bad accident...need help with a few questions.

gtpr · #1 07-01-2007, 11:20 AM

On june 5th, me and my girl got into a horrible accident in our 98 grand prix gtp. i dont remember anything about the accident due to head injuries and I dont understand how the car wrecked.
We were driving down a streight strech of the road about a mile from our house when the car suddenly swerved to the right and into 2 huge pine trees that were about 5 feet into the ditch. the car flipped end over end 4 times and landed in the middle of the road on fire. We were both ejected out of the car due to not having seatbelts on and I went through the winshield of the car.
I cant for the life of me remember what happend. I have no idea why the car just cranked right and put us in the trees. I went to the accident scene a couple days ago and about 30 feet before we went into the trees there are 3 scrapes in the pavement were the passenger tire would have been normaly riding down the road and they angle to the right into the trees were we hit.
I know that the sway bar was broke prior to the accident on the passenger side of the car. It was broke right by were it tappers down and bolts to the a-arm. right before the tapper.. My question is could of that sway bar caused this accident?
The car is destroyed and there is no way i can tell what broke prior to the accident........Any info you guys might have would be greatly appreciated. thank you.
Al

GTP Dad · #2 07-01-2007, 02:02 PM

Welcome to AF!! Sorry to hear about your misfortune. As for your accident I seriously doubt that the sway bar had anything to do with the cause of your accident. It sounds like the front tire blew out or you had a tie rod end break and cause the loss of steering control. The tire is probably the cause since you had rim marks on the pavement.

I hope you recover from your injuries and that you have no lasting effects.

gtpr · #3 07-01-2007, 02:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GTP Dad

Welcome to AF!! Sorry to hear about your misfortune. As for your accident I seriously doubt that the sway bar had anything to do with the cause of your accident. It sounds like the front tire blew out or you had a tie rod end break and cause the loss of steering control. The tire is probably the cause since you had rim marks on the pavement.

I hope you recover from your injuries and that you have no lasting effects.

thanks for replying..

The tires were bought brand new 4 hours before the accident and they all still hold air believe it or not. 3 of them were ripped off the car though. The tire rod end is a possiblity, but there was not any stress on it at the time of the accident. the road was completely streight.

I am just stumped as to why the car cranked right into the trees.

bricker82 · #4 07-02-2007, 01:14 AM

Wow. I hope you two are going to be ok.

Maybe the shop didn't mount and/or balance correctly. Mostly mount obviously. That's my guess.

You don't need any "advice", but I wish you two woulda had your seatblets on. Just makes me sad when tragedies can be avoided.

Like I said, I hope you two are ok.

BNaylor · #5 07-02-2007, 08:06 AM

Sorry to hear about your tragedy and I hope you recover well from the injuries. I agree this is one case where the seatbelts would have made a difference. Painful learning experience.

Unless there are signs the tire shop did something wrong from what I can see the broken stabilizer bar was most likely a factor. It is there for a reason and provides for stability even on straight roads. The connection points (links) at both of the lower control arms must be made and not broken, otherwise I am quite sure the overall handling of the car will be affected.

This driver of this '98 Grand Prix was not that fortunate. Seat belts and air bags did not help in this case.

gtpr · #6 07-02-2007, 09:48 AM

yeah i regret the not have seatbelts on for sure but my girlfriend would have been dead if she had them on and i prolly would of too considering how bad the fire and roller over were.she is still in the hospital and hopefully will recover fine. I have some major head injuries and memory loss but i should be fine. i thank you all for your concern.
i hope i can figure all this out because its truely scarry not knowing what happend for sure.

Quote:

Originally Posted by bnaylor

Sorry to hear about your tragedy and I hope you recover well from the injuries. I agree this is one case where the seatbelts would have made a difference. Painful learning experience.

