[tabrink]

I  am by hook or crook an avid motorcyclist who begrudgingly becomes  a cager only out of weather necessity. I have been working at an underground facility about 2.5 hours away. Beautiful twisty Ozark roads to and fro.  Well it is winter in the midwest so during times of icy, bitter cold conditions I just hop in my little and sporty Chevy Volt for those trips out of comfort and safety. So last Tuesday night after spending about 15 hours underground where it is always 60 degrees I drove up to the surface and woe an beholding it was a dark and icy winter night. My first thought was to get a motel room. But driving to my usual motel the Volt was really doing so well (kinda fun as well)  I drove on by and headed to the lake house which is closer than my city house. Thirty minutes into this commute I knew I had made a bad choice. Long story short my usual 2.5 hour commute took about 6 hours with many 15 mph turns. Well the interesting thing about the geography of my home lake is that like a lot of man made lakes they put them at the bottom of a valley for obvious reasons. It was quite a lot of "pucker time" to get down to the bottom of my valley and I was relieved to get to the road to my lake home. In a moment of elation I stopped to take this whole victory ride into perspective and considered kissing the ground next to my shiny little silver Volt. A I was getting ready to park in the upper yard and walk down my drive to the house (way too steep to drive) The Volt started moving, fast and in park! If felt like 800 mph and turning the wheel or pumping the brakes was not going to make any difference as this Volt was on a mission to ice skate. As the three car garage got bigger and bigger I knew my fate was already etched in stone. I was going to crash into the garage where there sat my bass boat, my wife's pristine SUV or my 4 shiney and classic motorcycles.
This is where the rubber met the road. Recently on my house build I had put 8" drains around the house and garage to carry the rain from the top of the hill around them and not under them. Because of the cold spell This drain ditch was only filled with gravel and not poured in concrete.  As I hurtled toward the garage it was obvious I was going to hit the middle door at probably 25 mph and take out 4 shiney classic motorcycles. Really bad but not as bad as trashing my brides shiney lake vehicle.
This is where it becomes a boat story. As I crossed the drain gravel my steering wheel which was locked trying to steer around the garage caught the gravel and sharply threw to the right the Volt  and through the garage door crashing into the shiney boat striking the front of the trailer. I might add that at the top of the hill I had unbuckled my seat belt to walk down the driveway.
This bullseye on the trailer tongue catapulted my boat through the side of the garage and left it hanging 5' off the ground. I think I pretty well cleaned the interior of my Volt bouncing around like a rubber ball.
That would be the conclusion of my car, bike and boat story and how I was able to file a claim on my auto, homeowners and boat insurance policies in one day..
Thanks for looking.

[Scott F.]

Dude, that sucks Glad you didn't get hurt and thank goodness for insurance

[Peter J]

Holy smokes, tabrink, that's a helluva ride. Happy to see you're takin' it in stride.

As I read your story, I was flashing back to accidents I've been involved in. I swear there is no more helpless feeling than when sliding uncontrollably on ice. Brain is cranking at 90, but the whole event seems to evolve in some kind of gushing slow motion. The thing I remember most is the noise, crashing, banging and then once things have come to a stop, momentarily ( and perhaps hopefully) questioning whether it really happened. Was that a dream?

Glad to hear you're not injured. I swear my heart rate went up a few clicks reading it. I imagine yours was zinging!

[tabrink]

Peter,
What I actually omitted was that I was partially getting out of the car and it was kind of dragging my foot sideways and i was able to yank it back into the car (BEFORE the door slammed).  And yes it was kind of shocking at first now that I had a  few days to ponder. But they have come and drug off the car and repairs are started so the realization hit that accidents happen so rapidly that this outcome was not life changing other than I will never let that happen again.  If you add this close call and the fact that I have all of my fingers after 26 months of house building and thousands of cuts with a plethora of sharp tools,  I had better run out and buy a Lottery Ticket! 
And hopefully those who read my saga will never let that happen to them as well.
Thanks for looking.
Tom

[mcgsxr]

Firstly glad to hear you are ok. Scary story indeed!

