It happened this morning on my way to work. I was taking the ramp to 85S and because traffic was heavier than usual at 5:45am I had slowed down on the ramp and was moving slowly to merge when all of a sudden in a glance I see these headlights moving fast behind me and approaching way fast when WAAAAAMMMM and elderly gentleman driving a 96 or 97 Toyota Corolla slammed on the back of my Montero without even touching the breaks and doing about 50 mph.
With the impact he pushed me into the incoming traffic coming south on 85 when all of a sudden a semi doing about 75 to 80 MPH hit me on my front fender, <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/zombie.gif" alt="" /> so hard was the impact that lifted my car on the two left tires, I mean the right side of my car was waaaayyyyy in the air while performing my two wheel stunt <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/scared.gif" alt="" /> I turned the steering wheel to the left and it came down on all four and the coasted to the shoulder. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />
I stayed in the car and called 911, the owner of the other car came to me and all I wanted to do was to break his neck but I kept my cool and acted like a gentleman. After all I had my wife and kids on my mind and thinking how lucky I was, if that truck woulded off hit me two feet back or 1/2 second earlier I will probably be right now God knows where talking to God knows who or hunting God knows who ha ha ha I am glad I get to see the sunshine. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />
Let me tell you, since my daughter finished school yesterday I was thinking on taking her to the office with me today but then my wife got sick and decided to stay home today, then I though on riding my motorcycle instead and some voice told me "naaahhhh don't do it" and look!!!!
As for the Montero, the police office told me that for the kind of impact that the Monty received it looks in awesome shape and that it is one little and beautiful tank!!!
The impact of the car was absorbed my the right shackle and bent the leafspring up, pushed the bumper a little bit (it did not damage the cab) and left a considerable dent on the tank.
The semi hit me on the right fender so it messed up the fender it tear up the bumper, the signal light and it's plastic bezel oh and the rear view mirror.
That is just a preliminary assessment of the damage. I got to take some pictures and I hope that it is fixable and that the insurance don't come with the stupid story that they are totaling it and if that happen, men I am going to miss it I love my little red Montero.
I will post the pictures soon.
Javy
