On August 11, 2005 at approximately 7:03 pm I was stopped for a red light when I was "rear ended" by a large passenger van. I was in line behind five or six other cars and had been stopped for several seconds when the rear of my car was impacted and I was whip lashed into the back of my drivers seat. The driver of the van stated to the police that he had dropped something down on the floor and was looking for it when he impacted my car. The picture above represents the approximate location of where I was stopped when the impact occurred. I received my first drivers license in the state of Michigan when I was only 15 years old. This was my first automobile accident in 36 years of driving.
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I have been told that the bumper of a BMW 325i is very strong and my BMW mechanic "guesstimates" that I was impacted at over 25 miles per hour. The damage to the car is more extensive than the pictures show as there is some hard to photograph buckling on the right side of the car that may indicate frame damage. In addition there is now a "scraping" noise coming from the back that is only noticeable when the car is moving. There is nothing visible rubbing together so this "scraping" noise really worries me. When I am feeling better I will take the car in for a full evaluation and body shop estimates.
This really puts a damper on things as Wendy and I were to leave on the 21st of this month for our summer vacation road trip. Our plan to put the convertible top down and enjoy the ride through Mammoth Mountain, Yosemite, Lake Tahoe and Virginia City, Nevada is over as both my car an myself are out of commission.
My thanks goes out to my girlfriend Wendy Khoo for taking these high resolution photos.