I'm pissed, Monday night I was getting off the temple off ramp going 57 south, I was going 40ish around the turn w/ a suburban right next to me. As I was finishing the turn i saw a piece of metal or plastic on the road in front of me, a little smaller than a football. I had no choice but to go over it and BAM! 3 large sounds and a huge clunking sound at the end that slightly lifted my car. I was not only scarred but sooo pissed off how irresponsible people can be. I stop at the light and can hear that my exhaust sounds like a lawnmower on steroids, and I pull into the shell station. I look under and i can see the braiding on my catback is ****ed, as well as my muffler in the back is dented. oh man, i was super pissed and called 911 to see if they can get it off the road, and hopefully i can see what it was. I also wanted a police report so if I need to I can file an insurance claim. Cops come, say they didnt see anything, then they ask me what I want from them, and after i explained the situation they said all i can do is just file an insurance claim, unless I want a police report. Then they told me a police report means that I will get a point on my dmv record for hitting something, and my insurance will go up because of it. After them explaining this to us for a few minutes one of the officers then turns around and asks my friend for his DL and asks if he has been arrested before and whether he has pulled him over for a dui (which was pretty insulting i thought). Im taking it to the dealer tomorrow to see what they say. I'm pretty pissed though, usually i dodge crap that is lying around on the freeway, but its just soo ****ty when you actually hit one, and its not even your fault. I felt like I had done something wrong after talking to the cops...

Anyways, I guess Ive learned a pretty valuable lesson, next time ill just do whatever I can to avoid **** in my path, I've avoided matresses, flying tires, and other misc ****, but this little pos just sucked. It is also summer so be carefull of all the rubber laying around on the highway... Ill post a follow up once my car has been inspected.

Lates..

 

NO ****, dude are we to pees in a pod or what? same crap happened to me on my way to hearst castle meet but i seen lots of sparks and smoke, lots!
i thought it was over but i pulled over and inspected the best i could and couldnt find anything to i said *** it. after i came home from the meet you know what i did. well if you can see in the pics, it tells all.



i filed a claim because there is no way im not fixing this. they are replacing my borla exhaust, skid plate up front and that cross member looking thing in the back.

 

You both need to lower your cars more, that way you just plow everything out of the way


I feel your pain though, I've seen some crazy stuff in the middle of the roads out here... just last week there was a lazy boy sofa in the right lane/merging lane of the 5 fwy south !!

 

I don't know if that is as bad as the john deere mower I saw on the 405S near the 5. That collision would've been horrible.

 

I saw this thing skipping between lanes on the 405.


And of course it stopped right in front of me. I went straight over it and the bumper cleared it along with everything else. I dont know what the aftermath would've been had it been lowered.

 

What! Your car cleared that?! That is a sign your car is WAAAAAYYYY too high!!!!! Must torch the springs NOW!!!

My car wont' even clear a pack of cigs on its flat side...

 

Ummm... I don't think your car can even clear a pencil.. the sway bar in the rear is barely off the ground.

You're using the 350EVO sways, right?

 

Maybe they will let you go to weeks of traffic school to get the point off. Kidding of course. I guess I have no knowledge of the point system and how one gets points as I wouldn't have thought one would get a point for hitting random crap on the freeway.

 

I know how it feels, one time I ran over a rock the size of one of those mini-basketballs. BOOM...My car lifted like 6 inches off the ground and the botom looked exactly like yours, all dented up.

At least it didn't go through the windshield and hit you in the head.

 

i've seen everything from bookshelves to mattresses chillin on the freeway... cant imagine what would happen if a small car hit either one

i feel you though... i ran over a huge tire going about 80mph.. cracked the bottom of my bumper

 

This will sound funny, but it actually happened to me, took the 10West onramp just before the 405 intersects (westwood). As i proceed to the 405exit ramp, a truck in front of me sideswipes a GARBAGE can which comes flying to the front of my car... since its a one lane ramp exit, there was no place to go and it hit my bumper head on, however, I was slow (30-40mph) and I had the leather Car Bra on, plus the garbage can was plastic so it bounced off... i cant imagine what would have happened if it was aluminium...

oh yeah this was about a year ago, and the bumper did not get dented... nothing...

something like this:-

 

