Now that’s embarrassing…
No idea what caused the accident, but in our area, there’s a high likelihood they were trying to avoid a deer. Certainly would have been fun to watch!
So what’s the most interesting position you’ve left a vehicle in?
Wordless Outtake & QOTD: 2003-05 Pontiac Sunfire – Pole Position
– Posted on August 6, 2015
That’s embarrassing. I’ve had my share of driving accidents but nothing like this.
It’s not just a fence post, but also handy dandy jack!
Too embarrassing to post here. And embarrassing enough that the 4wd club members who tried to extract me took a photo and posted it on their club website. With a not very flattering caption. Let’s just say that two Suzuki Samurais chained together, one with a winch, can not extract a buried Toyota Land Cruiser if the Toyota driver was dumb enough to drive over the edge of the road and bury the front bumper in a gravelly stream bed.
My brother took my Dad to see our ancestral home place (all that’s left are the two chimneys), and managed to get his LR Disco stuck well and good in a boggy spot. We still tease him about it.
If it was in Massachusetts, I’d say it ended up this way when the poll was underneath many feet of snow. Once the snow melted, the car was left like this.
In poking around for the pic of my brother’s Disco, I also ran across this one from the house next door to my Dad’s when they were pouring concrete. Ouch.
I’ve seen that situation a few times when a cement mixer or block truck driver would forget to put out the outriggers.
That’s a pretty good physics problem. If the post was a concrete bollard, I could imagine the sequence of events. But it’s an ordinary wooden fence post. It should have broken from the forward speed or spinning speed necessary to jump the car over the fence. Maybe the car jumped, dug its front end into the dirt, halted, then dropped its rear down over the post?
Yeah, I’m surprised it didn’t snap off at the ground, too. That fence line’s been there at least 14 years (when we moved here), and pressure-treated poles are usually getting weak at that point. It’s interesting that both rear fenders (forward of the rear wheel well) are dimpled in. The RR wheel obviously dug in hard, so the car must have jumped like you suggest. Must have been quite the ride!
Fence poles are usually not pressure treated lumber but cedar logs. They last for decades.
OK! The tire’s changed. Now to get it the car off the pole.
I used to occasionally drive late-1970s 4WD Suburbans as part of my job as a soils surveyor/field engineer. Once I managed to get a Suburban crosswise in a small sandy ravine supported only by the ends of the vehicle and with all four wheels off the ground. Fortunately I had shovels and pickaxes with me so I could spend a coupe of hours digging myself out. Call the office and tell them of my predicament? No way – I never would have heard the end of it.
We’ve got such a bumper crop of Pontiacs this year that they are climbing over the fence!
Here’s another photo I found in my archives (shot on slide film in the early 1980s). Happened right after a heavy rain in Atlanta GA where I was at college.
I remember for my first winter driving, I hit the curb, sidewalk, trees, snow banks and signs several times a day from November to March! Heavy chrome wrapped bumpers on LeSabre come handy at the time, as there was no obvious visible damage done to the car.
Not my vehicle, but this was in my driveway. One rainy, slushy March morning, a garbage truck tried to turn around in my parents’ driveway (which is right next to a strip of woods), slid fifteen feet and ended up with one wheel stuck so far down that the rear drivers side tire was six feet in the air. Another garbage truck of equal size was sent to extract it, but at one point got stuck halfway down the steep ditch across the street. I still regret not taking any pictures during the many hours in which at least one of those trucks was very, very stuck.
Hmm the mirror is gone on the passenger side too. I’d say it rolled without landing on the roof.
Isn’t that supposed to be the classic ABS avoidance accident, nail the brakes, turn the wheel, drive into the ditch and roll over?
Thankfully my own driving career has not been this interesting, the worst would be burying my Concord in a roadside snowbank with all four wheels off the ground and having my Uncle yank it out with the farm truck.
Good thought. You can see in the second photo that the hood also is buckled, which indicates a front impact. How that fits in I’m not so sure. I guess they could have hit something that sent them rolling off the road, or some of the damage may be from a prior incident.
On closer look, the RH side mirror is broken off, too. But there’s no other evidence of upper body contact with the ground (no dirt) – antenna is okay, and LH mirror is intact.
The year my father bought his 1970 International Scout he and my mother went to Nevada to look at some of his old mining claims. Although it was late May, they were at high enough altitude that there was some old snow in a shady-side part of the dirt road. The Scout broke through about a 6- or 8-inch crust, and was well and truly stuck. They spent the night shivering in the Scout; in the morning Pop hiked back downhill to a line shack they’d passed, and found a shovel. I believe that this was the last time my mother ever went any farther in the Scout than a trip to town.
