Have you ever wrecked a car when you were younger?

[Lebowski]

This is the '70 LeMans that I wrecked in 1975. I made a right turn in the snow while going about 40 (50?) and hit the concrete base of a traffic light. The door is pushed in close to two feet if you look closely at the pic. My left leg was pinned between the door and seat but they got me out with no broken bones and I didn't get any tickets for it either.

 

Let's hear about your accidents and please post pics if possible....

 

 

[JACK M]

Pretty sure it happened, but I don't remember.

[J.H.Boland]

Back in 1968, I was driving an Austin 1100 (one size up from a Mini) when a guy in an MG Midget pulled out in front of me.I T-boned him. The accident barely took up half a lane of traffic ! Both of us were able to drive away.

[zepher]

I never put a ding in any personal car I have ever driven when I was younger.

My first accident was about 10 years ago when someone made a left turn in front of me.

I saw him start to turn and hit the brakes but still had a collision, but I had slowed enough that the air bags didn't go off and the radiator didn't pop.

One and only time I have damaged one of my cars.

Not to say I didn't drive like your typical teenage idiot when I was younger.

Maybe it was all the off road driving I did in the desert with my uncle before I ever got to drive on the street that helped hone my road skills.

Plus, riding a motorcycle for years has taught me to be aware of everything!

And this is growing up and driving around in Southern Calif where traffic is insane.

[caddyshack]

I wrecked my favorite car back in 1966. The car was a 1956 modified Corvette. Two months before the accident It was repainted with a beautiful Maroon paint job and equipped with a duel quad, solid lifter, 327, and 3-sp tranny. Unfortunately I T-boned a station wagon that went through a stop sign at roughly 35 mph. Never had a chance to touch the brake. The accident looked a lot worse than it was. All of the fenders and door skins were scattered in the road, the hood went over the wagon and the only item in tact was the trunk lid. I broke a rib on the steering wheel and a had various bruises and cuts, but I considered myself very lucky. 

We did not have any camera shots of the accident, but the car looked good in a late '65 photo.

[keiser31]

Back in 1970 when I was a senior in high school, I was driving my 1931 Dodge coupe to school. There was a friend of mine who drove a little Renault sedan and he was always egging me on to race him with my coupe. Well, one day I relented and went over to a street behind our high school to do the deed. I was ahead of him at first, but there was an "S" curve at the end of the street. I had to start slowing down ahead of my buddy because I had 1931 DB brakes. As I slowed down, Dean pulled around me and got in front of me. He slowed and stopped at the STOP sign and I was still standing on the brakes....to not much avail and BOOM! Wrapped his sheet metal around his rear engine. He gets out and asks, why I didn't stop. I told him I WAS stopping and his little trick about getting in front of me and stopping fast was the cause of the wreck. He told his parents that he came out to the student parking lot after school and found his car wrecked. Nothing more ever became of it and we remained friends for years. Not much if any damage at all was caused to my car.

Edited April 23, 2020 by keiser31 (see edit history)

[Pomeroy41144]

I totaled a 1972 Buick in December 1985.  

[Ben Bruce aka First Born]

one and only in a car. 15 and Mom teaching me to drive in my 1st car, a '40 chevy. I was at a dead stop , waiting for the road ahead to clear and was rear ended by a guy in a '48 Olds.  No pictures.

 

  Ben

 

[padgett]

Flew my split window at Gratten Raceway in Michigan. Later told was about half as long as Wright Bros. first flight. Popped out of gear and understeered into an embankment that had eroded into a ski jump. Ended up in a ditch just off the property. Hood landed across the county road. Instant reaction: kill engine, hit battery disconnect (not needed, battery was no longer connected to car), release belt, exit. Unfortunately was three feet above a ditch full of icy water. Corner workers said they could hear my comments.

 

Just to make it worse when I got back from having 25 stitches in head (Bell helmet split my skull. Not sure if before or after) I found that none of my pit crew had ever driven a rig so had to drive from western Michigan back to Eastern (Flint). Excedrin per mile was the count.