People seem to hit lots of debris on 57 freeway. I had 3 separate incidents:
1) Last month, I hit a piece of black plastic in carpool lane right in front of Angel stadium on my wife BMW 330CI at night.
The large section of bottom engine cover broke off.
2) When I had my GSR, I hit a piece of metal (probably an excercise chair..) going North right in front of the Angel statudium. It made a big hole in the front bumper. There were probably 10 cars pulled over to the side with flat tires and other *****.
3) I didn't really hit anything this time but it was a scary experience. I was driving north in the hill area just passed Brea Mall at night. There was a fixed up honda prelude driving right next to me. All of the sudden, there was this black big fat couch right in the middle of his lane. He had to swirl to the left (i was on his right) to avoid it. Guess what, he lost control and the car spinned across the freeway. I got goose bumps looking at it from my rear mirror. Luckily no one hit him.

3 years ago my wife's brand new BMW took a hit from an air blow used by one of those guys cutting grass. The repair was $5K.
I feel you dude. I have always wonder Why The ***** people are so careless with their stuff.

I dont think you will lose any point for ur driver license. It's not ur fault. Those cops B.S you man.
Go get the insurance to pay for it.
BTW, it's time for a brand new HKS exhaust. If you need borrow a temporary stock exhaust, let me know. I still have it lying around

 

I have a story too:

About 2 months ago, I got a new front bumper and ings half kit painted/installed. Being really cautious, I decided to not drive the car for a while to allow the paint to cure, at which point I could go ahead and put on a clear bra to protect against rock chips. Well, about 3 weeks had passed by, and I finally went out and got my clear bra installed. It was a Saturday, and with nothing to do, I decided to go and visit my cousin...

I just BARELY got onto the freeway, and had not driven more then 4 miles from the shop I got my clear bra done. I'm driving in the slow lane since I had just merged on. All of a sudden this little green bouncy rubber ball comes straight at my car! With nowhere to move without causing an accident, I realize I would have to take the hit...and I did...that ball came and hit my bumper, right in the middle..and then the ball bouced forward (in slow motion), and since I was driving forward, the ball realized it could get another hit, so it slowed down enough for my car to catch up and I struck yet again! That little bastard! But in all honesty, I was laughing my *** off! No damage to the bumper/paint...the rubber ball was the size of a walnut. heh..

 

that is so f'd up, especially how the cops treated you and your friend. Sorry to hear about it. I don't think you need a police report for insurance unless there was another person or private property involved. When my wife had her old/new VW bug she saw a car next to her kick something up with its tire and hit her car but didn't know what it was. She noticed other drivers staring at the front of her car so she knew it was pretty bad. When she pulled into work to see what the damage was, she saw a 3 inch wide, 12 inch long piece of square steel tubing sticking out of her front bumper. It missed cutting thru a radiator hose and some other hoses by mere centimeters. Some pretty scary ****. Just goes to show, no matter how careful you are **** happens. Nothing you can really do about it.

 

i feel like im driving in a third world country lately, therse definitely more debri then ever on the highway.

 

Majority of cops are d!cks, there is no way in hell that would count as a point on your record, it was moving debre. They just didn't want to write it up because they are so dam lazy and could give a rats a$$ about anyones property. Sorry for your loss. Call insurance if you have a low deductable.

 

What the cops told you was true, if the piece of debris was stationary, then you're actually at fault if you hit it. Don't think it would count as a point however.

If you file a claim, it's key to say that the object was moving, in this case, your premium won't go up, and if you get anything fixed, all you have to pay is your comprehensive.

I ran over a metal object not to long ago and it scratched the bottom of my front lip. At the time, I was actually headed to performance nissan for an oil change and asked them to check underneath, but not sure if they did or not. I might just be paranoid, but I think my exhaust sounds kinda funny when I rev it. Those pics in the 2nd post kind of scare me.

 

I drove over a car battery a couple months ago on the 5 fwy. Luckily it was partially squashed from being run over so many times. When I first spotted it, it was like I went into slow motion. All lanes were full so I couldn't swerve. I then thought about the best place to drive over it and decided not to go head on because of the oil pan. I ended up scraping up the flex pipe on my exhaust and a few scrapes on the passenger side pipe and muffler.

Could have been a lot worse if it was full height.

 

dude u might wanna look into fixing that asap.

 

that W shaped bracket thing looking like may be a little harder to change... pulled down the actual body it looks like... so that one screw in the front left looks like it will be trouble...

ive had my share of road debris and rocks as well... :-/ not fun