Unless there are signs the tire shop did something wrong from what I can see the broken stabilizer bar was most likely a factor. It is there for a reason and provides for stability even on straight roads. The connection points (links) at both of the lower control arms must be made and not broken, otherwise I am quite sure the overall handling of the car will be affected.

This driver of this '98 Grand Prix was not that fortunate. Seat belts and air bags did not help in this case.

GaryFenza · #7 07-02-2007, 01:06 PM

Feel better, im guilty about not wearing a seatbelt eiather.

richtazz · #8 07-02-2007, 02:59 PM

Since the tires were up, I can only hazard a guess as to one of two things happend. A ball joint broke, causing the wheel/tire to kick out and the control arm caught the ground, or the broken stabilizer bar piece dislodged, fell down and speared the ground.

gtpr · #9 07-02-2007, 04:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by richtazz

Since the tires were up, I can only hazard a guess as to one of two things happend. A ball joint broke, causing the wheel/tire to kick out and the control arm caught the ground, or the broken stabilizer bar piece dislodged, fell down and speared the ground.

the bar was broke 2 inches from the a-arm....the balljoint is a good possability considering the whole a-arm is broke off the car....Fact is I will prolly never know for sure what happend. it just sucks because we didnt have no insurance on the car yet because i bought it the day before and in the state of wisconsin you dont need insurance at all. so now our med. bills are like $450,000 so far.runaround
also our car looks way worse then the picture above. if we wouldnt of been thrown out of the car we would be dead for sure. the motor is through the firewall and the seats are shoved into the back and the back seat was ripped upwards and the roof is crushed almost level with were the door sil is supposed to be. I have no idea how we both survived this wreck..! I thank god everyday that we are ok. I will try to post some pics when I get them taken... thanks guys.

richtazz · #10 07-02-2007, 05:01 PM

man, compounding the car being wadded and your injuries, no insurance to boot really makes this a tragedy. I hope you and your girlfriend fully recover, as your health is what is most important.

gtpr · #11 07-02-2007, 05:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by richtazz

man, compounding the car being wadded and your injuries, no insurance to boot really makes this a tragedy. I hope you and your girlfriend fully recover, as your health is what is most important.

thanks and I pray she will too. her L3 vertibrey and her pelvic bone are cracked and her left leg, from the middle of her shin to her ankle is broke in 5 places. she has had 6 surgeries and hopefully she wont have to have anymore. we will know friday for sure. she seems to be ok but I feel horrible about all this...I was really lucky that i had my baseball hat on because I went through the windshield and that seems to be what stop me from getting severely cut up on my head. I got a scar down the side of my face and a hole in my eye lid and had some swelling around my brain and some major sprains and bruises but I will be fine..thankfully.

bricker82 · #12 07-02-2007, 08:35 PM

So you bought the car the day prior and this happens...wow. There may be no way of telling now, but sounds like you were sold a lemon.

If you don't mind telling, how fast were you goin?

Man, that is a rough situation with all of the medical costs, vehicle loss and injuries. Good luck with everything, and I hope you both fully recover.

gtpr · #13 07-02-2007, 09:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bricker82

So you bought the car the day prior and this happens...wow. There may be no way of telling now, but sounds like you were sold a lemon.

If you don't mind telling, how fast were you goin?

Man, that is a rough situation with all of the medical costs, vehicle loss and injuries. Good luck with everything, and I hope you both fully recover.

well I dont remember anything prior to the accident. I have lost alot of my memory....I dont remember anything about that whole day really..the only thing i seem to remember was crawling back into the car while it was on fire upside down in the middle of the road. I have no idea why but I guess I did. I woke up on life support and it was like a flashback. it is really weird... I remember seeing it there, then i got on my knees and tried to crawl through the window and seeing the air bags hanging down and thats it....well when i finally got to talk to the police they told me it was on fire upside down..so i guess i must of really tried to get back in it for some reason.
anyway the cops say I was going between 65 and 75 mph. I got pics today of the scene and i am gonna get pics of the car tomorrow...

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