[SC38dls]

I had a Black Monte Carlo doing about 55-69 when a guy made a left right in front of me. I never touched the brakes and t-boned him. The hood blocked the windshield so I couldn’t see out. My right knee knocked the radio and heater controls out of the dashboard. My head was bent forward and I couldn’t straighten it out. When I finally got the door open with the help of two guys I saw the roof was bent down and that was what had my head bent. My main injury was my right knee ( the same one I had 4 previous surgeries on from football) was swelling big enough to split the seam of my pants.  The rookie cop saw that and damn near passed out. He had to sit down before he fell down. Jokingly I told the paramedics to check him out before they took me off to the hospital. Two more surgeries and it still wasn’t right. 
dave s 

[Steve_Mack_CT]

A couple minor mis haps but a few that were legendary among my HS pals.  A have a friend who was working on a 39 Chevy restoration (still has the car today, it's nearly perfect).  He ended up putting a four door '39 parts car on the road with a little work and a quickie paint job that was actually pretty good.  Used it jr. And sr. Year and he drove it hard.  He took a quick turn one day and rolled it, 3/4 -drivers side, roof, landing on pass side.  No injuries, tow truck got him upright, he reconnected battery and drove home.  He kept it for years and even acquired another four door in hopes of fixing it by changing out the roof or entire body, but ultimately he parted it out.  Another pal had a 67 or 68 big block Camaro for a whole week, but the 39 was really the topper.

[Robert Street]

yep several a 1970 SS 454 Monte Carlo, a 1969 Torino 428 Cobra Jet, and a Nova SS come to mind.  I'd have done better in those days if I knew I would have made it this long

Robert

[dei]

I bought this '63 Dodge for 50 buck's in 1974 while living at home still, did all four non power brake shoe replacement myself and turned the front drums while dad patched the lower door and rocker rust using it as a winter beater to keep my '58 Buick Special convert off the road. 

With the slant six automatic it was no track winner but got me around while in College till,... 

Running late to my afternoon part time job I rush an advanced green light turning left and with bias ply tires either hit a slippery spot or was just going too fast (or both). The next thing I know I hit the light pole and my face is against the front glass see the light pole against the cars bumper! 

Didn't appear to have crunched the hood or bumper so tried starting the engine and it just turned wouldn't didn't start.

Managed to put it in neutral and with the help of someone that stopped to check things out pushed it as far off the road as we could. I had a flat tire so was changing it out when the police came as they had received a call (no cell phones in those days so...).

I didn't get charged as they believed me (or took pity on me?) saying my tire had blown out but the metal pole had a bit of a bend in it and they said that the City might be charging me for Public damage if they decided to replace it.

No way would the car start so walked to a store, used their phone, called Dad to come with a rope and waited.

 

Long story short, I hit the pole right at the frame/bumper on the right side where it was the strongest and somehow the distributor gear had broken in half.

I went to the auto wreckers the next day, bought a whole distributor for 5 bucks, put it in and drove it the rest of the winter.

Every time I took that same turn I watched to see if that pole was changed out. It was not till four years later while doing sewer work on the roads that the pole was changed.

 

Phew!🤕

[cp54844]

got my license in the morning and rolled dad's '74 gremlin in the afternoon. good times.

[Mark Huston]

In 1975, my first daily driver car, that I was able to buy, was a 1964 Plymouth sedan with close to 200 thousand miles on it.   Slant six with three on the column.   The engine required one or two quarts of oil with every tank of gas.   I paid $50 dollars for the car and had to put in a new battery, tires, tune up, and oil change before I could start driving it.    I drove the Plymouth for a little over a year when I ran it off the road flipping it and rolling it into a cow pasture.   I took out the battery, replaced the tires for junk ones, and then sold the car to a junk yard for $50.   My first driver and my first accident.  

[Guest]

First off, I want to know the statute of limitations...😔

[gossjh]

15 minutes ago, Roger Walling said:

First off, I want to know the statute of limitations...😔

Statute of limitations vary. Do you mean parental or governmental?

[padgett]

Apres of nothing at all, care to guess how long it takes to

- get out of a car

- empty a car

that has slid sideways with the windows open a considerable distance through a ripe cornfield ?

[Guest]

In my second year of driving (1960) I was proceeding south on a through street, in my Grandfathers' 1930 Pontiac driving 30 +/- mph.  A 1957 Lincoln Continental proceeding east, ran the stop sign.  I hit him right square on the drivers door.  Stopped with the headlights almost hitting his door.  I backed away, exchanged information and carried on while he waited for a tow truck.  The police arrived several days later because I had left the scene of the accident.  I said we had exchanged information and I had places to go.  They wanted to see the Pontiac so I backed it out of the garage.  As there was no damage on it they said the other guy must have made a mistake.

