vistablue mustang

Oh believe me I know it was my fault, I am in no way shifting blame here. I am just saying that she was endangering her self as was the daughter for not following the proper rules of the road. I am going to fight the ticket because I don't feel the officer was sympathetic to the fact that the road was wet and it was raining, yes I should not have accelerated until i finished the curve but in my own defense this was a bend in the road and not a curve, the road was almost completely straight and everyone involved could see each other coming from their respective lanes.

keeper

I have felt your pain on this one...and because I was in a similar situation with a past vehicle without traction control...and our Stangs have it...I was just wondering....was it on...or had you disabled it?

WB05stang

I just don't understand why so many people are haveing problems with the stangs in wet weather.

I have owned two 197s and have not had any problem with either of them in the rain.. I live in the NorthWest and know rain. I turn of TC just to have some fun. I have never lost control.

Sorry to hear about your accident and hope you get it fixed.

05fordgt

For everyone reading this post. This is the exact reason to go out and purchase one of those cheap disposable cameras. The type that you give the entire thing to the developer. You keep one in your glove box, just for this reason. If there is any disputes that the police cannot record, you can take pics and have proof. In Tom's case, you could take a pic of the dogs that were on the lady's lap, and such. Just a tip. I have heard it works more than you think.

vistablue mustang

Well, got the near final word from the auto body.....Totaled, he is still looking at everything but said the frame was bent, and that he would probably have to total it I expected this but I had hope. This really sucks I am going to miss my car, and I hope I can buy another after I get the check from the insurance company. My mods I know won't be covered so I will be stripeless for months no painted rockers I doubt I will be able to get a GT out of all this, though not sure if I would want anything different then what I had. OH NO I just remembered I will have to order the car and deal with the automated voice from hell! For the record my traction control was on, as I never turn it off I guess it was working properly though at this point I will never know.

97svtgoin05gt

Chin up. You'll get a new one.

Centurion96

I think I do, and before anyone flames me please understand that I am not dissing the younger generation, they are just products of our current society.

Go look at a high school parking lot and I'll bet that the majority of the cars are front wheel drive. If you run a survey I'll be willing to wager that at least 75% of them learned how to drive with a FWD car. The handling dynamics of a FWD is a lot different than a live axle rear wheel drive, especially a high performance RWD. Here in Florida, drivers education has not been a required high school course for many many years which certainly doesn't help matters.

Usually parents like to see their kids start out with older less powerful cars as a first car and nowadays that means a FWD in most cases. Later these young adults move up to higher performance cars and some, like the Mustang are RWD, unfortunately they aren't receiving any additional training. Those of us who grew with only RWD as an option learned the necessary skills to handle these cars as part of our training. The current generation of drivers are having to learn these skills on their own and in some cases by their own mistakes.

Here's a little tidbit I learned in Emergency Vehicle Operators Certification classes years ago that applied to driving an ambulance. We were told that when transporting a patient imagine that there was a raw egg taped to both your gas and brake pedal. Then drive the vehicle while trying not to break the eggs. Paramedics like nice smooth rides when they are trying to push IVs. If we apply this to driving a pony car on wet/snowy/icy streets we should be less likely to run into things.

From the rocket ranch,

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Stoenr

+1 Rear wheel drive all my life(32) besides for 1 year, got rid of that crap quick!

theedge67

I totally agree with Centurion96 about the rwd comments. Not saying this accident was caused by a guy not knowing how to handle a rwd car, but a lot of people have forgotten or never learned how to drive one. I grew up driving an 89 Mustang 4 banger with a 5sp manual. What a perfect car to learn to drive on!! I learned how to drive with a rear wheel drive, sporty handling, manual transmission car that didn't have enough power to really get me in trouble with the law. I drove that car from 16 until 24, putting on around 150K miles. I honestly believe that if every kid learned to drive on a similar car we would have less accidents. Once you learn on a rwd car like I did, you can drive any fwd car no problem. Unfortunately it doesn't really go the other way around.

icemant180

If she didn't see you spin out, then you were rear ended. Otherwise you are 100% at fault and your ins. premiums will reflect that when you go to renew. Good Luck.

chorpeac

Whoever came up with that example should be given a raise. I used to have a few FWD cars when I was in High school. I could pound that sucker around the snow/ice/rain all over the place. When I got the first RWD Mustang, I was shocked at how much different it is. I've adapted to the driving in the difficult environment, and I think the example you give is genuine and sooo true. Good one!

wjones14

Sorry to hear about the accident man. Glad no one was hurt badly. Here are my thoughts:

1) I'd personally be glad the thing is totalled. If it got hit a little less hard and the frame was not bent, your car would have been full of bondo if they fixed it. And no matter how good the body shop is, in my experience, a repaired car can never be quite the same as it was. A human just cannot paint with the precision of the robots for one thing. And, often other parts are damaged in the accident that you just don't know about - for example one minor parking lot accident I was in years ago, the battery died 6 months later, and it was due to the accident because the battery got a hairline crack that you couldn't really see.

2) I guess the V6 models don't have Traction Control? TC might have saved you. Buy the GT as a replacement and get TC. But, I will say that even with TC on, the car can still get a bit out of control in the wet. There's an uphill highway on-ramp near me, (where I love to get on the throttle hard because (1) it's legal, and (2) up hill separates the wannabes from the real torquey cars like Mustang - a WRX or the like cannot pull with a Mustang accelerating up a hill). Anyway, this uphill ramp is straight, but when it's at all wet, you just can't floor the Mustang in 2nd gear even with the TC on, because it will just start fishtailing. The Traction Control will minimize it some, but if you're not careful and you keep the throttle floored, you will spin out.

