Eric's Very Sad Car Story # 1

The '91 Saturn SL2

In late May of 1995, I made the mistake of paying off my '91 Saturn SL2. I must have offended some great karmic gods, who sought vengence against my beloved car on thursday, June 8th, 1995. My car was safely parked on the street. I was inside Jose's Carribean Restaurant on El Camino up in Palo Alto, CA, dining on a nice BBQ chicken pizza with Larry and Kristin. As the bill arrives at our table, a crash sounds outside the restaurant.

On thursday June 15th, the car was officially declared totalled. I bought the car originally for $12,500 in May of 1991, and got $10,250 in insurance money. Estimated repair cost: $9,683.

Totalled. Officially.

The big red car, plowed into my SL2

Note the only tire marks start inside the parking space I was in.

We were eating at the Jose's to avoid the opening bands for Todd Rundgren, playing just down the street at the Edge.

A sad sight indeed

Just after the check came, there came this amazing crashing sound from the front of the restaurant. I see my car fly sideways across the sidewalk, stopping just short of shattering the plate glass windows in the front of the restaurant.

Note the front corner of the parking space. If you look closely, you can see pieces of the rear panel where my car was hit.

Larry starts to relax a little bit, but Kristin points out that it's my car.

The driver's side of the car. This is a better picture of the front of the parking space.

Here's what Larry thinks happened:

A tiny Asian college student, driving a huge steaming late-70s American car, has just picked up some take-out Chinese food and is driving home. Just after a light, the food starts to slip out of her lap. She reaches for the food, and <wham!> she plows into the rear of Eric's car, missing the van parked behind him, and pushes Eric's car up on the sidewalk. His car only hit a spindly tree; it neither harms the restaurant nor the car in front of him.

The front bumper, damaged after hitting the car parked over 5 feet in front of it.

The next morning, I had to console myself by mailing the Saturn owner's mailing list:

Her car plowed into the back corner of my car. The only tire/skid marks I could see were where my tire got pushed across the parking spot. The back panel on the left side was shattered. The bumper is a mess. The right side back wheel must have hit the curb so hard that the axle snapped. The wheel bearings were lying around the curb. The front bumper and license plate got messed up from bumping into the car in front of it. The right side front passenger door got pushed into the conveniently placed tree. If the tree hadn't been there, the car probably would have been pushed into the plate glass window in front of the restaurant. With the tree, it came within 6 inches of hitting it.

She was pretty shaken up about, luckily nobody was hurt, and even more luckily, nobody was walking past at the time. It could have been a really bad scene.

If this tree hadn't been there, the car probably would have been thrown into the window of Jose's.

These lovely pictures are courtesy of a State Farm claims adjuster who just happened to be eating dinner at the restaurant. He always keeps a cheap camera and a roll of film in his car, and snapped up the roll of pictures even before we realized I was insured through State Farm.

The passenger side of the car, with the nice tree in front. This was the view I had coming out of the restaurant.

The big dumb American car was in driveable condition, so they drove it away. My car was dead. The tow truck guy said "oh, yeah, it's totalled."

Look closely. Broken rear axle. Wheel bearings on the ground. Yuck. The tire must have been hit so hard that the axle just snapped.

It could have been worse. We weren't next to the car. We were close enough to the Edge that we could walk there, and still see the show, even if the opening band was still playing. We checked a big pile of stuff at the coat check - piles of stuff from the car.

More of the back corner where it was hit. The pink ring glop on the ground is the rest of the wheel bearings. Check out all the scratches on the sidewalk, where the brakes dragged.

The Chinese food, of course, was saved.

I don't remember parking on the sidewalk!

Final picture of the accident scene, after the fire/police arrived.