 

My second accident was three years ago.  An foreign student driving a new BMW T-boned my 2007 185,000 KMs Sonata.  Total write off.  Found a 2008 Sonata (same car different colour) with 72,000 KMs and it only cost $1,000 over the payout.  Fantastic deal.

[FLYER15015]

Back in '65, just home from Korea, I'm driving my "new" '53 MGTD down a country road in eastern Iowa, and a farmer with a load of hay I'm following made an unsignalled left turn in front of me.

I took to the ditch, and coming back up on the road, I hit a telephone pole dead center with the grille, and did not touch either fender.

Drug her home and that's when I dropped a TR 4 engine, Tx and diff under her. Pour old MG block was cracked, and none available at the time.

Bought the whole Triumph at a local yard for $300.00, and sold most of the rest of it for about $550.00

That's why she has a big "scoop" on the right side of the hood, to accommodate the Jag S.U.'s we added to the home made intake and headers, copied off of Spenser's racing TR 4 @ Road America in Elkhart lake, Wis.

Mike in Colorado

Edited April 23, 2020 by FLYER15015 (see edit history)

[Bush Mechanic]

 My first one was around 1965, chasing wild goats out on the sheep station where I worked, in my road registered '39 Chev Sloper. Going too quickly along a fence-line across a claypan, got sideways on a wet patch, then the tires gripped on dry ground, and it rolled onto it's side. Two lads, two loaded rifles and a round four gallon can of fuel, all lying in a heap on the side window.  We jacked it up at the roof line, pulled some wire out of the fence and tried a Spanish windlass off a fence post, but the old girl was just too heavy for us. Worst part was the 10 mile walk across country to the homestead, to borrow the boss's Landrover. Tipped it back on it's wheels, let the oil settle back, and fired it up. We sustained a dent in the rain gutter from the jack, and a broken side mirror. It could have been a lot worse.

[hidden_hunter]

Nope, closest I've come to writing off a car was when I got shunted into a pile up in my Honda Accord Euro (Acura TSX) - was one of the most annoying things driving, I saw the accident in front of me and stopped in time then some idiot behind me wasn't paying attention and slammed into the back of my car at about 40mph and pushed me into the accident. That was fun with the insurance companies..

[39BuickEight]

My first vehicle was a 1988 S-10 Blazer that had already been rebuilt (left front).  I rear ended someone when I was 18 with the same left front.  I ripped the fan shroud out, as it was rubbing, and limped back home.  Dad and I fixed it and I drove it another 140,000 miles (total of 220,000 on it) and sold it because it was rusting away. 

[C Carl]

No comment at the present time.    -    CC 

[jerry k]

In 1964 a 62 Nova vs tree !  Tree won,  resulting in forehead  vs windshield, windshield won - ouch - 22 stitches .  I have faithfully worn seat belts since that night.  

Edited April 24, 2020 by jerry k (see edit history)

[60FlatTop]

It is interesting to see the Chrysler products show up. There was a local car salesman who warned his fledgling driver children to "always be extra cautious around people driving Chrysler products. They have already shown poor judgement in the past".

 

Ray Caldwell, thanks for that memorable piece of advice.

Bernie

[padgett]

Really the worst for me (for some reason I've been rearended several times and almost all traffic accidents were while legally stopped. A really good frame mounted receiver is a good thing. Also stopping a ways behind the car in front is good.

 

That said the worst was also while stopped but when on a Honda 160 I was using for commuting in Ft. Worth Texas. Earlier had a Dream 150 and have always felt a 150-200 twin is the best size for a city bike. I was stopped and a 73 Mote Carlo behind me didn't. Landed aways away and was curled up in a little ball when the medics arrived. Meanwhile police weren't interested because the guy was an illegal alien with no insurance and apparently this meant there would be a lot of paperwork. They let hm go.

 

Meanwhile we got to the hospital and am both still curled up and really scared. The worst pain of my life and the most welcome pain in my life was when they straightened me out on the x-ray table and I realized I could feel my legs. An told you can still see the mark of a Monte hood ornament in my back. Just to add insult, it cost $75 to get my bike out of impound. Did have to sleep on the floor for about 6 weeks.