I think my own most ill-advised adventure like this was the time I was investigating an old brush trail in my 1957 New Yorker. The trail started to lead downhill and I could see that it was going to get too steep. The Torqueflite had a weak reverse gear, but by gunning the engine for all I was worth I managed to get back uphill to a place where I could turn around.
VAGUELY similar to this: was driving my 54 Plymouth back from the dump when I ran off the road, up a shallow ditch, and into a tree stump. For a car that could run into brick walls and not get a scratch….well, by the time it hit the stump it still had enough momentum to destroy the front end. Luckily, we were able to remove the engine and use it in our 49 Plymouth.
The most interesting position I’ve left a vehicle in involves hitting a downed power pole in my ’82 Toyota Pickup about 5 years ago. Coming home from work late one night on a very twisty mountain road, I came around a corner and saw a downed power pole across the road. I slammed on the brakes and smacked the pole pretty good. I then realized I was on top of power lines and figured it would be a good idea to get off them, although I don’t think they were live. I gunned it in reverse to get untangled and ended up with the rear wheels in the air suspended by the power lines. All I could do then is wait for the authorities to come and tell me it was okay to get out of the truck. As it turns out, a vehicle ahead of me (who was texting at the time) hit the next power pole which pulled down the one I hit from across the road. Wish I had a pic…
Suggested tabloid captions:
“MOTORIST ON FENCE OVER FIELD TESTING”
” FAILED UPRISING IN BLOODLESS COUPE”
“EXIT POLE SUPPORTS ERECTION RESULTS”
My pickup gets stuck in the most annoying situations where you wouldn’t think it would. A combination of the heavy Cummins up front, rear-wheel drive without limited slip, and usually not enough weight in the back. Most common is where the front is parked somewhere soft so it sinks in a bit, the back has reduced traction (ice or wet pavement are bad) and I have to back out from where I am instead of driving forward.
Driving my former VW Rabbit in icy conditions, I once slid off the road in a curve and hopped the front wheels over the curb at about 2am. I was able to pick the front end of the car up and throw the wheels back over the curb though. Thank goodness it had real bumpers that you could grab and not the form-fitting plastic covers that all cars have today.
I thought of a good one that thankfully didn’t happen to me, but I was there to see it:
I was at a “field party” that one of my brother’s friends was putting on. There was a guy bombing around in the field with his S-10 Blazer. On the gravel road leading to the field was an unmarked railroad crossing. There were huge rubber blocks on either side of the tracks to drive over (mostly for tractors). The guy in the Blazer blipped the throttle as he went over the tracks and the back wheels kicked the rubber blocks out from under them, leaving the back of the truck sitting on the tracks on its frame, wheels in the air. I said, “Put it in 4WD and get it to pull itself off.” … “I can’t, 4WD is broken.” was the response.
The tracks were in regular use, and a freight train was due to come by around 11pm or so. To make matters worse, there was no cellphone reception for us to call and warn someone. A farmer that lived nearby saw us struggling to try to get the truck off the tracks and came out with his tractor and a tow chain and easily pulled it off. The freight train came by about 1/2 hour later.
Can’t remember the exact circumstances of my most embarrassing driving event but in my very early driving days Dad had gotten a ride to a client’s home and since I had his car he needed me to come pick him up after his meeting. The entrance to the clients driveway was over a drainage ditch about four feet deep. As I ‘expertly’ made my left turn into the driveway I came in too hot and drove the right front wheel of his Pacer straight off the edge of the driveway. The client was trying to stifle laughter as I tried to extract the vehicle while the left rear tire spun helplessly a couple of inches off the pavement. The two of them came up with the idea of adding weight to the rear of the car to gain traction but with the client and I standing on the rear bumper the best we could do was muster a chirp from the tire as Dad tried accelerating in reverse. Dad reluctantly traded places with me as my skinny frame was simply not providing enough pressure to hold the left rear corner down. After a couple of tire chirps while they practiced synchronized jumping on the bumper the car finally crept slowly out of the hole. Needless to say the ride home, me NOT driving, was dead silence.
That’s an impressive parking job if you ask me.
Never had one that interesting myself, but I recently had a client take a curve too fast, catch air, and get jammed between two trees – about 4 feet off the ground. Neither she nor her passenger could exit the vehicle before it was winched out from between the trees. They were both pretty shook up, but fortunately, neither of them were seriously injured.
The responding officer showed me the pictures he took of the accident. I wish I had copies. The one from the rear showing the trees bent slightly outward with the car stuck in the air between them was hilarious.
I’m just helping it over the fence!
