22/2015 at 20:26

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Understeered into a curb when I was 16 in my bold, gold 1977 Accord.

I had no idea what was happening. I mean, I’m like, turning the wheel more and more and more. WHY WON’T YOU TURN!

Then there were the snowbanks, the little fender-benders that left no marks, and random trips through ditches....

Most of them except that first curb left a mark, so they didn’t count. :) As long as Mom didn’t know....

HFV has no HFV. But somehow has 2 motorcycles > Supreme Chancellor and Glorious Leader SaveTheIntegras 09/22/2015 at 20:29

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makes me sad to see an Integra wrecked. but hey could have been a lot worse. One of the scariest moments of my life was waking up in the wrong lane looking at a semi truck heading at me. If I had stayed asleep for a few moments more, myself and my buddy who was sleeping the the passenger seat might not be here.

HFV has no HFV. But somehow has 2 motorcycles > McMike 09/22/2015 at 20:33

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been there. I was driving my wife’s Cavalier, and took a turn too fast for the car. under steered and went a bit off road into a ditch, pushed the front bumper up, and bent the driver’s front fender a bit. She still gets made at me for that sometimes(it happened 4 years ago when we were dating) I blame it on the car. After all I was used to the handling capabilities of my 91 Civic.

El Rivinado > HFV has no HFV. But somehow has 2 motorcycles 09/22/2015 at 20:34

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I almost got into an accident last month. I was breaking the law by driving by myself (still on my permit) to help my sister pay for her new Iphone at the mall near my house.(she forgot her credit card before leaving the house and considering my dad was at work, she needed my help to pay for it) I got in the parking lot, which is a huge clusterfuck of a nightmare, and I almost scraped my car and almost rammed the front of a parked Volkswagen because I entered a space that was too small for my big two door Eldorado.

My sister was eternally grateful that I helped, but had I got busted for that, I would've gotten my ass whupped by my dad.

wafflesnfalafel > HFV has no HFV. But somehow has 2 motorcycles 09/22/2015 at 20:37

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I hit a deer - it jumped out from behind an on coming car. I was doing about 50, got slowed down to maybe 25 before hitting it flat square square on the grill of my little Nissan pickup. That damn deer got up, jumped across the ditch and ran off. I was left with about $2500 in damage. I figure she probably ended up with some broken ribs. I was on the way to my girlfriend’s house at the time - her father didn’t believe me until I showed him the deer hair jammed between the crunched hood and grill.

Tohru > HFV has no HFV. But somehow has 2 motorcycles 09/22/2015 at 20:42

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I hit a tree at 60mph. Came into the corner way too fast. I was really pissed-off and let it affect my driving.

Forgive the red stripes - this was taken with a 35mm camera in 2002.

Tohru > McMike 09/22/2015 at 20:43

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Here I thought your first crash was this one.

HFV has no HFV. But somehow has 2 motorcycles > wafflesnfalafel 09/22/2015 at 20:48

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My ... third accident was a deer hit. Just a little yearling. mine didn’t run away, the old glass headlights on my 91 Civic did a good job of gutting it.

HFV has no HFV. But somehow has 2 motorcycles > Tohru 09/22/2015 at 20:51

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dang! that had to be scary. good thing you had a whole lot of steel in front of you lol. Did that Caprice have an airbag?

Iheartmy365kHonda - Car enthusiasts do like FWD > HFV has no HFV. But somehow has 2 motorcycles 09/22/2015 at 20:51

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Last year. Called a kid a “little bitch” for climbing on top of my car. Got into an accident two days later. Karma or God’s judgment?

Ended up rear ending my coworker on a highway. Everyone thought it was awesome to go from 70 mph to 55 mph suddenly. I even hit her in a construction zone. $350 ticket and a tow truck driver ripped me off... $350 towing fee. I learned the hardest lesson ever that day. On the bright side, I’ve been better with my attitude and I apologized to the family.

Ever since that accident though, I’ve put 15,000 miles on the car since then.

McMike > Tohru 09/22/2015 at 20:53

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I was pacing myself.