[keiser31]

Not my fault. Driving my 1931 Dodge home from work one rainy night, a guy was pulling out into traffic in front of me. We were on a street with 2 lanes each way (9 Mile Road in Southfield Michigan). He was blocking the first lane with his big, old Ford Galaxie, so I stopped for him to be able to continue across the road. Just as he passed in front of me, a guy in a big 1968 Chevrolet Impala SLAMMED into my '31. As I shot forward, the Galaxie cleared the lane and I just missed him! I got out to check out the damage to my car. I looked at my car and the rear bumper was twisted and the spare tire rack was destroyed. I picked up the broken parts from my spare tire rack and looked back at the Impala. The headlamps and grille were pushed back into the radiator and the radiator was letting us know by all of the escaping steam. The guy asks me, "How can I ever replace the parts on your car?" I just shook my head, told him he had enough trouble with the damage to his own totaled car and I drove off. I eventually got a nice spare tire rack when I bought my second 1931 DB coupe.

[Pilgrim65]

Afraid have to hold my hand up ended a few cars life 

when we were teenagers a kindly garage owner lent us his big Humber so 6 of us could go to a party week end , we went to fast over a hump back bridge lost control and ended up side down ,  my same friends and I unfortunately ran a nice Thames van into a tree also.

Very lucky , one chap had broken arm otherwise just bumps and bruises.

A40 Austin Somerset into parked cars , handbrake fail or not fully on 😀

next was a nice Morris traveller , not supposed to be used off road!

next ford Sierra into a ditch , not my fault evasive action 

Opel manta into vauxhall head on, his fault , wrong side of road.

next ford mondeo into wall again evasive action 

bmw convertible into back of van , not my fault he stooped to quickly , that’s my version

renault Clio , smacked at t junction , hit us 

not a proud history , but uninjured and didn’t hurt anyone else , sad about cars , but luckily never a classic .

[SC38dls]

I drove a school bus after I lost my football scholarship my last year due to knee injury. It was winter and my route was mostly out in farm country. Dropped of last kid and heading back to barn I had a good half mile hill to go down and it was a good decline. It was solid ice and the rear end of the empty bus started coming around, I saved it going back and forth using the curb as the main way to get it straightened out. So far so good, lucky for me no oncoming traffic.  At the bottom of the hill was a stop sign and I went right thru it just as a car crossed in front of me. I caught the rear bumper  and ripped it off the car. It ended up under my front left tire and stopped the bus. Then the cars coming down the hill starting hitting the rear of the bus. Twelve cars later one of the drivers got to the top of the hill and stopped cars from coming down. The car I took the bumper off of was the wife of my boss!  I didn’t get in trouble because the cops told her they couldn’t see how I kept the bus from turning over coming down the hill. It wasn’t me it was luck the curbs were high and I was just along for the ride at that point. 
dave s 

[Mark Huston]

In August of 1977, I was working in Gulf service station.  The owner of the station previously had purchased for his daughter a low mileage well maintained 1964 Plymouth Barracuda.   One day I showed up at work and the 64 Barracuda was sitting in the corner of the gas station lot.  I asked the boss if we needed to do some work on his daughters car.   He said no, she inherited a relatives 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air four door hardtop and no longer wanted the Barracuda.    I then asked to buy the Barracuda and ended up getting it for $400.00.     The Barracuda had the slant 6 engine with a four speed manual transmission on the floor.   I was going to college at the time and some of classes were at night.   At that time, in 1977, the college was out of town sounded by farms and cow pastures.  Today it is surrounded by strip malls and track houses.   One month after buying the 64 Barracuda, September 1977, I was coming home from a night class about a mile from the college and suddenly the Barracuda's hood flew up into the windshield and car was spinning in the middle of the country road.   I had no idea what happened but remember as I was hanging onto the steering wheel in shock the car was spinning around in a circle seeing a 1970s custom van trying to stop before hitting me.   After the car came to a stop the guy in the van ran up to see if I was ok and told me that I had hit a cow (turned out to be a Black Angus) that had started to cross the road.  I never saw the cow because it was black on a dark road at night.   The van driver stated he saw the cow fly across the road to the other side from where I hit it.   Sure enough, we found the cow laying dead well off the road on the other side from where I hit it.   I ended up having the Barracuda towed to the station where I worked from the accident scene.   No one locally claimed the cow and it was unbranded.  The next day the boss was not happy with me wrecking the car he bought for his daughter after I had only had it for one month.   A kid younger than me came into the station a few days later asking about the wrecked Barracuda and wanted to buy it.  I sold it to him for a couple hundred bucks (still lost money on the deal) and he towed it away.   He didn't fix the front end, just tied the hood down and got it running again with a replacement radiator.   The next time I saw the car in the gas station the big rear window was blown out with holes in the rear of the car body.  I asked the kid what happened to the back end of the car.  He stated he was at a party and guy got mad at him for coming onto his girl.  As he was making a run for it the guy started shooting at him as he fled in the Barracuda.  Put holes in it and busted the rear window.   A sad end to a nice 64 Barracuda. 

