Pria ended up in a ditch (with photos)

Michgal007, what happened to the guys? I can't believe a carload of guys wouldn't have tried to push a girl's car out of a ditch.

Do you have AAA and have you looked into their driving courses? Qualifies for insurance discounts.

 

Glad you and the friends are OK. Sorry to hear about the damage to your car too. Oh, I do not think 9-1-1 is intended for non-injury accidents BTW.

 

eep, glad it didn't get any worse than your story. Yup, from the
picture it looks like you high-centered right on that big crossmember
behind the engine so there was probably very little weight on the
front wheels.
.
I came semi-close to doing the same thing on a piece of the Blue
Ridge parkway a couple of winters ago; went in knowing the road was
icy in spots and figured we'd just go as high as we could before I
could make no more forward progress. That eventually happened but
only after grinding up quite a respectable distance over the frequent
packed-snow patches ... on the stock tires, too. Finally I came to
a stop for some reason or other and then when I tried to go again,
hah, nothin'. So I decided I needed to turn around; there was room,
but as I let the car back down a little and applied the brakes, it
felt like it really wanted to just keep sliding backwards toward the
ditch [fortunately on the uphill side, they're no dummies when they
crown the roads up there] and it was only by *very* careful
maneuvering that I managed to K-turn [or was that an asterisk turn,
took several passes] and get lined up for our fairly exhilarating
run back *down* over all those same icy patches. [pic]
.
But these days when I back up I do so *very* slowly in almost all
settings, alternating my gaze between the inside rearview, both
outside rearviews, and straight out the back. A lot of people don't
know how to back with side-mirrors [like you'd have to do in a
truck], and it's a useful skill because it lets you keep much more
awareness of what you're about to run into on either side. Also
useful for parking half an inch away from that yutz that's slewed
across two spaces, just to make his exit more interesting and maybe
prove a small point...
.
_H*

 

Sorry to hear about your accident.

Let us know how much the paint is going to cost.

Nice glamour pic BTW.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Michgal007 @ Oct 11 2007, 11:42 AM) [snapback]524109[/snapback]</div>

That's great!

Curious, did the tow truck use your front bumper tow hole and screw-in eye hook to pull the car out of the ditch?

 

Appears the damage was minimal. Doesn't help your feelings though. Glad you didn't turn it over. Reverse is a lot more dangerous in any car than forward.

BTW, for those who appear to not understand Prius tech, when you are in "R" in the Prius it's electric only. So "B" could not work ("B" is a forward mode anyway). The Prius doesn't have a "reverse" gear. It just reverses MG2.

The brakes also tend to work against you in "R", as the rear brakes are set up for forward motion (drum brakes are like that). The front brakes work fine in either direction, but the wheels on the trailing end of a vehicle in motion only provide about 10-20% of the stopping power. So it's a good idea to never let the car go fast in "R".

The Prius does just fine in the mountains. But you should perhaps practice your driving skills in tight situations. Cones in a parking lot are a good way to practice (little or no damage when you make a mistake). Perhaps you could find a driving school/course locally. They sometimes run courses for tight control learning. AAA is a good place to start.

 

Thanks for sharing your experience with us Michgal. That had to be pretty scary to go through. I'm glad to hear no one was hurt and your Pria is pretty as new once again!

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Sufferin' Prius Envy @ Aug 20 2007, 02:36 PM) [snapback]499298[/snapback]</div>

Oh god that reminds me of a stupid kid driving a car story I must share..It's off topic car-wise but might put a tiny smile on your face..When I was about 13, my grandparents drove two huge Oldsmobiles. One of them being a 1972 Ninety Eight. They used to let me back it down to the bottom of the driveway when we were getting ready to go out. One day when we were driving, I asked Grampa what the "L" was for on the shifter. He simply stated "that is to help you go slow". Hmm..I will have to remember that So being the super smart kid I was, I thought "hey, I want to back out of the car port really slow so I will use the "L" gear" Remember gear heads there is a super rocket 455 sitting there idling under the hood!
So my mom was standing on the porch (grandparents in the house) and I was going to impress her how I could navigate that huge Oldsmobile backwards to the end of the driveway..So I slid that ole shifter down into "L" and floored it..You can just imagine the look on both my and my mothers face as that Olds came to life, smoking the tires, four barrel carburetor howling and lurching toward the kitchen wall..Lucky I had young kid reflexes and the only tragedy was the ancient climbing rose bush at the front of the carport..I squished it between that massive car and the stucco wall as I stood on the brake pedal..Had I not managed to stop the car it would have pushed Gramma's washing machine into the living room!
Mom was not impressed...
You can imagine who's butt got blisters and who lost car privileges for a while!

So sorry about your mishap..I am sure it was super scary..Cars do wierd things going backwards..Specially hard to stop em..Glad you and your buddies were not hurt and hope the car isn't hurt up too bad..
Take care..Sending electronic hugs your way...
Oh..I see now you have been all fixed up..Great! I wasn't paying close attention to the dates on the posts..Glad the repair wasn't too bad..

John