totalled my 6 this morning

[chuyler1]

For the person that said AWD would have not worked because it only works in acceleration and not braking. It would have worked, because as you said, if that wouldve happened, what you would have to do is accelerate to gain traction, contrary to popular reactions when losing control which is to slam on the brakes and spin around. That's what makes a good driver good, knowing how to control the car.

In theory you are correct...given enough pavement and time to correct the car's angle. But in a real world situation when your nose is pointed toward a ditch on the side of the road which is only a few feet wider than your car. it is too late for expert maneuvers with the gas pedal. With your life flashing before your eyes you have two options. Push harder on the pedal, or let up a little and see if it helps regain traction before pushing it to the ground and praying to god.

Perhaps if it were snowing and he were only going 10-15 mph then he would have more time to experiment with AWD to regain traction and get the car pointed back in the right direction...but in this situation I stand by my first post in that AWD would not have helped him the least bit.

 

[NCZ13]

the posted limit is 45 miles an hour. heres something i

i was doing b/w 55-60 on a road ive driven countless times. 55-60 is a speed that anyone can handle a car at.
heres a thing i typed up to send to the insurance adjuster and so i didnt have to type it over and over everytime someone asked me.

<b>I was driving about 55-60 miles an hour on borden road, starting at the light that turns from the college.
The light from the college to the next traffic light is about or a little more then a quarter mile.
My car, stock will run high 14 seconds on the quarter mile drag strip at about 100 miles an hour. Meaning that I would need to travel with the pedal on the floor for about 14 seconds before I hit speeds at which I had no control over the car.
I was in the left lane on a two lane road. About 100 yards are so away from the traffic light, there is a concrete island/planter, and a painted yellow island before that.
As I was coming over the hill, there is a left curve, nothing a modern car cant handle.
As I approach the concrete planter I put my foot on the brake to slow my descent because its its now on a decline.
The minute my foot touches the brake pedal, the front of the car goes crazy. The wheel turns from left to right and the car (which is FWD) loses traction causing my back to fishtail to the right, and I swerve towards the planter.
Naturally I try to steer the car away from the planter, but being I had no traction my car literally drifted. My back end swung the opposite way, causing me to be perpendicular to the road, the car drifted across the lanes and I hit the curb with the right fron tire first.
Then my left front tire went up almost simultaneously as the right rear tire went up
The left rear tire went up the curb last.
This is reflected in the pictures of the accident. There are two groups of marks to large ones that are the front tires that show how they are close together, meaning I hit the sidewalk at angle. The other group shows the the rear tires. The rear most marking being my left rear tire.
The momentum carried me up the embankment which took most of the impact
I carved it meaning I went up it, peaked, then the weight of the car caused me to roll down
I rolled 2-3 times. Landed on the side of the driver side of the car.
After I came to a stop. I heard the engine die. I was aware of what happened the whole entire time, wasnt knocked out.
The drive airbag deployed, as did the passenger curtain which came out of the A pillar of the car. The driver curtain did not deploy. This can be confirmed by the fireman who cut me out of the car. The interior plastic piece of the car that says SRS was still intact.

My brakes could not have locked up. If they did, there would have been 2 skidmarks where the painted island is, rather then the single one thats from my left front tire. </b>


if my brakes had locked up, wouldnt there be two front tire marks? ill post pix in a minute.


ive got pix of the car at the tow yard, but i really dont want to look at them right now.

 

[Koenig]

REading what you wrote your insurance company is going to decline you......... given the speed limit........ this is a limit DEEMED the safest FASTEST speed to be going on this road you however were traveling ABOVE the speed limit.... this in turn makes it your fault, not only that but your insurance is going to find out the limit on "borden road" is 45 mph, and they have your written statement condoning to 55-60 mph... that's 10 to 15 FASTER than the posted SAFE limit.

if your tires aren't blown or anything go check your air, I think the reason this might have happened, especially since you weren't braking hard, is because one or both of your tires were low on air

people do not make it a habit to check their air pressure on a normal basis, and low air pressure in a tire will definitely cause loss of traction....... here's an example.... lets say your PSI is 38 recommended, your driver side tire is actually 30 psi.... right? so what happens is as the sides of the tire remain in contact with the road the centerline of the tire pitches up and does not have any contact with the road (see my included diagram). I'm sorry but you ARE at fault for this... you were traveling ABOVE the limit, there is no excuse for that, regardless of how many times you've done it before. I'm glad you're ok, and I'm sorry for your loss of your car.... but try to drive a little smarter/safer next time bro.

