Fond Fair-Well to my 4 Runner....

[Melbosa]

So I've been somewhat absent from the forums since Friday and not from lack of interest or anything.  I was an unfortunate casualty of bad road conditions and rather than myself paying the ultimate price my 4 Runner did instead.  Amazing design and forethought put into vehicles when it comes to impact accidents.  The sheer force a vehicle can take and allow one to survive is astonishing (even pre-dating airbag technology).  Granted my accident could have had much more speed or collisional circumstances which would test those engineered forethought even more, all-in-all I'm glad I was in my 4 Runner and not something like a Smartcar or smaller vehicle.

What happened you might ask?  Well I was on the Anthoney Henday freeway heading North and took the Sherwood Park (Wye Road) over pass cloverleaf exit West Bound into the city.  As I crested the overpass bridge, I went to merge into the right light, and attempted to slowly accelerate to traffic speeds.  Well I wasn't in 4WD, which knowing the conditions I should have dropped into coming up the ramp, and didn't have the greatest weight on the back tires.  As such I hit a patch of ice as I went to switch lanes and spun the back end.  Now what happens next is probably only seconds from that point to the end of the story, but I will detail it out as it definitely seemed longer than that to me.

Picture if you will the front end of your SUV facing the bridge rail over a free way of traffic.  No cars in front of you but traffic coming at you on your drivers side, you sliding forward at about 55 km/h, trying hard to break a speed that you can't in the short distance of 2 lanes.  So instead I did what I've always been taught to do and used what skills I had to swing the backend back the other way, counter the skid, and hopefully pull out.  What I had not counted for was the weight of the 4 Runner, and while it leaned heavily as it turned back westbound, it did not stop its motion towards the guard rail.  Thankfully this wasn't a Jeep TJ or something that is known to be top heavy or I might have toppled before I even hit the rail.

Those of you whom have known me for some time know I've had my share of vehicle accidents in my youth.  That experience alone was playing out in this moment, telling me that no matter how much I try I am going to hit something as my momentum is too much.  At least there was a break in traffic on the overpass at that moment, so I wasn't too worried about hitting anyone else.  My main concern was hitting the railing cement curb and toppling over the railing now that I was heading sideways into it.  Knowing it was done, knowing I was going to smash, I figured I might as well make sure I stayed on the bridge and make the rest of the day that much easier to go through (at least I hoped).  So I threw it into 4WD, cranked her hard, pulled the e-brake, and hoped it would all work out.

Frankly from the sounds the transmission was making at that moment, and the sheer torque I was putting on the vehicle, I thought the bottom end was going to bust out on me and I was going to blow the transfer case right out.  But it held, and it swung just enough to pull the vehicle long and slam hard into the cement barricade at the end of the bridge.

Like I said, maybe 2-5 seconds long.  Sure seemed like an eternity during.  Now it may have been the adrenaline, or the engineering itself, but I hit that barrier hard and yet I have soreness and stiffness, a bruised knee and a devastated pride.  You may look at the pictures and say "Well that doesn't look that bad." but believe me when I tell you this is because of the engineering in the vehicle and the distance of the picture.  I've seen and been in accidents with less speed and different makes and this could have been a lot different in say a K Car or Tiberon or Smart Car.

But overall I am alright and will live to drive again.  The GMC Acadia they gave me to drive is nice, but not really my make of vehicle.  Although as far as GMCs go I think it is one of the nicer ones I have driven in.

Take a look at the pictures, one is what I looked at for about 1 hour waiting for a tow truck, the others are damage pictures after I got it to the shop.

[Mr. Analog]

Holy cow man, that's no fun!

I hope you guys are ok!!

On the plus side at least it wasn't struck by lightning

[Thorin]

Yikes, sorry your car's busted up, glad you're only feeling stiff and sore.

So you were merging towards the left, then ended up swinging your back end out to the right, and facing across traffic?

[Melbosa]

Aye, strait perpendicular to traffic flow yep!

[Darren Dirt]

Wow, glad you're okay bro. And what you said about it seeming like a longer time, I can understand that, even from my very minor scrape last year it seemed like everything slowed down during those moments, kinda freaky (almost wish we all had the power to do that in non-serious situations!) but in this case it allowed you to be able to reason through the steps you took to best handle the situation. Smart thinking, and also might I say a rather vivid and perhaps even poetic report of the whole incident, quite the writer you can be when needed young man!

[Lazybones]

Glad to hear you are all right. On several occasions i have gone perpendicular on a road, one time I recovered... The other I went into the ditch perpendicular and fortunately slid instead of rolled the vehicle.

Funny you mentioned shifting into 4wd because that is what caused one of my incidents... I was in 2wd and shifted over, however the change in wheel speed on all 4 caused a loss of traction on all 4 for a moment.

After that point I decided to never shift on the fly and instead wait till I came to a stop.

[Thorin]

Ever since I first started driving, I've been doing slides and spins in empty parking lots on purpose, every winter.  I've done it in front-wheel-drive, rear-wheel-drive, all-wheel-drive, and four-wheel-drive.  I've done it with nearly perfectly balanced cars and cars with a light rear end.  I've done it with bald tires and winter tires, with and without traction control, and with and without stability control.  I've learned three things:

1. Foot off the gas and turn the wheel to where you want to go but no further, otherwise you'll over-correct and spin the other way
2. Patience while the car corrects itself, even if you're panicked
3. Sometimes the car has gone too far and just will not correct itself; at this point, the only way you're stopping is when the slide is done or you hit something

Oh, and lesson #4: if you manage to miss both the ornamental brick wall and the giant, solid pine tree by inches, remember to breathe!

[Tom]

Glad to hear you're alright Mel!

[Melbosa]

Thx guys