So, I was driving between Pascagoula, Mississippi and Norfolk, Virginia (military, changing duty stations) and I had a horible wreck. About 45 minutes north of Atlanta on I-85 North, I went to pass an 18 wheeler. A blue Chrysler PT Cruiser was in front of me, also passing the semi truck. As we got clear of the truck, I signaled to get over into the right hand lane. As I was in the middle of making the lane transition, the PT Cruiser slammed on his brakes. Seeing the car comming back towards me, I hit my brakes as well. The rear of my car was loaded down with all of my personal belongings, and this made the back end become very unstable. I was able to get over into the right lane, while fishtailing badly. I was doing about 70-75 MPH. Not speeding, not in a hurry, nothing. The back end was still very unstable and I continued to fight it. I knew if I hit my brakes hard, the 18 wheeler would plow right over my car. The more I tried to correct the car's direction, the closer and closer it got to going against the side of the PT Cruiser. Making a decision that I beleive saved my life, the life of my girlfriend (who was with me), and possible the lives of everyone else was involved, I decided to steer/slide the car away from the road, down a 45 degree embankment and up into the trees. My car went off the road sideways, driver's side facing forward. The front bumper was the first to hit. It made contact with a tree, ripping the front fascia off of the car, and spinning me clockwise another 90 degrees or so. Then the rear end hit another tree. This spun the car again, clockwise, and I hit a couple more trees with the rear driver's side door. The car has damage on every body panel, the steering is destroyed, the interior back seat is moved forward on one side, all fo my personal belongings were damaged. Me and my girlfriend walked away without a scratch. The PT Cruiser went on about his business. The 18 wheeler stopped to see if everything was ok. He never saw the PT Cruiser slam on his brakes, but I think I know why. The PT cruiser had the clear aftermarket tail lights, and I have tinted windows. Also the PT Cruiser's tail lights do sit fairly low on the car. Quite possible, while I was in the middle of changing lanes, maybe I obstructed the view of the tail lamps from the semi truck, as my car was in between his line of vision at that point. Perhaps this is why, or perhaps maybe he just didn't pay attention to that, once he saw me jerk the car over into the lane in front of him (the semi truck). I could see both of the semi's headlamps in my rear view mirror before I started the lane change (something that I learned to look for that shows you that you are well clear of the vehicle that you just passed - defensive driving school). This all happened yesterday afternoon around 2:00 - 3:00 PM yesterday afternoon. My insurance company won't be able to get an adjustor to look look at my car until Monday at the earliest. I have opted to stay here in the area until it is all settled. I couldn't get a rental car over the weekend, anyway. I will stay and talk with the insurance company when they come to look at the car. Hopefully, they will see that this was the best thing that I could have done in the situation. Grass and trees are a lot softer than metal and blacktop. The car was completely destroyed. We walked away from the crash. These cars are truely built with safety in mind. When I talked to the insurance company yesterday, they said that since there was no other car "involved" in this accident, that liability falls upon me. Well, I don't like being a victim of circumstance. I was in the wrong place at the wrong time, if you will. I'm very angry that this happened, and I don't know what the guy in the PT Cruiser was doing, but I hope he is happy. I avoided hitting his car because I cared more for the lives of everyone around than that. I didn't want to cause a pile-up on one of the busiest interstates in Georgia. As angry as I am, I'm thankful that we are all safe and uninjured. If any of you have any advice, or can offer any help in this matter, please don't hesitate to call me at 228-323-0050. I am really in a bad way right now, with a lot of my personal belongings and my car destroyed. I don't know when I will be able to get on the internet again, so calling me would be the best way to reach me if you could. Right now, I am going to go back to where the wrecker service took my car and try to recover any other personal belongings out of it.

 

Wow dude. That sucks. I wish I could help you out... hope everything works out for the best!

 

every sorry to hear about your car, thankfully you two are ok.

 

that sucks man, but nice driving, i think, its sounds like you did the right, but listen to this, wrong place wrong time, i live in the country on a dirt road that winds around a river and mine is the only house on the road(hence why i got the evo, rally time!) and just yesterday i was driving down the road and a farmer in an 18 wheel semi full of patatoes drove by and showered my car with patatoes at 60 miles an hour, i have one huge dent on my hood now and its sucks!!! stupid farmers....

 

...and people wonder why I continue to hate PT Cruisers...

That sucks to hear about another Evo destroyed. These things are gonna be ultra rare someday if things like this keep happening to us.

Think about it though, even if you had hit the PiledTrash Cruiser, you would have been cited for hitting him in the back, but I have a feeling that the damage may not have been as bad minus the mess you would have caused for others on the freeway.

All in all, nothing you could have done I would say and I'm glad you two are ok.

Look on the bright side though, you'll be debt free for a while and get a chance to get an MR! There is a silver lining to this dark cloud... or maybe more of a Graphite Gray lining.

P.S. You never mentioned if your airbags went off. If they did, how did they feel? I didn't think they were that bad at all.

 

I'd like to see you say that with an empty stomach.
Just make an insurance claim. Then get a CF hood. Problem solved.

 

No, they didn't deploy. When the front hit, we were actually going sideways, driver's side facing the direction of travel. The tree hit the front end and ripped off the fascia clean. Either it didn't trip the air bag sensors, or the G-sensor in the car detected the angle we were going and decided that it was best that it didn't deploy the air bags.

I truely am grateful that the Evo is built so sound that we were able to walk away. My only hope right now is that my insurance company understands my story and agrees that I did the right thing. If they increase my rates so much taht I couldn't get another Evo, I don't know what I will do. Although I am happy that we were uninjured, I seriously miss my car, and will always miss it. I'll probably just try to get a 2004 Evo GSR. The MR isn't really my thing. They are nice, but I don't want to have an even HIGHER monthly car payment. I put $7,000 down on my Evo when I bought it, and I am afraid that now, that money is all but lost. Not only would I probably not be able (credit/net income) to get a loan for the price of an MR, but I would not want to stretch myself thin, between the MR payment and the possibility of higher insurance.

The future for me and an Evo is unclear right now. I will do whatever it takes to get back in one. I hope I can find a dealership in Virginia that will work with me and help out with something like selling the car at invoice price or something like that. I'll know more later. Right now, I will have to worry about what my insurance has to say. After that, I will need to pay off the current balance on the car. Then, I can start looking at something else IF I can get insurance at a low enough rate to be affordable.

 

Here are the pictures that I took.

 

More....

 

Even more....

 

and even more...

 

Some more...

 

and these....

 

The final exterior pics...

 

Here's the interior...