My G35 Coupe got nailed last night! NOT happy about it.

Last night my girlfriend an I hopped into my car parked in the French Quarter on Dauphine St.

We got 3 blocks down Dauphine and were approaching the corner of Dauphine and Iberville(side entrance to the Ritz Carlton) when I saw some clown in a Silver Buick Rendevous IGNORING his stop sign and coming into the intersection towards the front passenger quarter panel of my car. Mind you I am only a few feet away at this point.

Clown does NOT stop despite me blaring my horn at the last second and me braking as hard as possible. I try to squeeze around the 2 ft of space I have before the curb and the large metal light post and metal trashcan on the corner. But of course the clown in the Buick SUV plows into the side of me sending me towards said trashcan and metal post. So I nail the curb, send metal trashcan toppling over, and then crack directly into the large pole, whereupon the pole broke off at the base as designed and went flying onto the sidewalk where pedestrians travel trying to walk to Bourbon St(one block away).

Amazingly nobody out of the 20 or so people within 50 ft of the accident got taken out by either my car, the SUV, or the flying pole.

We had only been in the car for maybe 30 seconds when this took place and my girlfriend was NOT wearing her seatbelt, so she banged her knee up pretty badly on the dash. But nothing serious, thank God.

I check and make sure she is not injured, and luckily she was pretty much A-Ok. Nothing at all happened to me.

I shut the engine off and look out of my car to see his front bumper in the middle of Dauphine and a large pole and trashcan knocked over, my car sitting on the sidewalk. I didn't know the Ritz had such great curbside service. Cause man did I get served!

At this point I don't want to get out and see the extent of the damage to the car. But, I got out, people were running up all over the place to see if we were ok, etc...

I walk around and was not happy with what I saw. Every panel on the passenger side needs to be replaced and the front of the car took the hit from the pole. Amazingly the only broken glass was from the sideview mirror of mine that the SUV took care of. No fluids on the ground either. Phew.

I see the gentleman pull his car onto the opposite sidewalk and get out of the car. Older guy, probably 70. And two 90 y/o passengers. Nobody in their car suffered injury.

He approaches me and asks if I am ok and I said something like, "Jesus Christ I am ok but **** you just ran the **** out of that stopsign and forced my car to eat a pole and this is not what I envisioned happening tonight "

I dial 911 and report the accident, police show up 10 minutes later to take care of the situation. The guy that hit me was very nice but never once said he was sorry and really didn't seem to concerned about the whole thing at all. It was very odd.

Also odd was the fact that so many people saw it and only one women with her small child offered to stay until the police came. She was wonderful was on the corner when the accident happened and she told the officers that the gentleman had run the stopsign without making any attempt to slow down.

I wrote my statement, gave all my info to the cops, and they ticketed him for failure to yield at a stopsign. They might have given him reckless driving as well, but I won't know until I get the police report 10 days from now.

Incredibly I backed my car off of the curb and noticed no fluids at that time either. I was able to force the passenger door open(then closed) and my girlfriend and I drove 5 blocks back to my place in the French Quarter and parked the injured car.

So much for meeting up with my cousins that night for dinner


Anyways, that is enough griping for now. This could have been MUCH worse if I had not been paying attention. I could have not braked and flipped the car into a group of the many people around the accident at the time. Girlfriend wasn't wearing seatbelt which would have been horrible. So all in all it had the potential to really do a number on us.

I just got off the first phone call with Progressive and amazingly had my claim number emailed to me before I could hang up the phone. So it seems they are on top of things.

But I do want this car to be fixed by the best and I refuse to settle for any BS from the other guy's insurance. And I also expect my rental car to be one that is comparable to my car and not an econobox. Not sure if the car is eligible for a diminished value claim, but I'll look into it.

Now I just have to wait for a callback from Progressive and then make some calls to the other person's insurance. Dealing with these goons is not my favorite thing in the world!

*****EDIT- Ok, this is just strange. Apparently this guy is good friends with my gf's parents. In fact, the guy went to Israel on a trip with my gf's mother 2 years go. Unbelievable. My gf's mother says that he might be senile or have alzheimers. Just fantastic! *****

Now for some crappy camera phone pics that don't quite do the damage justice:
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Yeah, I posted a thread back then when a delivery truck decided to take out part of my car while it was parked on the street. That was fun!

That is 100% the case. My girlfriend was much more shaken up over it than me and keeps asking me why I am not very upset about my car eating it. So I keep telling her, "Look, it is just a car and that is why people have insurance. We are fine and nobody else was hurt. Trust me, the car is not what is important to me!"

 

Geeze, that is weird! Lesson? Don't let old people drive Buicks!

I think the reason why I didn't get miffed over the whole thing is because this has happened to me before. I have NEVER caused an accident but I have been hit at least 8 times.

Thanks Ryan. Today she said she has no more pain in her back and her knee just has a bruise that isn't too terrible.

That was one of the first things that came to my mind, lol

I honestly just should have gotten an NSX instead of the G35. But my previous car kinda died out of nowhere and I was at the dealership when I spotted the only 6-speed G35 they had so I just rolled with it.
Funny you mention the voodoo thing. I was at a bar with the GF a few nights ago catching a bloody mary when some person opened the door to the establishment and threw some ground up brick dust into the entryway. Apparently it is some voodoo tradition to ward off bad people!

I know! And I have always been on her case about the seatbelt so now it has really been 'driven' home.

All will be good!

 

Of course the F-Chat 50 is OK!

It is on my desk at this very moment

 

Passes out? That's impossibe...she was dead!

You misquote me...I swear!

Muhahah

 

Agreed. I had almost been hit a couple of times before but I didn't expect a sign to be completely blown. Lesson learned!

In about 3 weeks I believe. I will be there for New Year's Eve.

Nope, other side. So I guess when the car is fixed it won't have much original paint! Can I seek compensation for diminished value?

Not to mention the fact that he lives only 4 blocks from where I lived before I moved to the French Quarter