This was just not my day; nor Sandi's.
I was on my way to Crown Rock on Boulder's Flagstaff mountain for a hike; it's one of my favorite lunch-break hiking spots.
As I rounded a curve in the road, another vehicle (an 80s-ish, Maroon-ish, Honda Civic hatchback) coming the other way
failed to round the corner (going straight instead) and slammed into Sandi (my 2008 Toyota FJ Cruiser) almost head-on.
I put the vehicle into park, got out to go check on the people in the other vehicle (no air-bags even deployed in my FJ).
Two of the three young (late teens -to- early twenties) men in the other vehicle got out, looked at their vehicle, and got back in.
[the front passenger's head had hit the windshield, and it was obvious from the actions of the other two,
that this fellow was quite 'out of it' - hopefully they got him to a hospital somewhere.]
I then stared at them, and the driver poked his head out of his window and said, "I'm just going to move it out of the way". So, I said, "OK".
Immediately, the other vehicle took off; speeding down the road away from the scene of the collision, and never came back.
Unfortunately, I did not get the license (it was a temp tag - February). However, there were at least three other adult humans in the vicinity that witnessed the events. There was a man riding a bicycle, and two women in a car.
One of the women called 911 (after my attempt failed thanks to Sprint's bad service - Oh, sorry...that's in a different thread),
and was talking with them, explaining the situation while the other vehicle took off.
As it turned out, they all saw it happen, gave me their contact info, and said they'd testify in my favor if it were to come to that
(thanks to one of the women writing it all down - along with some notes about the incident).
As is probably obvious from the photos (see below), my vehicle was in its own lane upon impact,
and the other vehicle slid a long way before it crossed the center line and hit mine.
Although it's open to interpretation and depends on the actual speed of the other vehicle, etc, it seems at least plausible that, if I hadn't been there, they may very well have continued far enough in their slide to flip over the railing (or miss it altogether) and go flopping down the mountainside.
In this sense, they're actually very lucky that I was there when I was.....or rather, that Sandi (my dear FJ) was there when she was.
What's interesting to notice in the photos is how my vehicle got pushed backward as a result of the impact.
Look at the skid marks left by Sandi's tires. You can see where the front passenger tire skidded forward as I was slamming on the breaks,
and then you can see at least the resulting skidding backward of the rear driver, front driver and front passenger tires.
I actually didn't even notice this aspect of it all until I was inspecting the photos from the scene of the crime at home tonight.
Ok, enough commentary. Here are some photos from this ordeal...
This one shows my vehicle in its resting place after the collision - and after the violating vehicle left the scene of the crime.
The bicyclist to the right is one of the three eye-witnesses of this event.
In this image, you can see the marks on the road left from the other vehicle's skidding,
as well as the marks left by mine getting pushed backward.
I just hope I don't have nightmares about what would have happened if it had occurred just a few minutes later
when this particular cyclist was passing by.
Here's an animated gif of the photo above, highlighting skid marks, etc...
It may not be so obvious to the casual observer, but in this view,
what do you think of the angle of the outside edge of the front driver tire?
Thousands of dollars of damage later...there she is. My baby.
Broken and dejected; sitting in the dealer lot after the diagnosis.
Well, there it is.
We'll see how this all turns out - I'll report back here to let you all know how it goes.
I want to take this moment to thank the witnesses; the man on the bicycle and the two women in the car.
Thank you very much for taking the time out of your day (even though one of you was in need of getting to the airport shortly)
to call for help, to take notes, and most of all, just to be there with me in this time of trauma.
Thanks to Jerry, the Boulder Mountain Parks and Open Spaces Ranger that helped get me better positioned on the side of the road,
and thanks to Brad, the state trooper that sat there
while I stumbled and bumbled through gathering all of the relevant information that he needed to make a proper report of the incident.
Thanks to the Progressive people that helped me over the phone as I tried to get this thing reported and get the recovery ball rolling today.
Thanks also to all of the great people at Boulder Toyota who, as usual, took care of me all the way.
...
UPDATE:
Interesting....today (the day after the 'Bad Day'), I had the pleasure of a Sandstorm escort on my way to work in the morning.
Nothing mysterious or creepy; it was just a neato treat. :)
...as if it isn't a neat enough treat to be going toward where I work (about a third of the way there) in this photo. ;)