HFV has no HFV. But somehow has 2 motorcycles > Iheartmy365kHonda - Car enthusiasts do like FWD 09/22/2015 at 20:53

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ouch

Iheartmy365kHonda - Car enthusiasts do like FWD > HFV has no HFV. But somehow has 2 motorcycles 09/22/2015 at 20:56

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I just got kinja’d bad. Hang on:

EDIT: Dammit Kinja!

mazda616 > HFV has no HFV. But somehow has 2 motorcycles 09/22/2015 at 21:04

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^^ Actual picture of my “Burrito” as I called it, circa late-2006.

My first car was a ‘92 Beretta. I loved it. Don’t ask me why. Anyway, it was a total base model (didn’t even have cruise, tilt, or a rear defroster), but ‘92 was the year GM made ABS standard on the L-bodies. So it had that.

Too bad it didn’t work. The ABS light came on and began to flash, which according to the owner’s manual indicated a major problem. I told my grandparents (they raised me) and they said it was fine and to ignore it. The brake fluid level was fine, so I ignored the light.

Fast forward a couple weeks. I’m going down a hill with a stoplight at the bottom. The Malibu in front of me slams on their brakes. I slam on mine, and surprise, all four wheels locked up. Immediately. My sixteen-year-old self didn’t react quickly enough (did manage to swerve to the right some and avoid a total impact, though) and the left front of the Beretta tapped the right rear bumper of the Malibu. Both cars had minimal damage. The Beretta had some paint chunks missing from the bumper and the Malibu had a decent scuff.

The Malibu driver was a super nice old lady who said she could tell I was young and she didn’t want my insurance to go up and her car was old anyway so we should just forget about it. I quickly thanked her and was on my way. The ABS light vanished after that and the ABS itself randomly decided to work again, too. Ah, ‘90s GM electrics.

I never bothered to fix the Beretta’s missing paint, as it had begun to have a LOT of issues at that point and I was over it. It was an older couple’s car before I got it and it sat forever (only had 71,000 miles on it when I got it in 2006) and I drove the piss out of it, so it broke. A lot.

uofime-2 > HFV has no HFV. But somehow has 2 motorcycles 09/22/2015 at 21:06

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Kind of similar story to yours.

I was 17 I think I lived in a rural area it was snowy. After turning off the main road maybe a half mile from home and I should say within full view of it, there are no other houses, I decided to yank the hand brake to do a little fish tale on the snow covered road. The back end proceeded to swing back and forth in progressively worsening tankslappers at least four times until I can no longer catch in anymore and it goes in nose first almost perfectly perpendicular to the ditch. The car is high centered and completely stuck.

I start to walk home to get our 4wd truck to pull myself out but realize my parents are gone and have of course taken the aforementioned truck leaving my tow vehicle choices as a Chevy Aveo, a rwd crewcab pickup on all seasons(which is possibly more useless than the Aveo in the snow) or a couple of full size tractors. Tractor it is I figure, that’ll be nice and subtle, fingers crossed it starts, and I continue walking up the road.

Fortunately before I get to far I see my buddy who has a 4x4 s10 driving down the main road. So I give him a call, he goes home, like a mile away, and gets his dad and a tow strap. 15 minutes later they’ve pulled me out of the ditch.

The damage was minimal, a little bit of paint chipped off the plastic bumper. I carefully drove home, parked the car in its usual place and pretended nothing happened.

Eight years later and I still don’t think I ever did tell my parents about that...

I just bought a new car this summer. Needless to say, but I’ve learned my lesson. I’m buying snow tires!

HFV has no HFV. But somehow has 2 motorcycles > mazda616 09/22/2015 at 21:08

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How many times did you have to replace the door handle mechanism?

wiffleballtony > HFV has no HFV. But somehow has 2 motorcycles 09/22/2015 at 21:08

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Probably about 11 years ago I was sitting in moderate to heavy traffic. I am not sure exactly if I wasn’t paying close enough attention but I failed to stop in time to rear end the car in front of me at like 20 mph. To this day I’m not sure if he had already hit the car in front of him before I hit him or if I caused him to bump forward. Anyway we all pulled off. The damage was minor but my car was worthless anyway and got written off. It was a 1995 Taurus GL and it was my first freedom.

mazda616 > HFV has no HFV. But somehow has 2 motorcycles 09/22/2015 at 21:09

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Only once! I got home from work and it was fine, went to the car to leave for church the next morning and it was broken. Ordered a cheap eBay replacement.

