Celica Forums General Discussion General Accident in 2 month old IS300 (good story)

My wife graduated with her Masters degree two weeks ago, and her sister flew in from the west coast to attend the ceremony. She and I are on our way to the graduation. About two miles from my house, a guy pulls out in front of us as we're approaching a stop light. There was a backed up line of cars in the left lane, but not in the right lane. So, as we're coasting toward the light, a car comes out from in between two cars in the left lane line to try and cross the road. Needless to say, the guy didn't look before trying this and pulled out about two car lengths ahead of me.

Going around 35 mph, there wasn't anything I could do when he stopped after I blew my horn and braked. As the anti-lock brakes did their thing, I managed to swerve to the right just enough to miss him, but that left me heading into the curb that edged the parking lot entrance he was darting across the road to get into. Car impacted the curb at probably just under 30 mph, and came to a stop up on the grass. Gave a glance in the rear view mirror and noticed the car then pass behind me. My sister-in-law said she was okay, and I turn to look out the back window to see where the car that cut me off went.

I notice the car is rounding the restaurant in the front part of the parking lot and is heading toward the exit on the other side. Without giving much thought, I shutdown the engine, and jumped out of the car to give chase. I'm about 20 yards behind the car in a full sprint wearing a shirt, tie, slacks, and dress shoes. As I get to close enough to read the plate, the car pulls out on the road on the other side of the parking lot and starts to accelerate. While running, I'm dialing 911 to get a cop on the way. The car is getting away as I chase it down the road, but the light 500 yards ahead changed to red, and the car stops, so I keep chasing.

A couple in a minivan pulls up along side of me and asks what's wrong. I explain that the car up ahead ran me off the road then took off. The guy tells me to jump in and off we go. He asks who I have on the phone, and I tell him 911 has just connected me to the local dispatcher. At this point, the man tells me he's a local police officer and to hand him the phone. He talked to the dispatcher (calling her by name) and directed her to send a unit to our location. We then followed the guy to his house, where the other unit arrived a few minutes later.

The policeman took our statements and cited the guy for failure to yield right of way. I chose not to press the issue of the running from an accident scene because the other guy was 85 years old and didn't think he did anything wrong. Yes, I was feeling nice.

After days of waiting for the insurance company to make up its mind, and to talk to my witnesses that were nice enough to stop at the scene and give my sister-in-law their phone numbers, he was found liable by the insurance company. He was still claiming to have done nothing wrong, but they decided his policy will pay for everything. They are also going to medically review his driving ability and possibly take his license.

CAR REPORT: It got finished today, but I'll see it tomorrow. The front bumper cover was scratched at the bottom, and the splash guards were messed up. The left rim was bent in the front, and both lower control arms on the suspension were bent. The rim was replaced, and the suspension parts were changed, and the car aligned perfectly. No damage at all to the unibody. The car took it pretty well, and will be good as new. They are even fixing a rock chip on the hood for free while they are at it. Total came to $1800 and took two weeks to fix. I took it to the Lexus body shop that had worked on my MR2 and Type R in the past. They do great work, and frequently work on Porsches and Ferraris when asked. Very nice facility.

It was frustrating to go through, and it made for a bad weekend. I'm feeling just fine, and the car will be just fine as well. You just hate to have that happen in a 2 month old car. My wife has also been hating the Corolla rental she got, but she'll be back in the IS soon enough.

Glad to hear that everything turned out well for you

wow. Great story. Glad it turned out well. And I understand your wife hating the Corolla. When they were doing work on my Celi last summer, I had three different Corollas and one Camry. The Camry was ok in an old fart sort of way, but I hated the Corolla. One only had 6 miles on it, and I still hated it!!

It's funny that the police officer in the mini-van was there at that time and stopped for you.

That is an incredible story man, glad everything turned out alright

Thanks. Yes, I am glad everything is okay. I'm a little nervous about seeing the car tomorrow. I've always been so picky about my cars. These guys do great work though, and did a stellar job on my other cars. But there's still that uneasiness of not knowing.

Good story

kinda freaky about the cop... i gave chase in slacks and dress shoes once... it sucks... and i didnt have to run far, some other guys in a truck chased these kids down in there truck after they stole this old womans purse... then there were a ton of cops all over this shopping area, it was crazy!

hey thats awsome and extream luck for the passerbyer to be a cop... thats just glad everything is alright... and yet another reason why people over a certain age shouldn't drive or should take some test to prove they can still drive safely..

Glad everything seems to have worked out okay. Only $1800 in damage? Geez I had over $3700 in damage when I hit a curb doing 35. Not that it really matters, since it's the other guys insurance who is paying for it.

Just happy nobody got hurt

weird story

I was surprised too. Especially with what this shop charges for labor (kind of high). I guess it's just a testament to how solid the IS is. It's build like a Lexus should be.

UPDATE:

Got the car back this weekend. Everything is perfect. They did a great job fixing it. The clearcoat on the roof is just as before. The new front bumper looks awesome. All is well again.