/got nuthin
Very early in my driving career I was in my dad’s 504 estate on a windy country road. Hit a big patch of mud that a farmer had left (I was too inexperienced to recognise it as a hazard) and slid gently into the ditch. I remember seeing the hedge coming towards me and having a vivid mental picture of being in the field on the other side, pushing the car out of the mud. However, I was wrong – the front dropped into the ditch and the car did a super-slo-mo 180 degree spin and roll to end up on its roof, facing in the wrong direction. I was mortified.
I had nothing to do with this but perhaps the worst I’ve ever seen a vehicle hung up and immobile was thirty years ago or so when I was in the Army National Guard. One of the other tank companies in our battalion managed to get an M60A3 tank buried nose down in a bog far enough so that water was coming into the driver’s compartment. Needless to say they were not able to back it out of the mud. It took the recovery vehicle (tank chassis without the gun turret) and two other tanks, using quite a collection of two inch steel cable, to extract the stuck tank.
One time at work an E30 BMW was towed to the dealership lot with two or three big holes in the floor and the roof. It had somehow landed on top of a tree. Another E30 on the lot was a burnt out shell which happened when the hot exhaust and cat started a fire under the long dry grass it was parked over. It was the fire chief’s car, and it happened when he parked it at a fire department picnic. I built a fiberglass buggy and used a ’58 beetles 36 hp engine and crashbox 1st gear transaxle as a powertrain. A buddy and I almost made it up a long, steep climb but ran out of power about 10 feet from the top. My friend jumped out as the buggy started to slide backwards with the brakes locked up, and I soon did the same. It wound up bouncing down the hillside and landed in a culvert nose down, luckily it didn’t roll. My solution was Johnny Walker. Not the bottle, the person who lived nearby who had a winch and pulled the buggy out. Except for a few cracks in the fiberglass in the front, it was OK and started right up and we drove back into town.
He said he flew up there, gunna hafta fly up to get im down, just smile n wave.
Dating your self there Bryce……
=8-) .
-Nate
Coming Soon, The Pontiac Version Of The Cadillac Ranch.
My dad is an EMT/firefighter and has had to cut out several people as well as a body or two from vehicles that swerved for critters so I have trained myself to first slam on brakes then think about if swerving is a good idea.
I was turning around my 95 Voyager too close to the edge of the creek next to dirt road I grew up on and the dirt gave out causing her ass to slide into the creek. Good thing I had recently replaced the gas tank since I bet the rusty original would have disintegrated under the weight. The engine could not hydrolock due to the angle, but it did not like the tailpipe being underwater though the sounds of bubbling water when I revved the engine were amusung.
I also slid that Voyager off the road because I missed the turn for Cadillac Ranch and Texas dirt is slick as grease when damp. I drove on dirt roads in Oklahoma the days before and had no issues. Anyway, she slid to the left, I let up on the accelerator, corrected to the right, she went right, and refused to go left again. I buried her up to the passenger side frame rail at a decent lean for about 6 hours because AAA said I was too far off the pavement to rescue. In Central New York year round dirt roads are dirt roads, but not in Texas; sheesh. I trudged back and forth to the truck stop a few times and eventually paid someone $100 to get me out after nearly getting on my knees and pleading. No way was I gonna wait a few days for the road to dry out. Never did get some of that mud off.
Less than a week later I accidentally ran a redlight in California and had to leave her in the intersection until a tow truck took her away. That was by far the most embarrassing and I could have swerved at the last second instead of barreling straight though and not been in danger of rolling over
I had a 91 Miata that I drove year-round in Minnesota, for years. I never had a problem driving it in the winter, especially with the Nokian snow tires I had on it. One day on the way home from work, we were having a typical MN snowstorm. Traffic was crawling along, behind a plow. Well, I got a LITTLE too close to the “wake” of the plow while turning around a corner, and managed to high-center the car on the snow berm the plow was leaving. Right in a busy intersection, of course. Both back tires were completely off the ground, I was going nowhere. It was evening rush hour, traffic was backing up everywhere, and I couldn’t push the car off the berm myself, a couple other motorists had to come help me push the car off the embarrasingly short berm… And I had just had the usual “You need a 4X4″, No my Miata has gotten me thru winter for the last 9 years just fine…” I was embarrased at the time, but kind of wish I had a pic of that now.
After I first got my license I was driving on a school pass-through road when I mis-negotiated the snow/ice, hopped the curb and put Mom’s Torino on its side in a ditch. Only a small scratch and embarrassing $50 tow truck fee.
A few years later I was driving my new Toyota down a parkway hill and hit some black ice. By the time my car made the bottom of the hill, I had nailed all four corners several times as I spun the distance.
And I’ve hit 2 deer…one while driving 15 mph on the beach access road in Texas, and the other at 75 mph in upstate New York. I hate deer.
@ Dave ~
Yabbutt , they’re damn tasty ! .
If you’ve not yet had Bambi Tacos , you’re missing out .
-Nate