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Don't remove your airbag module... pics and video.

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Zack Huffman

DSM Wiseman
3,595
254
Jan 13, 2006
Clarksburg, West_Virginia
So here's the story:

I was traveling home to Morgantown WV from my in-laws farm on a rural road, -Rt 7 outside of Blacksville WV for anyone familiar with the area, with my almost 3 year old son in his car seat in the back. I was driving about 5 mph over the speed limit of 25, and began accelerating slowly as I exited the bridge just outside of town where the speed limit becomes 55 mph.

Here's a short video my wife took tonight of the location going in the same direction I was traveling at roughly the same speed I was going.
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In the video you can see towards the end that there is an intersection with Rt 218 to the right, and that there is a stop sign for traffic coming from that direction. You might also notice the gravel parking lot on the left side immediately after the intersection.

Here's what happened.
I came across the bridge in the video and saw a white SUV approaching the intersection and stop sign. I was slowly accelerating for the upcoming speed limit change and the little hill I was about to climb.

The white SUV coasted through the stop sign and onto Rt 7 (road I was on) with me about 50 or so feet away. In a split second I determined that there was not enough room for me to slow the car enough from the 35-40ish mph I was going, and avoid rear ending the SUV. So I swerved into the left lane since there were no cars approaching from the other direction and I was in a legal passing zone.

I paused briefly but then resumed my slow acceleration. Just as my front bumper became even with the rear of the white SUV, the other driver turned left towards the gravel parking lot of the local bar, without signaling, and I swerved further left putting two wheels into the gravel of the parking lot. The other driver did not slow and continued to turn directly into my only available path.

I collided with the driver's side headlight of their car and it shoved the other two wheels of my car into the gravel while under my now very heavy braking. I had enough time to correct the gravel throwing slide of my car only slightly. My doing so most likely saved my son's life as I brought the passenger side around enough to not hit the utility pole directly with the side of the car. I don't remember much after that other than the double barrel shotgun blast of the airbag in my face and chest. I had impacted the utility pole just inboard of the passenger side headlight, there was also a lighted sign that was pseudo-vaporized at the same instant that my life was being saved by the airbag.

The pole was sheared off and there was debris everywhere. I stumbled out of the car and sprinted to the passenger side of the car where my son was screaming and crying, reaching his tiny little arms out for me to pick him from his booster seat. I quickly inspected him for injury and then reached through the shattered passenger side window and pulled him free. There was gasoline and oil everywhere and the engine was hot, so I hurried to get the two of us away from the smoking, hissing and mortally wounded Talon.

If you watch the youtube video above once again, you can see that there is already a brand spankin' new telephone pole in place of the one I hit.

EMS arrived within a few minutes and checked us both out. No real injuries to speak of. My son was unscathed and I got away with a small cut on my neck, a nasty bruise over my waist from the lap belt and a numb tingling in my face and chest from the airbag.

My wife was following about 15 minutes behind us in her car with my daughter. I stood by the road so she would see me, and I became witness to a woman having an epic melt down. When she saw my son's blue car seat on the ground that one of the bar patrons had pulled from the heap that my Talon had become, she even tried to exit her vehicle while it was still moving to get to her little baby boy. She was as shaken as I was.

The state trooper was very polite and personable, and he decided to cite both drivers for "failure to use due care" which I believe I might have deserved since I had been about 10mph over the limit at the moment of the initial contact.

Now, on to the carnage:

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My toolbox and all of my tools were in the hatch. After seeing how destroyed the toolbox was, I felt very lucky that it didn't find a way to hurdle the rear seat and hit my son. Here's the toolbox, and you can also see the remains of the K&N filter that I pulled out from underneath the battery tray when I removed the battery today.

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Glad you and your son are allright, that is most important. Sorry to hear about the Talon. I was involved in an accident a couple weeks ago where my current DD (not the Talon) was totalled. The other driver pulled out in front of me and I collided with her drivers door, I had nowhere to go. I have been even more cautious since. Still trying to get everything settled with the insurance. Good luck to you.

Edit: Really glad your okay after seeing the pics! Thats a shame.
 
Here's a few more pics.

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I would have dragged the other person out of the vehicle and proceed to beat them to near death. If I had a kid and he/she was injured, that person would be dead.
 
See kiddo's, that's why you use t-bolt clamps, your FMIC can get ripped off, and they still hold!


Kidding aside, I'm glad you and your family came out okay, looks like a mess!
 
Wow! Glad your okay.

