We took a local scenic mountain road for a cruise. It was a nice day. There were a lot of people out cycling, riding and driving, enjoying their day off as we were. All was wonderful up until I drove around a right handed blind corner and was caught by surprise. I find a car from oncoming traffic in my lane, directly in front of me. The driver later explained she was attempting to pass a cyclist who was riding near the center of the road. Misjudging distance, the driver did not complete her pass before reaching the blind corner. As I saw her, I instinctively slammed on the brakes and turned right as far as I could, to get out of the way.
Dropping two tires in the dirt and inches from rubbing the side of my car against the dirt mound, I was sandwiched in. I had nowhere to go. It was at this moment where it felt like all time had stopped. I could see the other persons eyes, all the while saying to myself "BRAKE, BRAKE BRAKE!! TURN TURN TURN!!!", but she didn't do either. With two hands on the steering wheel, one foot on the brake and one on the clutch, I braced for the impact. The impact was loud and it was hard. My car lifted off the ground and landed back on the ground without a left front tire. My body was thrown forward, my left hand hit the turn signal lever, my right hand received a burn from the gas that had exited the passenger side airbag and the shoulder belt gave me a nice sized bruise from my neck to my collarbone. I was left with the frame sitting on the ground. As the adrenaline kicked it, I became absolutely livid about the incomprehensible event that just took place. I took a few breaths to calm myself, realizing that both the other driver and I was came out of an accident pretty much unscathed. This was most important. If this incident happened on the cliff side, who knows what the turnout would have been.
The upper part of the spindle snapped right before the ball joint. The J's Racing camber joint held on for dear life stretching the lower control arm to it's limit before breaking. The spherical bearing of the Wicked front tow arms stretched the rod end by almost 1cm before breaking away.
The impact was so hard, the inner gear of the rack and pinion steering snapped and was held in by the inner tie rod boot. And the through-bolt for the toe arm miraculously survived fracture however was left with a most impressive bend.
This was my very first car accident....ever! Left with no choice but to total the car, I had to say goodbye to my baby. Out of the thousands of words these pictures tell, one word keeps calling me........ RESURRECTION! As I write this blog, I'm avidly pursuing a replacement Laguna Blue Pearl. A big thank you to Henry, John, Natalie and David for the support that day. Stay tuned, I'll be on the road very soon :) ~Jei Chang @ BlackTrax
