My wife and I own two cars....she has a '96 Saturn SL2 and I have an '01 Ford Focus ZX3. The Saturn has 130,000 miles on it, so we decided to trade it in for a leftover '02 Saturn SL2, which we were supposed to pick up today.

My wife went to her bartending job last night, and took the Focus, since I wasn't going out and it was the better car. She left her job about 12:30 AM and headed home up the Taconic Parkway, a two lane, unlit, deer-infested road. It was snowing when she left and quickly got heavy. There was at least a half inch on the road. Well....she came to a particularly wicked turn on teh parkway and hit a patch of black ice. Mr. Focus, meet Mr. Guardrail.

When the smoke cleared, luckily my wife walked away without a scratch. The Focus, however, wasn't so lucky. Both airbags deployed, the front windshield was shattered, the front bumper torn off, the driver's side fender crushed and the driver's side front wheel driven back six inches into the door. Then to add insult to injury, the cop on the scene GIVES MY WIFE A SPEEDING TICKET!!!! He wasn't even there when the accident happened, but he said state law requires it. I asked him, "Do you mean that besides having to buy a new car and our insurance going up, I have to pay a ticket also?" Then this miserable prick says, right in front of my visibly shaken and crying wife, "Well, she shouldn't have been going so fast. Now because of her I have to risk my life standing out here." It was all I could do not to grab him by the throat and scream "It's your f**king JOB to be out here asshole...one that MY taxes are paying you for!" What a miserable moron. I could imagine if he was at the Trade Center on 9/11, he would have run the other way. Needless to say, we're fighting that ticket.

Now, we can't trade in the old Saturn yet because I need a car to drive. We picked up her new car, and now are faced with hoping and praying that the insurance company will total the car out so we can get me a new one. If not, I'll have to drive the Focus repaired, which anyone who knows anything about frame damage on cars knows..they never ride the same way.

So........to sum it all up.....SNOW SUCKS!!!!! :grrr::mad::grrr:

Oh yea.....take a look.....

Your car doesn't look nearly as bad as our deceased Civic did...so I've heard.

It like totally sucks in all that you have to pay a ticket too. But just be glad that both of the airbags went off...cuz in my mom's accident only the passenger side air bag went off!!! If both airbags went off...I wouldn't be Cinderella.

Well, I know it is upsetting to have a wrecked car (believe me, I can identify!), but be thankful your wife is fine. Cars can always be replaced, people can't.

As far as the ticket, that is total b.s.! I would definately fight it! Hopefully things will work out for the both of you. :)

Sorry to hear about the car, but at least your wife is OK :) Police I tell ya :rolleyes: What a bunch of winners :lol: They would have had a field day up here with all the accidents from Sunday night/Monday mornings snowstorm. We ended up with about a foot of "The White Death" after all was said and done. :mad: On top of that it was friggin' cold last night. We have a new record low for Dec. 3...........-20 degrees fahrenheit :eek:


I agree SNOW SUCKS!!!!!!! :hammer:

Good luck with the insurance company :)

That does suck Pagan, but I'm glad that your wife is ok. I would be thanking a God right now, but there isn't one for driving :p


And maybe its cause I was born dead smack in the center of the Carribbean, but I LOVE SNOW :D :lol: :p
But I am pissed that it hasn't snowed in the city, you people upstate have all the fun :p :mwaha:

And there's also the bit about the cold having no effect on me whatsoever :lol: I went out in shorts this morning to get breakfast... my mom looked at me if I was crazy :laugh:

Ooooh! I know how you feel, Pagan. It's a good thing that Laura didn't get hurt. The ticket for speeding is total BS though. Any body that has driven on black ice knows that you don't have to be going fast to get into a slide and out of control. I had an accident when I lived in Chicago, I hit a patch of black ice as I was slowing for a stop light (15MPH tops), crossed the center line of the road (pumping the brakes & turning the steering wheel)....NOTHING DOING!....I slapped the side of a car coming the opposite way and bounced off of him and ended up hitting the curb.....on MY side of the street. My 76 Chevy Blazer came out of it with minor damage, but the other guys bondoed car looked like plaster fell off the side of his car. :lol:

Hope everything works out for the best!

Oh ahh.....there's no snow here in Florida!:D

Gosh that's a nasty one Pagan, new cars seem to be easily written-off concidering the price of replacement plastic fenders etc, That dislodged front wheel looks like a nightmare to repair also.
My parents have told me all about the dangers of 'black ice' when they travelled around the world. I can imagine it would be near imposible to retain control if you hit a patch of it, regardless of what speed you're doing - that's why that speeding ticket is surely not justified. I've seen footage on those mad traffic shows on TV with huge cargo vehicles (that drive slow and weigh about zillion tons) sliding all over the place on black ice as if driving on a skating rink, are they going to give them a speeding ticket too?