Driving dump truck haulin some serious ass people like to pull out in front of me. I want to kill them sometimes becuase they dont realize that I have alot more power than them and can accelerate just as fast as they do normally but I cant stop too fast.

Idiots.
 
damn dude, glad you and your son are ok, thats what matters. Sorry to hear about this though. :( Hope things get better for you bro, you know finding another car now and stuff.
 
Thanks for the concern everyone. I'm dissappointed about the car for sure, but I'm just glad nobody was seriously injured. I can always find another car. Open to suggestions there if anyone wants to reccommend something, I'm sorta favoring the idea of an STI, just not the new body style.
 
The bumper support would not likely have done a lot of good if it were there. Sure it probably wouldn't have hurt having the extra reinforcement, but after all it's still just a piece of dense plastic. The impact was enough to break the transmission mount off of the trans and bend the frame rail about a foot to the side. I would have had to hack the crap out of the bumper support to fit the FMIC in anyway, so I decided to just leave it off.
 
Damn bro that sucks ! Good to hear you and your son are alright, that's what matters.
 
WOW glad tohear everyone was ok after that mess. What was the other guys excuse for not seeing you? Was he drunk, blind, or both?
 
Wow! Glad to hear you and your son were okay. I can't imagine the horror you went through trying to get your son out of the car at his age.

RIP Talon.
 
Thanks for the concern everyone. I'm dissappointed about the car for sure, but I'm just glad nobody was seriously injured. I can always find another car. Open to suggestions there if anyone wants to reccommend something, I'm sorta favoring the idea of an STI, just not the new body style.

No problem man, I would be disappointed about the car too, but hey material can always be replaced, not you nor your son. Really glad both of you are ok.

The STI idea sounds like fun ;)
Wow! Glad to hear you and your son were okay. I can't imagine the horror you went through trying to get your son out of the car at his age.

RIP Talon.

I can't imagine it neither :(
 
I would have dragged the other person out of the vehicle and proceed to beat them to near death. If I had a kid and he/she was injured, that person would be dead.

^^I think there are some of us that would do the same. Especially when the person is heading to a bar. Glad you guys are ok though.
 
WOW glad tohear everyone was ok after that mess. What was the other guys excuse for not seeing you? Was he drunk, blind, or both?

The other driver was a female who appeared to be roughly 40-50 years old. She had two other women of about the same age in her white 2005 Isuzu Ascender. She had recently bought the vehicle, because it still had a valid temporary license plate.
Looked like this except white:
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The only damage I saw to her vehicle was a broken driver's side headlight and a small amount of black paint transferred just below the outside edge of the headlight on the fender and bumper. Yet her vehicle got the flatbed, and mine just got a rickety looking dolly under the rear wheels. Not that it mattered with the shape the Talon was in, but still, a flatbed for a busted headlight?

I suspect that she had pre-gamed a little before heading out to the bar. I thought I could smell alcohol on her, but it could easily have been coming from the bar or someone who came out of the bar to see WTF happened. -Because the utility pole damage killed the electricity and phone in the bar, so naturally everyone walked outside.- But alas, the trooper did not ask her to take a field sobriety or breathalyzer, so we'll never know.

The time the trooper wrote on his report that I saw briefly while he interviewed me was 20:38, so it was still plenty light enough to see outside, but it had been close enough to dark that I was driving with my parking lights on. I seriously doubt she didn't see me or at least hear me. I also had a somewhat audible catless 3" TBE warning of my imminent arrival.

So many drivers these days have a careless carefree attitude, but they're also not usually the ones who end up paying the price. Especially if they drive hugeass SUVs that can crush or literally brush most smaller vehicles from the roadway without sustaining much damage or much risk to their driver. It's always the other guy who gets hurt. Not the "text-while-driving" distracted teen or the "ladies night out" drunk.
 
I'm very glad both of you got out of that disaster with just bumps and bruises. It looks like your car did very well absorbing the impact, considering a Titanic smashed into you. There's absolutely nothing I fear more than SUV's on the road with careless drivers behind the wheel.
 
I'm sorry this happened to you and your son. All the accidents I've ever been in were caused by careless and/or drunk drivers smashing into me. You have to be really careful out there on those roads. Your Talon may be totalled but it did it's job.
 
I love that my car has dual airbags, and my mom does too heh.. but she still wants me to install a rollcage

glad you ok, sorry to see your car like that.. part out?

Did you remove the bumper to install an intercooler? If so I wonder if that would have saved the car.. probably not
 
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