As a recovering motorcyclist (owned 32 over a 12 year period earlier in life I am glad the bikes were missed.  I would love to see some pics of those once all gets back to normal. 

Be safe.  Spin the tunes!

[tabrink]

Firstly glad to hear you are ok. Scary story indeed!

As a recovering motorcyclist (owned 32 over a 12 year period earlier in life I am glad the bikes were missed.  I would love to see some pics of those once all gets back to normal. 

Be safe.  Spin the tunes!

mcgsxr,

Some of the bikes are shown in Steve's thread:



       http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=139824.msg1490068#msg1490068

[mcgsxr]

Right, I saw those - and even commented!  Would be good if my memory were better apparently.

Love that Dr John piece in that thread!

[SteveFord]

You talked me into it, I'm never buying a Volt, they sound treacherous!

[tabrink]

You talked me into it, I'm never buying a Volt, they sound treacherous!

Oh man! Volts are really fun frustratingly expensive cars. It is just that this Volt owner is certifiably about three bricks short of a full load! 

[SteveFord]

What were you doing underground? 

[tabrink]

What were you doing underground?

I build critical mission data centers..Big hardened bombproof mission critical facilities that harbor servers, main frames dasd etc.
Underground saves the above ground hardening and reduces the $ cost psf significantly. Now dust and diesel fuel storage.. now that is whole other discussion. 

[Peter J]

And now the left field question. What was the boat/motor? I used to be in the boat biz, but don't own a boat anymore. If I lived on a lake though, that'd have to change!

[sonicboom]

Sorry to hear about your mishap, but I'm glad that you came out of it unscathed - aside from your feelings perhaps. Material things are replaceable, so in the grand scheme of things all is, or will be good again. Not knowing your particular situation and conditions ie. steepness of  grade, attitude of the car etc., I'm sure the low rolling resistance tires on the Volt didn't help the situation (i'm assuming the stock tires were on the car). I think that winter ice & snow tires are very important for cars in the northern climates. I am not saying for certain that if you had dedicated winter tires on the car this wouldn't have happened - of course no one can know that. What I am trying to convey is that the difference between all-weather and winter tires in sh*ty conditions is usually quite large.

I'm in the Northeast US and wear dedicated winter tires from November to March. IMO this is a must. I would rather drive a RWD car with winter tires in ice/snow conditions, than an AWD SUV with all-weather rubber.

Looks like you got a cool job. Out of curiosity, how deep underground are those data centers built?

[playntheblues]

Funny story, glad you were not hurt. 

[tabrink]

Sorry to hear about your mishap, but I'm glad that you came out of it unscathed - aside from your feelings perhaps. Material things are replaceable, so in the grand scheme of things all is, or will be good again. Not knowing your particular situation and conditions ie. steepness of  grade, attitude of the car etc., I'm sure the low rolling resistance tires on the Volt didn't help the situation (i'm assuming the stock tires were on the car). I think that winter ice & snow tires are very important for cars in the northern climates. I am not saying for certain that if you had dedicated winter tires on the car this wouldn't have happened - of course no one can know that. What I am trying to convey is that the difference between all-weather and winter tires in sh*ty conditions is usually quite large.

I'm in the Northeast US and wear dedicated winter tires from November to March. IMO this is a must. I would rather drive a RWD car with winter tires in ice/snow conditions, than an AWD SUV with all-weather rubber.

Looks like you got a cool job. Out of curiosity, how deep underground are those data centers built?

Typically 70-150 ft.
Many have many miles of roadways. Some host marathons and some store cheeze.

[tabrink]

And now the left field question. What was the boat/motor? I used to be in the boat biz, but don't own a boat anymore. If I lived on a lake though, that'd have to change!

Peter,
It is a 20' Tracker TX 190 with a 90 HP (gas sipper) Merc.

[tabrink]

Peter,
It is a 20' Tracker TX 190 with a 90 HP (gas sipper) Merc.

Peter we drug the boat out of the garage wall today! Makes me so happy! Damage is what damage is. Somehow the garage looks better with a hole and not a boat hanging.