Logansteno: Bought a VW? > HFV has no HFV. But somehow has 2 motorcycles 09/22/2015 at 21:12

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My first experience with an accident at all was a couple years ago when my girlfriend hit a tree in her dads E36 while we were on our way to the movies. Hit a patch of ice, totaled the car. (her dad fixed it because there was no damage to anything but the front clip).

MY first oops was when I was driving the Safari after driving my M3 for a while and backed into a car in the school parking lot because I wasn’t used to the length anymore. No damage to either car luckily and the other kid was cool about it.

HFV has no HFV. But somehow has 2 motorcycles > uofime-2 09/22/2015 at 21:17

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I did pretty much the same thing in my Camry the same winter as that accident. I went into a corner a bit to fast, and lift off oversteer lead to a fishtail which lead to an over correction, and eventually my Camry in a ditch, and a good 3 feet of snow up to the diver’s side rear door. Interestingly enough i was also pulled out by a S-10. This was long before I had a cell phone, so I started walking towards the nearest house, before I got there I saw the truck pulling out. The guy in the truck was supper chill. He told me this wasn’t the first or last time he’d pulled some one out of the ditch by that corner. we yanked the car out in about 5 minutes, I handed the guy a 20 for the help and went on my marry way. 3 years later I delivered a pizza to the same guy, he recognized me and gave me a 20 dollar tip.

HFV has no HFV. But somehow has 2 motorcycles > mazda616 09/22/2015 at 21:24

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My buddy had a 94 Cutlass Supreme. He loved that hunk of junk, but the worst part was the door handles. He had it 3 years, and must have replaced 5 for 6 door handle mechanisms between the driver’s and passenger’s side. It’s probly doesn’t help living up in northern Wi, as it did seem to only break in the winter.

uofime-2 > HFV has no HFV. But somehow has 2 motorcycles 09/22/2015 at 21:24

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That is an awesome story!

jariten1781 > HFV has no HFV. But somehow has 2 motorcycles 09/22/2015 at 21:43

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The only ‘at fault’ I had while driving was a month or so after I got my license and backed Mom’s minivan into a pole...no damage.

Had another ‘at fault’ 15 years later, but I wasn’t driving. E-brake cable snapped while I was in a store and the car rolled through the parking lot, over a couple curbs and into a major road where it was rammed by a city bus.

In addition to that I’ve been rear ended 5 times and backed into 3 times.

Tohru > HFV has no HFV. But somehow has 2 motorcycles 09/22/2015 at 21:44

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Yep - you can see the ‘bag hanging out of the steering wheel. I still have scars on my knuckles from being burned by the airbag.

The crash pushed the motor back until it bent the firewall.

I also had a ‘91 CRX at the time. We measured the Caprice - the distance the Caprice crumpled was equal to the distance from the front bumper to the base of the CRX’s windshield.

RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars > HFV has no HFV. But somehow has 2 motorcycles 09/22/2015 at 21:58

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Hitting a patch of black ice this past January 18th while going relatively slowly (60kph) on a corner and spinning the rear end of my DD ‘09 Hyundai Accent into a guardrail to the tune of $1362...

Much cursing / swearing was involved, although I will honestly say I was pleasantly surprised with how little damage actually occurred when I jumped out to look after it happened. Forgot to get pics of the damage, sadly. Was on my way to work after dropping some customer’s laptops off (I do computer repair on the side) and hit some black ice on a side road along an inlet of Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia, Canada. When I hit the ice, the back end stepped out left, so I corrected with a little bit of oppo and gave the car a little gas to try straightening it out, front wheels were now also on ice, so it responded a bit, but barely. Car kept sliding drift-style sideways around the corner, then front wheels come off ice and bite hard into pavement (I had let off the gas but wheels were still slightly turned left to counter), throwing front end hard left. Car proceeds to then do a 180 to the left and slides rear-right first into a guardrail, then, miraculously, slides along said guardrail without dragging the front end into it, thank god. (Also, thank god for the guardrail because if it wasn’t there, I would’ve slid down a tree-covered bank into the water: https://www.google.ca/maps/@44.4542.… -