I'm glad the wifes ok though! Crikey!

I am sorry to hear about your bad luck Pagan.
I am glad though that your wife is okay.

I bet you really wanted to hit that cop :lol:

Wow, that really sucks. Cops can be such dicks....

That`s really a stamp in the sh*t!

My neighbour, a policeman came just along when I laid on my back in the way to his house, with a cheese bread in my left hand and in the other a backpack.
My bike with the broken (! yes a broken saddle) did his way allone in the grass.
All he did was shaking his head, my luck! (and the other thing too)

Originally posted by Pagan
Oh yea.....take a look.....

Damn that really sucks, my husband is also a Focus owner...By any chance have you been to www.focaljet.com ? That is a website for FOcus owners and enthusiasts.. The forums there are great and lots of people there to help awnser questions and a great place to rant or brag about your car.. Did you by chance get another Focus after the accident?

Originally posted by Tydestra

But I am pissed that it hasn't snowed in the city, you people upstate have all the fun :p :mwaha:

Ty, why don't you move up to Buffalo, then go slip sliding in the snow and ice for a few months, then you'll probably change your mind. :p

Pagan, I'm sorry to hear about your Focus. But as Stacy said cars can be replaced, but the people you love can't. I'm so glad your wife is fine.
I life in Buffalo and I think the snow sucks. Why do I live here then, well, I'm a glutten for punishment. :lol:

Originally posted by Fellisa


Damn that really sucks, my husband is also a Focus owner...By any chance have you been to www.focaljet.com ? That is a website for FOcus owners and enthusiasts.. The forums there are great and lots of people there to help awnser questions and a great place to rant or brag about your car.. Did you by chance get another Focus after the accident?

I've been to that site Fellisa, I dug the hell out of it! As for getting another Focus, not a chance. The accident just happened last night, and we're now finding out that the Focus has a horrible resale value. We bought it last year for $15,000, and the Kelly Bluebook value is only $7,500!!!!! Even if the insurance totals it, ther's no way they'll give us the $12,000 we still owe on it. In short, we're f**ked.

I was going to get a sweet Cranberry colored Saturn sport coupe. Loaded with leather interior for only $14,900....but now it seems I may have no choice but to let them repair the Focus and drive the crooked thing around. :bigcry:

Thank you all for the well wishes for Laura. Had she been hurt, I would have cared less about getting another car. But we're "protected" in that aspect, so she came out without a scratch. ;)

I know all about that "protection" first hand :D Great to hear of it working well in these instances ;)

Sucks about the car though...it has my sympathies :laugh: I'm totally with ya on the subject at hand....snow definitely does suck :hammer::p

I hope ya win in your fight against the ticket...then ya can stick it up that assclown's arse :p

I'm really glad Laura is okay, Pagan. :) Apparently Someone was watching over her. Thank Goodness!

As for the car....I can totally sympathize! If I had a scanner I'd show you what this idiot did to my Neon, when it was only a year old. #9,100 worth of damage on a car I paid $15,000 for. And they didn't total the car. IDIOTS!!!

:lol: I still like the snow :p I've been to places with lots of snow before Molly. 2 yrs ago I was stuck up in Catskill for about 2 months during the winter with my 'rents and they hated it. I'm one of those people... that likes looking at their fingers and seeing them blue from how cold it is :laugh:

Pagan, I'm glad your wife is ok, but the thing with the car totally sucks. Don't give in to the insurance co. until you get what you want. That's why you've paid the premiums all those years.

I recently had a fender-bender and my insurance co. wanted to total my car. That was horrible for me since the car is almost paid off and we were about to have no car payment for the first time in 10 years or so. We gave them holy hell until they listened to us and started being reasonable. I still have to pay my deductible, but I get to keep my car!

Also, the "blue book" value doesn't really matter to the insurance co., it's the wholesale value they base their estimates on.

Glad to hear your wife is ok after that. Sorry bout the car though. Sure things will work out ok in the end.

Wow..just read this. Thank God Laura's ok. That officer shouldn't have said what he did and how he said it. He gives the others a bad name ..not all are like that..(I'm a cop's kid remember :)) I'd fight that ticket also. Good luck.

Wow Pagan, that sucks. I'm glad your wife is OK.

The speeding ticket is total bull, good luck sticking it to them!

