I was on my way to work from my 3000 mile maintenance ,driving about 50 mph on the 118 and hit a puddle. My car slipped out of the lane and towards the wall, I was able to stear it enough in order to not hit it front on and ended up hitting the wall hard with the front right and then again with the back right causing the passenger side airbag to come out. I did a 360 swirl before I got the car under control again and was able to stop.
I am ok, I injured my right hand a bit and my ears are ringing from the airbag explosion. And I am coughing from inhaling the smoke coming out of the airbag.

Fortunately no other car was hit. My car looks pretty bad though. I am amazed how protected I was in the cockpit. a different car and I would have been in the hospital for sure. CHP came and told me they won't even report it because they are averaging about 10 accidents per hour! right now and since I was the only one involved there's no need from their side. AAA picked me up and towed the car and I got a rental covered by my insurance. I have to go through the claims stuff now to get my car fixed or replaced. My beautiful new car... all torn up. But this proves oncce again my point: it's much more dangerous driving on the freeways then racing at a track.
i'm just glad i haven't started putting in my nitrous as pkant this weekend.

Damn California rain! This was my fist real accident other then a little fender scratch in 20 years driving...

 

ahhhhhhhhhh that frkn sux...!!!! u did not have vdc on...does the track have vdc..i 4got..im sorry 2 hear..you'll be back in it b4 u know it...try this...if you have a nissan dealer that does repairs..go get the estomate there...that way insurance will pay you more...and u can prolly throw on some new parts on yourself..lets say..esprit kit..or some cc fenders...=))

 

Those puddles can be deadly on California freeways, I tend to avoid the inner and outer lanes since it tends to get flooded.

In any case, hopefully the insurance got you covered.

 

yeah, the track has vdc didn't sem to matter though because I felt like I was flying it just took off...
from now on no more outer lanes in the rain for me

 

Damn. Sorry to hear that. I did the same thing last month in a pathfinder but both airbags went off. Car is totalled now. Cops told me the same thing. I'm a little scared to drive the Z in the rain now and I don't even have TCS.

 

I'm so sorry to hear that!!
I'm just glad you are ok! It could have been alot worse!! The car can be fixed, you on the other hand are Irreplaceable!

 

First off sorry to hear that, hope your ok. This did'nt happen near Kuehner by any chance, did it? My wife told me she saw a siverstone Z being put on a flatbed near there, was that you?

 

damn man....sorry about your accident

 

I keep hearing this about the Z, you can be driving normally and hit a wet spot all of a sudden your toast..it did'nt seem to be driver error in alot of cases, the Z just took off? I also feel like Im driving on ice sometimes when its wet, nothing specific but I dunno, you cant drive 40 on the freeway when everyone else is doing 50,60 or you'll killed by pissed off drivers..

 

You got any pics of the accident? That really sucks I think once you hit something and the air bag goes off the car is pretty much a salvaged title. The rain makes it even worse if the windows or part of your car is exposed to the rain for several days.

I here so far we're getting more rain than Seattle this year.

 

mrtomcat,

Sorry to hear your accident. I had a similar accident about 5 years ago after a rainy day in the summer months.

But my accident was caused by a short lady who cut me off. I tried to dodge and ended going to the shoulder (slow lane), then lost control and made 360 degrees going out to the far lane.

I ended hitting another car heads on facing traffic during the process, then my rear hit the divider.

If somebody had hit me in the side, i would have been dead. Now, I still have flash back. When I see car trying to drift to my lane, it scares the **** out of me.


Tony

 

Man... that sucks.... even with tcs and vdc the Z still managed to slip huh.... damn... I need to be careful then still I don't have tcs or vdc... I figure I don't need it... can't use it on the track... I live in hawaii, and I had a similiar incident with my 03 nissan SE-R spec v... I hit a puddle and I went flying off the road.. luckily the side of the road was all grass.. I rarely drive in the rain... unless I have too.. I'm going back to cali in 2 weeks with my car... Hawaii's rain is a lot worse that cali rain.. hopefully the insurance finds it as "totalled" and pays it off for you so you car buy a new one. Once you crash a car, it never drives the same in most cases.

 

When you say the car hit the puddle and took off where you hydroplaning or do you think it was something else?

 

Sorry. Sounds familiar. I'll post about it later. PM me if you want an awesome bodyshop in the valley.

 

lemme guess, were you down to about 40% or less on the rear tires?

 

yep that was me

 

it was definetely hydroplanning, it felt like my car got picked up and just thrown towards that wall.
I do hope they'll declare it as totalled because not only won't we know if everything would be truly fixed but the resale value would be crap.

btw thanks for caring I am in such a depressive mood right now it helps to hear some friendly voices.

oh and to add insult to injury I went out to get some to eat and suddenly got pulled over by a cop, apparently I had only my parking light on on the rental, thankfully the cop was actually understanding and let me go.

 

Tonight on the 405 I got a flat, my left front tire and now I have to go replace my Toyo Proxes T1s which will put a dent in my wallet. But goodluck with the car hopefully its totalled and you can get another Z.

 

Glad your ok...

Sounds like you hydroplaned and probably panic a bit and hit the breaks causing the car to slide out... Worse thing you can do is hit the breaks when you hit a big puddle, best thing to do is let off the gas and hold the stearing wheel as straight as possible, because it will be wanting to jerk from your hands... if you do this, 9 out of 10 times you will go through the puddle with no problems.

 

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