[zepher]

You car held up pretty good for getting into it with a cow.

[keiser31]

Does having an accident with a refrigerator count? I grew up in a big old home that had a raised driveway from the street. It went steeply up from the street and sloped toward the back of the property where the garage was. One winter I was pulling into the driveway with my '31 Dodge coupe and as I was heading down into the garage, my traction on those skinny tires went away on the snow. I did the wrong thing and hit the brakes too hard. I ended up sliding down the driveway, into the garage (which had a sheet of ice on the floor of it) and right into the front of a refrigerator at the rear of the garage! Put a few wrinkles in the fenders since I had no front bumper at the time. I put a HUGE wahoo in the door of the refrigerator and my dad was NOT very happy about it. I have no memory of why it was in the garage to begin with, since we had one in the house and a huge freezer on the rear porch.

[Mark Huston]

17 minutes ago, zepher said:

You car held up pretty good for getting into it with a cow.

I only hit the head of the cow just as it started to cross the road.   I am sure the outcome would have been far worse if I hit more than just its head.  

[zepher]

Just now, Mark Huston said:

I only hit the head of the cow just as it started to cross the road.   I am sure the outcome would have been far worse if I hit more than just its head.  

 

Makes sense, seeing the damage.

Cows can destroy a car.

[JamesR]

Not talking about fender benders here, but actual crashes (some worse than others.) Fender benders are too numerous to mention.

 

My first car was the only one to ever get wrecked while I owned it. It was a '66 Impala SS that I'd paid 200 bucks for. It was rear ended during a snowstorm and was still drivable after the accident, but it was tired enough in other respects and valueless enough (at that time) that it wouldn't have been worth it to have it fixed (unless I did the work myself, which I couldn't do.) So I put my formerly $200 Super Sport Chevy in the classified ads for like $125 and I literally got hundreds of phone calls..for weeks...after I'd sold it to someone an hour after the ad first appeared. My mom was annoyed. Anyway, it was possibly sold for parts by the buyer. If it was, that would've been a shame as the car was still functioning.

 

The second car was a '71 Nova two door that I ran into a concrete post in a parking lot. Again, a storm was involved - raining so hard I couldn't see in front of me more than 5 feet. (Good time to NOT be driving.)  That car belonged, at the time, to my brother who had gone out of town on business, and let me tell you - it's far worse (emotionally) wrecking someone else's car than your own. We had it fixed.

 

After it was fixed, I got that Nova by trading a '71 Mercury Montego two door that I had straight across for it. The Montego was used and very base model, but clean and solid. A few months after my brother traded for it, the Montego was totalled by a drunk who was driving on the wrong side of the road. My brother narrowly escaped serious injury or worse, so we were very lucky.  It was a shame about the Merc, though: it was pretty clean.

[JamesR]

On 4/24/2020 at 10:16 AM, padgett said:

a Honda 160 I was using for commuting in Ft. Worth Texas. Earlier had a Dream 150 and have always felt a 150-200 twin is the best size for a city bike.

 

I agree with you. I really miss those small singles and twins that used to be so common and affordable. They still make some 250 city bikes, but from what I've seen, they try to make them look like larger bikes, which gives them a different feel and price.

[padgett]

Still have a Honda 150 elite from 1986. Watercooled single with a CVT that all of those Chinese copies cloned.

 

[60FlatTop]

Here's a car for today's market, 1963 Dodge Polara 2drhtp, black with a red interior, Az. body, 383 from a '67 Monaco wagon, 727 from a 65 Chrsysler 300, single AFB, and Accel distributor.

 

3 AM, went into a deep wide ditch and hit a driveway head on. Landed on the right rear quarter on the other side of the driveway in water. The donut shop owner was on his way to work and gave me a ride to get checked out in our small town E.R.. I was having coffee with the regulars at 9:30.

 

Rumor is that they are still looking for the driver.

[erichill]

May not count as a wreck but first accident was driving an Olds Delta 88 into the river in front of two police cars. I was in a full leg cast and on crutches. Water ruined the cast.  Was not totally sober at the time. My girlfriend made it to the police first as she wasn't hindered by a leg cast. I don't know what she may have told them but I avoided arrest somehow.  In mere moments the car was completely flooded by a passing barge entering the locks. Maybe they thought that was enough punishment.