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My son and his little sister were involved in an accident in the Subie I've been working on on their way to school.

He only just got his Ps last Monday. Yesterday morning a woman backed out of her driveway in her Falcon wagon, my son saw her and slowed and then had to swerve to the other side of the road when he realised she wasn't going to stop coming out. She clipped his rear corner and sent the car into a spin and into the stormwater ditch, the car rolled and ended upside down. All this happened at 50km/h and 5 minutes from home! My kids were in shock of course, especially my 12 year old daughter who was freaking out whilst upside down but thankfully neither were hurt. Son helped her down and escaped out of the rear tailgate that was opened by the woman driver of the Falcon wagon. She admitted fault to the police and told them she was going to pay for everything!

It's a pity, my son spent so much time in making this car look the best I've ever seen it in 4 years in preparation for when he got his Ps, spent money on new tyres out of his own part-time Woolies earnings and numerous other little spendings and improvements here and there, he was so proud of the car. Not to mention the time I've spent in making this car work properly. Evidence of 4 skid marks leading into the ditch, the brakes I've been working on worked unfortuantely he didn't have the space to stop!

It's a tough lesson in life for my son, he said he could imagine what could have happened if it happened at 100kph! "It happened so fast!" he said. My daughter collected the broken window glass for her "show and tell" today.

I only just arrived in Sydney yesterday and got the phone call from my wife at 8:30am yesterday, I feel awful not being there for them. Luckily she wasn't at work and was there within minutes to comfort them especially our daughter. All emergency services were there within 5-10 minutes (small country town).

The car is a write-off. I hope her insurance is up to date, she keeps her word and I can get my son another car from the claim. I wonder what we would get for this car from an insurance write-off?

Thats a terrible thing to have happen, but thankfully it sounds like there were no serious injuries to anyone involved, glad to hear that. I was wondering how you got on with the brakes, guess they were working as you saw the skid marks. Hope it turns out OK for you and your family. Cant imagine why anyone backs out without looking first?

Its a relief that everyone is OK. Just gotta make sure the 12 yo doesnt have any mental scars from this.

If the car is a total writeoff, you should keep the wreck and remove all the parts you want then sell it for scrap.

Good luck with everything.

Bugger not good, so glad to hear no serious injury but it will pay to keep an eye on them for delayed trauma and shock especially headache and whip lash effect.
Hylton:(

Damn that sucks, very lucky nobody was hurt.

What part of the mid north coast are you from?

settle for cash without involving the insurance. work out the replacement cost, including your improvements and see if she will pay for it. then you get the wreck and cash to replace the wreck.
glad no one was hurt.
and it will slow the young feller down for a bit.
perhaps a advanced driving course (with the skid pan)for him too. they are real good

Sounds like your son was lucky! At least there weren't any other parked vehicles around that could've been in the path of the subi, that could have made things worse in terms of the outcome and for your insurance.

I'm with wrxer, a safe driving course is the way to go - particularly the safe braking course, I participated in one of these once I got my P's as well. I reckon it was a great course to show you what difference a little bit of speed can do to your braking distance.

All the best in the new subi and your son's confidence/experience in driving.

Cheers

Bennie

Thanks for all your thoughts people's, it's happily recieved.

Just got home last night from Sydney and looked at my son's Subie this morning, it was towed and stuck under the carport the day of the accident. Sad sight indeed. Roof looks like an elephant sat in the middle of the roof above the two front seats and a fair bit of panel damage.

My wife took me to where the accident was and I was very surprised he was shunted in such a short distance. American cops would call this a "PIT" manouevre! She didn't reverse into his tail as I first thought she rammed him right on the side of the left rear wheel which turned him near 90°. This is a busy road and most people here I could imagine reverse out quickly if they "thought" the road was clear. Falcon vs L-Series guess who'll win in a situation like this.



My son took the above shot (right) at the edge of the woman's driveway after the accident, the distance is around 1 and a half Subie's away. He and car was already sideways just passed the driveway! There would have been no way even an experienced driver could have avoided this. Skid marks across grass and his left front end fell into the stormwater drain and over it went. Luckily there was no telegraph pole or tree ...which there are plenty of all these around here.

Left pic is how it looked last week before the accident and the day he got his P's. Polished, fresh rim paint and tyre blacked. Poor bugger, I really feel for him. First car and he was so proud of it and less than 1 week of driving. I'm dirty too coz I put in lots of mechanical hours into this car.

We'll just have to see what happens with her insurance company now...GGgggrrrrr!

Bugger mate! That rolled pic really paints the seriousness of the stack. Look at it this way - if you hadn't have put all that maintenance work into the subi it could have been a lot worse.

I think its about time that I install the rear cargo tie down points!

good to hear all are okay.
im glad your son was in a subi!!
i wouldnt wanna be in any other cars upside down!
hopefully he'll keep buying safe cars and urge all your family to do the same!
good luck with the next one!

As with everyone else the good thing is your kids weren't hurt and get to walk away and come home. Probably the only good thing if you could say such a thing to come out of this is that it shows your son how quickly and easily something like this can happen. You can be assured that no matter how careful you thought he was before this he will be ever more careful and responsible out there on the road which is all you can wish for.