(yes I know my drawing is crappy, I'm not Van Gogh)


now as you can see a normal contact patch from the tire should be along the face near the sidewalls starting to curve up.

Under inflated tires will remain in contact patch in the corners because of the wheel's lip pushing down on the rubber but will start to push up in the center of the tire and not have any good contact with the ground...... in THAT result what can happen is exactly what you went through.... but I still feel you were traveling too fast for conditions. It's already been decided that the speed limit 45 mph is the safest speed to be traveling in the conditions, and you were exceeding that.

Once again, sorry for your loss, and glad you're ok, but you were at fault for it. not only for exceeding said speed limit but not taking better precautions/care of your car.

 

[NCZ13]

i check the tire pressure reguraly, it was a little under 30, and its rated for 32 i believe. last i checked which as about 10 days to two weeks ago. i remember cause it was the time before the last time i washed my car, and the last time iwashed was on sunday.

i realize that i was exceeding the limit, and that very well may have been the determining factor for what happened. but i still feel there was some problem with the car. would speed still be an issue if this had happened on the freeway?

thanks for your explanation though, its made some things clearer.

 

[Koenig]

i can't tell you........for one thing i don't know of any freeway that has steep inclines such as an uphill then down here......was there a patch of water or oil in the road?, that can cause the slipping........ I just find it a little weird is the fact a FWD car fish tailed.... have you had the car looked at, unless you were applying HARD pressure to the brakes they shouldn't have locked up. See if you can get a mechanic to look at it and find any OBD-II codes the computer might have stored....

 

[Karma_hunden]

In theory you are correct...given enough pavement and time to correct the car's angle. But in a real world situation when your nose is pointed toward a ditch on the side of the road which is only a few feet wider than your car. it is too late for expert maneuvers with the gas pedal. With your life flashing before your eyes you have two options. Push harder on the pedal, or let up a little and see if it helps regain traction before pushing it to the ground and praying to god.

Perhaps if it were snowing and he were only going 10-15 mph then he would have more time to experiment with AWD to regain traction and get the car pointed back in the right direction...but in this situation I stand by my first post in that AWD would not have helped him the least bit.

thats the beauty of AWD, all wheels are pushing and you can simply accelerate (add as much/less throttle as required to get out of the situation) and steer, front wheels will move your car out of the angle (if possible, not saying it WILL happen) while the rear wheels help you slowly gain traction. If you ask me, I wouldve gone for that and take my risk in ending in the ditch, than rolling side ways into the guard rail of whatever. And remaining under control is the most vital part...if you cant do that, you're done, and that really sucks for you--weakness will kill you.

btw, im not saying he made the wrong decision, I know he had a FWD, so thats different, im just talking about the AWD.

 

[Talbot]

That really sucks, such a nice car going to the junk yard.

 

[MS6S2K]

Well, the important thing is you are ok. You're 17, so you are still learning how to drive. You just were going too fast. It's driver error all the way here. It's a lesson learned because you are alive and ok. I hope you will be more careful next time, and learn the limits of your car. Just slow down and be safe. Too many kids your age get killed in car accidents. You got lucky, and now you can live on and learn from it. Good luck to ya!!

 

[Afroman]

Speed is relative to the road you are driving on, just because you have gone 60 on the highway doesnt mean the same rules apply to other streets.

Lesson learned, you totaled your car.

Be thankful you are not injured or you didnt kill anyone. Just relax when you drive next time.... even on the way to AP tests



Oh yeah, I am assuming you expected to get a lot of crap when you posted this. You cant start a post saying I am a 17 year old male and I wrecked my car but I dont know why.