I ended up coming to a stop backwards, rear-right corner against the guardrail in front of the driveway of that house around the corner. Car was completely driveable (legally) despite the damage as it was all superficial to the bodywork - a small frisbee-sized-but-in-akward-place-dent on the rear-right corner, many paint scrapes / cracks, broken lower clip on the taillight casing (although the lens was perfect, surprisingly!), cracked/split inner fender liner, scratched/split bumper cover. The other two clips were holding the light on so it was perfectly secure and legal, and lens / bulbs were fine. Drove it for a week like that while checking with insurance and getting quotes from body shops, and legally wouldn’t have had to repair it as it wasn’t affecting anything other than looking terrible and eventually rusting if I at least didn’t have it re-painted due to the paint cracks. Quote of $900 from a not-as-well-regarded local shop (they left me waiting at the front desk for 10 mins in full view of the owner/boss through his office door window after walking in), $1362 from one well-regarded shop that used certified used parts from a local auto recycler, and $1700 from another reputable shop that was going to use all brand-new parts. Chose the middle ground and paid out-of-pocket as I didn’t want my insurance payments to go up. They did a pretty good job - looks pretty much like nothing had ever happened, although the rear bumper cover doesn’t quite line up perfectly there now. They gave my car a full wash/detail inside and out too, which was a nice, unexpected surprise. Sucky experience, but could’ve been much worse for me and the car.

I know people sometimes knock on the Accent, but after that, I can legitimately say they are solid little cars. $1362 for backing into a guardrail at 60kph isn’t a bad deal to me, considering the circumstances

Hoping never to repeat it...(for the record, I did have non-worn winter tires on! :) )

AMGtech - now with more recalls! > HFV has no HFV. But somehow has 2 motorcycles 09/22/2015 at 22:08

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I was 16. Driving my mother’s Park Avenue at 80mph down a gravel road when I lost control and hit a field approach sideways. Rolled over three times before resting on the wheels, engine still running and a sliver of glass sticking out of my nose. Go big or go home right? Well, I was trying to go home but that didn’t work...

shop-teacher > HFV has no HFV. But somehow has 2 motorcycles 09/23/2015 at 00:11

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A month after I bought my first car, an ‘89 Oldsmobile Toronado, I rear ended my best friend’s Ranger in the parking lot of the pizza place we were both delivering for. No damage to the Ranger, a few hundred damage to my car ... And the pizza was ruined too.

TheD0k_2many toys 2little time > HFV has no HFV. But somehow has 2 motorcycles 09/23/2015 at 00:15

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Muther Fucking deer

Wurrwulf > HFV has no HFV. But somehow has 2 motorcycles 09/23/2015 at 11:30

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A year before I got my license, I flipped the ‘99 Contour SVT that my dad had bought for me 6 months prior.

HFV has no HFV. But somehow has 2 motorcycles > Wurrwulf 09/23/2015 at 12:59

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That does not sound like a fun day.

HFV has no HFV. But somehow has 2 motorcycles > shop-teacher 09/23/2015 at 13:03

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to bad about that pizza. The first time I hit a deer i was delivering for Dominos. I had about 70 bucks worth of pizza in the passenger seat headed to a summer camp 8 miles out of town. needless to say it was all ruined after slamming on my brakes. I was about 6 miles from the store, I had to get the deer off the road, turn around go back to the store, have new pizzas made, oh and I had to take buckets of hot water and clean all the guts/shit off my car. The glass headlights, on my old Civic cut open the deer pretty good, and man did it stink.

shop-teacher > HFV has no HFV. But somehow has 2 motorcycles 09/23/2015 at 13:32

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Ouch!

It was only my second day delivering, so I was too stupid to realize that the pizza was ruined, so I went and delivered it (luckily only a couple miles away). Of course they called, pissed off, and then I had to go back. I don’t miss being that dumb!

sm70- why not Duesenberg? > HFV has no HFV. But somehow has 2 motorcycles 09/24/2015 at 00:04

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http://oppositelock.kinja.com/first-car-acci…

sm70- why not Duesenberg? > jariten1781 09/24/2015 at 00:17

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E-brake cable snapped while I was in a store and the car rolled through the parking lot, over a couple curbs and into a major road where it was rammed by a city bus.

I hate when that happens.