lossforgain
New member
On December 23rd, my 12 year old daughter and I were on our way to Christmas services at church and had just gotten onto a divided highway here in Lancaster, PA. Luckily I was being attentive or I may not have seen a lady in an older black Hyundai sedan trying to merge into my lane without looking. I was in the left lane and she was in the middle lane to my right.
As she moved toward me, I hit the brakes and tapped my horn to let her know I was there. She looked over and saw me, and immediately overcorrected into a fishtail, hitting the passenger front corner of my Runner at about 60 mph. My daughter screamed as her car wrapped around and hit the passenger front door, pushing us left - sideways into the median wall which was about 4 feet tall. I felt the impact and the blowout of my front driver tire, which shredded, and the scrape of the driver front corner against the wall. At this point, the other lady's car was steering the opposite direction out of control, and she impacted the wall on the extreme right side of the highway. I saw her car's front end disintegrate and fly apart in my rear view mirror as I put my blinker on and slowly pulled to the right to get us out of the travel lanes. I stopped in the shoulder between the right lane and an exit ramp.
The other driver was awake and limping with her passenger to the side, and I was taking care of my own daughter. Luckily neither of us were hurt, and we started making phone calls as we waited for police and emergency services. Other drivers (none of whom had taken part in the accident, thankfully) stopped to help and call 911.
I allowed my 4Runner to be towed because even though I believed the spare tire would make it driveable, my driver rear tire had a big chunk hanging off. Damage to the front bumper, both corner panels in front, fender flares, driver and passenger doors, driver side wheels and tires.
Because this was right before Christmas, it has been a slow process to find out that the vehicle was totaled - I got the call just a couple of days ago and was given about a week to find a replacement. Luckily I did find the same year (2008) with almost 40k less miles on the odometer and will take possession of it mid next week when my rental is up. Pictures of that will be forthcoming, but for now here are pictures of the accident and me and my daughter about an hour later. We still made it to church, thanks to my wife picking us up!
As she moved toward me, I hit the brakes and tapped my horn to let her know I was there. She looked over and saw me, and immediately overcorrected into a fishtail, hitting the passenger front corner of my Runner at about 60 mph. My daughter screamed as her car wrapped around and hit the passenger front door, pushing us left - sideways into the median wall which was about 4 feet tall. I felt the impact and the blowout of my front driver tire, which shredded, and the scrape of the driver front corner against the wall. At this point, the other lady's car was steering the opposite direction out of control, and she impacted the wall on the extreme right side of the highway. I saw her car's front end disintegrate and fly apart in my rear view mirror as I put my blinker on and slowly pulled to the right to get us out of the travel lanes. I stopped in the shoulder between the right lane and an exit ramp.
The other driver was awake and limping with her passenger to the side, and I was taking care of my own daughter. Luckily neither of us were hurt, and we started making phone calls as we waited for police and emergency services. Other drivers (none of whom had taken part in the accident, thankfully) stopped to help and call 911.
I allowed my 4Runner to be towed because even though I believed the spare tire would make it driveable, my driver rear tire had a big chunk hanging off. Damage to the front bumper, both corner panels in front, fender flares, driver and passenger doors, driver side wheels and tires.
Because this was right before Christmas, it has been a slow process to find out that the vehicle was totaled - I got the call just a couple of days ago and was given about a week to find a replacement. Luckily I did find the same year (2008) with almost 40k less miles on the odometer and will take possession of it mid next week when my rental is up. Pictures of that will be forthcoming, but for now here are pictures of the accident and me and my daughter about an hour later. We still made it to church, thanks to my wife picking us up!