Statistly, its because you were driving like an ass. (sad2)

 

[speed6killer]

re:

i was on my way to AP testing this morning.

morning started off good, and i was ready to start the day. im driving down the road, and im in the left lane on a two lane road. note that i started from a stoplight, and in between the two stoplights, is less then a quarter mile. so theres no way i could have gotten up to obnoxious speeds that would be passed normal street/freeway speeds, because there just isnt room to do so. so im cruising on the hill going up, and i come around the bend which is when the hill declines, and theres a middle concrete planter divider thing on the left side. the traffic light was uphead, and i start to brake. the minute my food touches the brake pedal, my steering wheel goes crazy. shaking left to right. i feel the car drift to towards the center divider, so i turn the wheel away, this i guess overcorrected and i lose all traction. my car, now horizontal on the road goes from the left lane to the right lane (luckily noone was around) up the curb, into the embankment, and proceeds to roll over 2-3 times.

i was wearing my seatbelt, and thankfully that saved me. the driver airbad deployed, the passenger side curtain deployed, however, the driver side curtain did not. but im not sure if my side airbag did either. my car landed on its side, and i was fine. i think my dad, who passed 7 months ago on this day was watching over me. theres no way someone who rolls a car 3 times gets out with minor cuts from glass, and a bruised shoulder from a seat belt.

i wasnt knocked out, and i was completely coherent the whole time, well aware of what had happened. all i could think about was wow my moms gonna be pissed as i was rolling.thankfully people had shown up, were talking to me, asking me questions and what not. after words, as i was sitting there waiting for the paramedics, i looked around the car wondering if this was fixable (coulda been a fun project =P) that dream was busted when the firemen told me theyd have to cut the roof of my car off to get to me. bust. nothing like the sound of your car being pwned by the jaws of life.

thankfully im ok. im not quite fully sure how this happened being that i wasnt driving above 60, and even if i was this still shouldnt have happened. 60 i s normal freeway speed, what if this happened on the freeway? it was the scariest thing of my life. i do know that w/e car i get next in the future will be AWD. if i had AWD this would have never happened.

so RIP 06 mazda 6. it was fun.

That Sucks. Glad you are ok. Now you can get the MazdaSpeed6. Lol(friday)

 

[Elicious]

Speed is relative to the road you are driving on, just because you have gone 60 on the highway doesnt mean the same rules apply to other streets.

Lesson learned, you totaled your car.

Be thankful you are not injured or you didnt kill anyone. Just relax when you drive next time.... even on the way to AP tests



Oh yeah, I am assuming you expected to get a lot of crap when you posted this. You cant start a post saying I am a 17 year old male and I wrecked my car but I dont know why.

Statistly, its because you were driving like an ass. (sad2)

Yes, hopefully this is the lesson that is learned and not "The car went crazy and caused me to wreck it."

 

[NCZ13]

i was totally expecting people to get on my case, but the important thing is, im ok.

and thats all that really matters.

the car got towed to geico, and i guess they are looking at it now. would be amazing if they actually found something wrong.

 

[Koenig]

they will find something wrong if they check the tire pressure (lol)


just messing with ya!

 

[altspace]

Good to hear you're ok. I too was in a 3-4 time rollover in a small van. Very scary indeed. I walked away with bruises and some small glass particles in my eyes. Others sustained neck injuries. Thus I believe seat belts save lives.

 

[Karma_hunden]

It sucks to learn the hard way, but sometimes you really dont pay attention until you experienced it. So, now that you're ok, you have the advantage of looking back and knowing how to prevent this.

 

[GhostMercury]

do you have pics of the car?

