Oh No - Not again!

I'm having a bad year - just as my hand is coming good and getting ready for milling, this afternoon on the way home from work a driver asleep at the wheel hit my van and mangled it pretty badly.
It happened on a perfectly straight stretch of road inside my workplace where the speed limit is only 20 mph.
The honda driver was asleep at the wheel - I could literally see him slumped over the wheel, for a moment I thought he was looking down at his feet.
He veered right over to my side of the road and I thought he was going to hit me head on.
I sounded my horn and hit my brakes.
He woke up and veered away at the last minute but still made a major mess as you can see.
I was barely moving when he hit, my guess was he was doing maybe 25 mph ?
The honda driver admitted he was asleep.
I got a few scratches, and a bump on my head from where it hit the cargo barrier, but given how crushed in the van's foot well was I was lucky I did not loose a foot.
The other thing that happened was my accelerator got jammed and the motor redlined for about 5 seconds because I could not turn the engine off because the dashboard was so badly mangled.



Can you imagine if this had happened on the open road?
Of course he is also not insured!

What's this got to do with milling you might ask - well, it's simple, no van - no milling

DNHB (Definitely Not Happy, BobL)

Glad it wasnt worst Bob..

Seems like this has been a bad year for you my friend..Hope thats the last of any bad luck ..
I hated he didnt have any insurance,,seems like there is alot of that goin on here too. Hope you can get another one soon...
Take care and maybe next year will be a good one for you....

Dang Bob, that is crazy. I am glad he woke up and was able to swerve a little bit and glad you came away with only minor injuries. For a minute there when you talked about your foot I thought "what's he doing on the passenger side driving" but them remembered where you are at.

Bob,

Very glad to hear you are OK with only minor injuries. I was in a head on with my 1 ton van many years ago with my two children seat belted in a back seat. A young girl and her friend had been drinking and as we approached a one lane each way bridge, she decided to try passing the car in front of her. When she saw me she swerved to my right and I hit her with the passenger side of my van that I was also towing a trailer full of fire wood. She was driving a small Mazda with a sun roof and when we impacted the sunroof looked like Old Faithful spouting.

We were all luck that there was no serious injuries and I was sure glad I was driving that 1 ton van. One witness said her car looked like a baseball coming off a bat. The highway patrol officer measured the impact point to where I drove her back to and it was 75 feet.

Get well from all of us.
jerry-

Sorry to hear about your crash, Bob. Life has a way of dumping on us from time to time.

Should we take up a collection of dull chains and send them to you to sharpen so you won't be bored ?

Wow Bob, sorry to hear. you never know maybe there is a hidden blessing here somewhere..

I have long believed that drivers licenses should be MUCH tougher to obtain
and retesting should be mandatory and frequent...an unpopular statement but
It would apply to me as well...far too many do not take driving as seriously as they should. hand someone a loaded .44 mag and they'll handle it like its a baby filled with high explosives...sit them in that 4 wheeled 8000 caliber weapon and they turn on the cell phone and take off like its a bouncy house for adults...
Makes this hillbilly sick.:angry2:

What rotten luck Bob. Hope you get back in business soon. Odds are thing can only get better!

Bob, glad to hear that you made it through mostly unscathed. As someone who attracts bad drivers (I've been hit 6 times in 2 years, none of them my fault) I definitely feel the pain... and the lack of insurance always makes me angry. Several of my hunting buddies are highway patrol, and when they pull you over with no insurance they take your car, plain and simple.

Hope you (and your van) recover quickly!

Please go to the Dr and get checked out. We don't heal as fast as we use to.


Speedy Recovery!

BobL, Sorry to see that. Man that's a bummer. Few years back my wife and kids were in her Jeep down the shore. No one was hurt but some dingdong blew the stop sign and the Jeep was totaled. Yakkity yaking on a phone. I agree with Hillbilly. They can outlaw (and have) use of cellular's on the road though kinda hard to control people who are too tired to drive until they crunch into someone/something. Better days ahead amigo! I like Mtngun's idea to keep you busy. Have a pile of .404's here.

Sorry about your van. Toyota paid for a chevy aveo enterprise rental car back in august while they rustproofed my truck. Within 50 yards of my house some geek in a lowered civic ran a stop sign going 15mph talking on a damn cell phone. The little dipstick was looking right at me the whole time; made no attempt to stop. Hands down the new "chevy aveo" is the worst vehicle I've ever driven in my life, so in retrospect being able to wreck it was kind of fun. Other driver was at fault. That 15mph hit nearly totalled that chevy aveo. The anti lock brakes didn't work, either by the skid marks the wheels left when I stood on the brakes. Truly a piece of garbage.

Get well Bob, vehicles can be replaced, people can't.

I'd have beat the tar out of that moron and put him back to sleep. What the hell is wrong with people in general?

My sympathy goes out to you.
Time for an old dually pickup built like a tank.
I've plenty of stories also but won't waste the bandwidth.
/edit - a dually with an 8' bed and a winch

Hopefully the second day won't find you as sore but its hard on the ole body to be knocked around like that. I have followed your post, creations and pictorials for a while now and never picked up on the fact that you ain't from around here. It was the odd make of van and the officer in a non-US safety vest that caught my eye. That and you are on the wrong side of the road Glad you missed the head on and other than property damage a few sore muscles everyone will be ok.

Sorry to hear Bob, but at least your not physically hurt from the sounds of it. Take care, and be thankful that your ok, the van can always be replaced, your health might not be as easy.

Scary! I'm glad you were not seriously hurt Bob. Hope this will not impact the research going on in the New Bil Mill Lab.

I buy under-insured motorist protection, it's about a $15 yearly add on to my insurance. It's for exactly this kind of scenario.

What's the plan for new wheels?

Dan

Thanks for all the kind words guys. Yep - I'll definitely have time to have all of my chains razor sharp before I start milling this year.

I was feeling a lot better this morning until I saw the text messages left on my cell phone by the moron driver of the Honda. Can you believe it - he expects me not to claim on my insurance company (so they will not chase him because he is broke and has two kids) and he will pay "something" towards the cost or repair. Isn't that why we have insurance?

Put him to work sharpening all the chains we're going to send you. @ .10 cents an hour...no beer breaks!

Daninvan said:

Scary! I'm glad you were not seriously hurt Bob. Hope this will not impact the research going on in the New Bil Mill Lab.

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Thanks Dan, hopefully minimal impact on finishing up the build but maximum impact on full testing.

I buy under-insured motorist protection, it's about a $15 yearly add on to my insurance. It's for exactly this kind of scenario.

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That's what I have too - but the driver of teh other vehicle still doesn't want me to report him.

What's the plan for new wheels?

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I dunno, I Haven't even had a chance to talk to the insurers yet.