I too hate snow.I have the pleasure of living in the freakin snow belt and been dealing with lake effect snow for along time.The worst thing about driving in snow is around the holidays when these out of state drivers who come from places that don't get snow and don't have a clue in hell how to drive in it,clog up the roadways.I've been in more accidents that were not my fault,because of these freakin people.

As far as the speeding ticket goes,that just freakin sucks.

Pagan I also am glad your wife is ok ,I am down here in the sunshine state where Sarge is so no snow and its about 70* here nice breeze (man I love Fla except for the fireants and skeeters)

******warning next paragraph not a slam or flame or mean spirited in any way,it's just a comment****

as for the ticket I don't know how NY laws is but here(Fla) they have a law that says you must be in control of you vehicle at all times (sort of a get you anyway ya look at it law) I would think the ticket would have been "failure to maintain control"not speeding. I WOULD STILL take it to court. just out of curiosity was it state hwy patrol or county or municipal (state is usually more tough on situations) ,my brother is a cop so I guess I look at it from both sides ,but in my opinion he was not acting in a professional manner to say what he said .

now for my next question- and ya'll don't laugh WHAT is black ice
frozen oil????on the road .most we have to deal with here is hydroplaning on water when it rains

:eek: Sorry to hear about this Pagan, but I'm sure glad Laura's OK. Good luck dealing with insurance on this, and the ticket. That is just so wrong.:mad:

****
Shipwreck: Black ice is a thin layer of ice that forms on roads, especially around bridges and overpasses. It is very smooth so it's clear and so it just looks like regular black road so drivers don't know it's there until they lose control.

I hate snow alot. I almost wiped out today. I guess I was going to fast down a small hill, started sliding and skidding and was turning around doing a 180 and almost went down a hill. I just stopped at the edge of it, my front of the car almost hanging down it, wow, that was scary.

I'm sorry to hear hear what your wife had to endure, but at least she is fine.

Don't know how the cops came up with the speeding ticket or saying it was mandatory . I know here they say you can still get a speeding ticket if the weather is poor and you are driving too fast for the weather, maybe the law is if you have an accident, they claim you were going to fast for the conditions.. thats sucks

Yeah I know a little about driving in the snow and it sucks, even if you are an experienced driver....... do you guys use winter tires or all season radials?, how far south do you have to live just to have summer tires year round?

Cal, we use all season radials. There hasn't been much snow the past few years in NY, so we got kind of spoiled. I think we'll be getting paid back for that this year though. There's been three snowfalls already.

*UPDATE*

Don't ask me how, but me & Laura came out of this smelling like roses!

The insurance company ended up giving us almost the full amount of what we owed Ford Credit. We only had to come up with $1,500. My mother-in-law, happy as all hell that Laura was uninjured, gave us the money. So that washed out the Ford.

We went to Saturn to pick up a car for my wife, and traded in our '96 Saturn. Since I now needed a car myself, the guy was more than happy to cut us a deal for two cars. I wanted my wife's car to have anti-lock brakes and traction control, (for obvious reasons!) so we looked at some leftover 2002 "S" series Saturns. We ended up getting her a top of the line SL2 Sedan, black with silver flake paint, grey interior and a CD player, for $13,100. :D

Then he showed me mine....a 2002 SC2 Sport Coupe, the one with the 3rd "suicide door" on the driver's side. Cranberry paint with silver pinstriping, fully loaded, power windows, locks, alarm, moonroof, rear spoiler, CD player, alloy wheels, and leather interior. The car was on the showroom floor and had never been driven, when I got in the odometer said "3". I almost wet myself. It was listed for $17,500, but he gave it to me for $14,995. I almost died!

So, from the gaping mouth of tradegy we manage to pull ourselves out of it with no injury to my wife, and two brand new cars to boot. And people say this isn't a great country? :rolleyes: You just have to remember the old saying, when life hands you lemons.....make some f**king lemonade!

Oh, I'm sooooo glad things worked out for you and Laura, Pagan. That lemonade must taste sooooo good right now. :D

Glad to hear everything worked out well for you and your wife, Pagan. :thumb::)

I'm very glad to hear that everything worked out well, Pagan! And I'm also glad Laura wasn't injured.

:thumb: That's so sweet!!! And you forgot to thank the snow, see... the snow was a minor player in all of this :p

Sorry to hear about your car, Pagan. :( But at least the wife is okay, thank god. As for the ticket, fight that all the way! That cop sounds like a bloody wanker.

Maybe you are interrested in a nice used one from a german Mercedes-benz dealer?
Shipping to the east-coast is about 1000.- USD and it takes one month. Should be a good deal!