 

[NCZ13]

updated

so as you probably could tell i havent been on for awhile. alots been going on. a week after i crashed my car (5/07) my garage caught fire. everything in my garage was lost. thankfully it never got into the house, and our important stuff was untouched. our house has alot of smoke and water damage, and is gonna take about 6 months to fix.

we had my moms sister and her son from the Philippines staying with us. on 5/14 when i was at school, and my mom was at work, the son, my cousin who has some sort of undiagnosed disease which is mostly likely a form or autism got ahold of matches and proceed to attempt to light a cardboard box on fire in the garage. this kid lives in a fantasy world. hes 12 years old, but acts like hes 3. hes got imaginary friends and whatnot. he lit a box on fire, and went back into the house to get water to put it out. but being that he lit it next to a wooden work bench, it pretty much caught like that. he came back, realized he couldnt put it out, and proceeded to watch tv, and not tell my aunt. my aunt comes down and asks if thats smoke she smells. he says no, and she doesnt react to the smell until the fire alarm goes off. she opens the garage door to the outside, which lets more oxygen in, which fed the fire. it also let the fire outside. igniting my moms toyota sienna. the fire was so hot, it melted the front end, anything that wasnt metal was melted. all that was left of the engine was the block. its lucky the van didnt explode. the fire department was there in 4 minutes from city hall which is about 4 miles from my house. which is an amazing considering it takes about 8 minutes to get to city hall driven normally. they had the fire out within 10 minutes.

you cant even fathom how i felt being in my friends car with their dad, and pulling up to a house that where the whole front was just black. and week after being in a somewhat serious car accident.

i didnt lose anything important, aside from the tools. we pretty much had a home depot in our garage. i lost my bike, which is a bust, my swim bag, and my favorite sweatshirt.

but being positive, that stuff can be replaced.

so im not sitting in a rental home, and i decide hey im gonna check in on my mazda peeps.

now the update on the car situation.

here are some pictures of my poor 6 at the tow yard

its hard for me to look at them, knowing that its my fault. i realize that it was my fault, be it a combination of things, or just plain stupidity... if i was going slower, i might still have my car today. i really miss my 6.

what got me was the overcorrection. it was just natural to turn away from the concrete median. had i not turned the wheel, and instead slammed the brakes i might still have my car.

my mom got the insurance money from both my car (geico gave us 18,9K for it which is more then bluebook) and gave us 11k for my moms sienna. she took that money, and got a dark blue Acura RDX. which in my opinion is one of the nicest SUVs ive ever sat in. i take care of the RDX as if it were my own. i wash every week, and claybar when necessary.

unfortuantly my mom doesnt want to spend another 18k on a car for me (which is understandable) i dont argue that with her. but the fact remains i need a reliable means of getting to and from work, and college when i start in the fall.

i was looking at p5, but there are none in my area that are completly stock and relatively priced under 10k. i want a car i build up on my own, with my own money. to make it truely mine. not something someone else put money and work into. ive talked to a guy about his 2000 celica gts, and im checking it out today. im really looking forward to this, because being all that ive gone through, my car was my escape, and its tough to be in my situation and not have a place to vent and get away from it all.

i wont be leaving these forums at all. mazda was the first true car a drove, and i plan on being a mazda owner once again in the future.

however

this are FS

rear turn signal w/ bulb

rear tailight circle thing

and a rear marker. it has the rustic cracked look to it. true jdm

inquire if interested, im willing to be a little flexible on pricing.


but seriously. the geico bastards wouldnt let me get my AEM intake outta the car. so if someone seriously wants a stock airbox and is in a socal area come and get it. otherwise, its a pleasant memory of my baby.

 

[wannabe]

oh s***!!! theres still an arm hanging out the passenger window!!! EWWW

lol. sorry man. i know that crashing a car sucks..my first car i crashed twice, luckily both times it was fixable. doing something like this helps you learn what to do in these situations. it'll all work out.

go get yourself a cheap little Hyundai or something for the time being. then once your out in the workplace full time, then look into something to play with...

 

[NCZ13]

nah im not gonna spend money on a korean car im gonna dump in less then a year. ive got a good job and plan on sticking with it until i decide what i really want to do in life. but yeah it was a learning experience, and it wasnt even my first car, its my second. the first one was my dads old 94 oldsmobile cutlass. worst car. ever, never felt comfortable in it. like i didnt know my surroundings in it.

 

[phenom]

That'll buff right out. (mj)