3) The posters trying to shift blame to the woman are loyal to our forum as they should be - always take the side of the Mustang owner/driver when in doubt - but you have to be real here. And there's little doubt. The Mustang spun completely out of control and ended up in the other lane. The woman driver can't be charged with following to closely, because she wasn't following. It was something she couldn't anticipate. Could she have avoided it without the distraction of dogs, kids, cellphone, etc.? Maybe, but it's really irrelevent. Taking a pic of the dogs etc. with a cellphone wouldn't hurt by any means, but it would be pretty hard to get out of responsibility when you're stopped in the wrong lane.

dapmustang

It’s called “contributory negligence�. There can be a split in responsibility here. Certainly, your ending up her lane was a big factor. But if the “reasonably prudent� driver, driving as the conditions called for, and undistracted by dogs or whatever could have avoided the collision, then the outcome would have been different, even though you were in her lane. You need to push for “shared responsibility�. You’re probably going to be tagged with 50%+, but maybe less than 100%.

This applied to me at one time. Another van entered an intersection without the right of way. The car in front of me stopped to avoid a collision, but I hit that car. The van that first entered in intersection had no contact with either car.

Because the van driver’s actions set in motion events that led to my rear-ending the car ahead of me, I was only tagged with 50% fault, and the van was tagged with 50% fault. My rates didn’t go up because it was not a 100% at fault incident.

Worth a pursuit.

Centurion96

Actually no. Please go back and re-read his posts. He stated that he spun out and crossed the median hitting the opposite curb with his wheels. He was then hit by the van 4 to 5 seconds later while it was trying to brake. They were both driving in the same weather conditions that caused the Mustang driver to lose control. The woman was driving a vehicle that has a worse front to rear weight ratio than the mustang so it probably slid on the wet pavement as well. We don't know if there were escape routes to the left or right as we weren't told how many other vehicles were on the road at that time. What we do know by the Mustang owners statement is that it was raining bad which probably reduced visibility. We do know she was braking and the reason was, that a Mustang just appeared in front of her.

He could have been written up for: 1. Failing to have vehicle under control. 2. Obstructing traffic. 3. Failing to operate a vehicle in a safe manner. 4. Failing to yield right-of-way. 5. Driving a vehicle above current conditions. Please understand that the dogs did not cause the Mustang to lose control. The girl sitting in the van without a seatbelt did not cause the Mustang to lose control and it was in fact the Mustang losing control which caused this collision. Should the woman be cited for the dogs in her lap? That's a subjective call and I don't think the officer would cite her, as was the case. Should the woman be cited for her daughter not wearing a seat belt? Yes, that is in direct violation of the law but it didn't contribute to the collision. Unfortunately there would have to be an admission of guilt or a third party not from either vehicle who witnessed the unbelted passenger and would give a statement before the woman could be charged with that infraction. As I see it, this is what will be presented in court and I don't see anything that that will change a judge's mind. The citing officer did not witness the collision so he doesn't have to be present. This leaves it as "He Said, She Said" and the Mustang losing control DID cause this chain of events.

Sorry, just pay the careless driving fine and let it go at that, it could have been worse. These are my personal opinions from over 17 years of responding to traffic collisions as a volunteer firefighter and having to provide testimony in many of these incidents due to being the senior fire officer on the scene.

From the rocket ranch

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vistablue mustang

appreciate all the feedback guys, I should have been more careful though I still don't consider 30MPH very fast for what I was doing but I can only be angry because no one was hurt that is whats important, visibility was good the road was wet and there was standing water in the road that had accumulated, but the rain had stopped; she seen me spin out but just could not react fast enough, it would not have happened if the road was dry. I only really fault the woman for driving with the dogs as this is distracting and the girl for not wearing a seatbelt as my main concern is everyone involved walking away with no major injuries, and both of these factors could have caused both a worse end result and possibly an accident on it's own. I actually have had nothing but rear wheel drive cars (at least I believe so) my first car was a 1992 Mercury Gran Marquee after that I had a 2003 Toyota Tacoma that I know was rear wheel drive the main difference was the Mercury was alot bigger and thus I drove it differently, and the truck was just that. I just should not have put my foot back on the gas until after the bend. Needless to say it's a lesson I won't soon forget.

05fordgt

Bill, 2006 V6 Pony Package models came with T/C & ABS. It was part of the pony package. His car had it. Just didn't do enough to keep the spin from being uncontrollable. Good thing he wasn't hurt, as cars can always be replaced.

Centurion96

I for one appreciate you candor, honesty, and the maturity you displayed in accepting responsibility. I'm glad that nobody was seriously injured.

From the rocket ranch

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Rebel73

Doubtful...perhaps a "contributory negligence" decision is attainable, but even that is doubtful.

Rebel73

Oh BTW, guys, there is a lesson to be learned from this. Get ACCESSORY insurance! That way you can recover, at least to some degree, your expenses for mods. Keep in mind that insurance carriers will only cover "current market value" of a stock vehicle. They don't care about your goodies unless you specifically request coverage for them. Sure, it will cost a little more, but worth it for the peace of mind, IMHO. I'd get to plunk down 6K for a blower just to have it trashed in a wreck...

HiRoller

It really doesn't matter. New Jersey is a "no fault" state. A lot of insurance Companies won't even write policies here.