MGB GRRRRRRR! Some 'lady' just hit me in the MGB

[jaybird]

And I am farking HOT. Pulled right out in front of me. Nearly knocked me off the street onto the sidewalk. DID NOT even stop. I pulled over, waited. Away she went, looking in her rearview mirror the entire time. I had jotted her plates down, but I was not happy. Went after her, followed (caught up with) her after a few miles. She pulled into a video store, I blocked her. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/devilgrin.gif

Said, "YOU HIT ME." She said, "I didn't hit you." I said, "HMMM, odd my red paint is all over your front bumper."

I am probably too damned angry to even post more right now. I did get her to give up her insurance info. She said, "Well I would have known if I hit you, you must have been speeding." I said, "Good try, but I'd just stopped at the crosswalk for the church, I probably wasn't going 10mph and you hit me on the back driver's side. You knocked my car onto the bloody sidewalk. Had I been speeding, you might have MISSED me."

Went to the police station, filed a report.

<font color="red"> GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR! </font>
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[lesingepsycho]

Jaybird, I'm so Sorry. I haven't been on this forum long but already I've come to recognize you in your red B and enjoy your posts. I'm so sorry to hear about your misfortune. I hope things turn out well with the insurance and you will be able to get everything as good as new again. May be time to take a glace at the post about good insurance stories. I'm glad to hear that you are not hurt because most vehicle wounds heal better than the people sort.

Here's a little something I learned from Voltaire's "Candide", a story about optimism and misfortune. No matter how bad you think things are, there's always somebody out there who is worse off than you. Here are a couple stories of my own to help put things in perspective for you in your moment of anguish. Sept 9th, 1991, my mother's birthday. My mother is the reason we are an MG family. She fell in love with MG's in HS and so my father and I got to (or were cursed with) owning an working on them all the time. After driving around her prized 68 Midget for many years with a primer black body (which I thought looked cooler), she finally got it painted. Red, just like your B. Finally the car was just the way she wanted it. After that, within a few short months, it was hit by a Cadillac while parked in our driveway, stolen and the thieves rolled it down the street and into a house and then on Sept 9th, my Mom's birthday, a Toyota made a left in front of us and we hit at 35 mph. Destroyed both cars (of course, the MG with it's solid H-frame fared better than the mostly plastic TOYota). I broke the windshield with my forehead and nearly bit all the way through my lip, still have a scare in there today. My mom crushed the spoke steering wheel with her chest and was pretty banged up as well. I didn't re-gain conciousness until the ambulence sirens pulled me back. While they were checking us over, the medic asked my mom what day it was and she said "It's my birthday" and burst into tears. That was one of the hardest things I ever had to watch as a kid.

We've had many more MG's and many more stories, wrecks, good times, and bad times. But one must always keep things in perspective. It is easy to be devastated by such a circumstance, but a wise person looks at the situation and finds what to be thankful for. My heart really goes out to you and I wish you the best of luck.

 

[jaybird]

Thanks les. And amazingly, the damage is minimal on The B. She hit me with a big hoopdee 4 door sedan. I suppose it's good to get the first boo-boo over with, right? And I do keep things in perspective. This is JUST a car. (wow, that's hard for me to say) Was the fact she left the scene and denied it (until I pointed out a large area of red paint on her white car) that frosted my butt!

And I'm over this now. Have 20-25 people coming any time for the day.

But ya know, the car is RED. She was at a stop sign. I vaguely remember something about 'looking both ways.' /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/devilgrin.gif HAD she stopped, had she looked, my car wouldn't have a ouchie.

OOOH! I fell in love with MGB's when I was in high school too. During the 'muscle car' era. Everyone drove GTOs, Camaros, 'cudas. I had a '66 Mustang. But I always wanted that MGB. First love never dies!

 

[MgKid1974]

Oh dang Jaybird, I am sorry to hear about that. Last week, somebody backed into me in a parking lot while I was in a restaurant. I came out after being in there for like 20 minutes with my tailight smashed. No note or anything on the windshield, just my tailight in pieces on the ground. I feel your pain, just gotta love the inconsideratness of people these days.

 

[Bugeye58]

Janel, I feel your pain!!
I had a guy back into the rear of one of my Midgets in an F150 pickup. He hit me hard enough to bend his rear bumper. It cracked the lens on one of my taillights!
Same car, sitting at the exit of the grocery store, waiting for traffic to clear, when a girl in a new Ford Escort plows into the back of me. Buckled her hood, and there were clouds of steam coming from her radiator. Cracked another taillight lens on the Midget!
Sturdy little devils, these LBC's, aren't they.
Hopefully, with the police report, there will be no problems collecting from her insurance.
I just don't get people failing to be responsible for their actions.
Jeff

 

[Basil]

She should be charged with hit and run! Much more serious crime and sounds like she deserves to be charged!

Basil

 

[Guest]

Hitting a MG should be far more serious of a crime that a mere hit and run. I think a pound of flesh would be an appropiate punishment. Hopes she gets all that's coming to her!

 

[adam90009]

Someone recently in our club had a midget that was restored and it was parked on the street one day. Someone hit the car and pushed it 2 houses forward with the car in gear and drove off. The car was shapped like a "C". They never caught the guy.

 

[R6MGS]

Getting in an ancident is never a good experience, especially in a nice car. Last summer at a loacl Cruise(season finale) someone with a 40's mercury hotrod started it up while standing on the running board, the car somehow got into gear a proceeded to do a 180 in reverse dragging the owner along side,it narrowly missed a little kid and backed right into a Mini pushing it into a 67 Mustang Convert that happened to be pulling out.And finally the Mercury backed into a beautifully restorted 65 T-Bird. The mini and the Mercury were rightoffs, $10,000 damage to the Mustang....no word on the T-bird but from the looks of it, it wasn't that bad.
One of the saddest things I've ever witnessed.......

 

[Kim de B]

Sorry for the mishap. But driving your B is still a GOOD thing... Too many people keep 'em in the garage, just so stuff like this doesn't happen... But to my mind, anyway, treating Bs like cars instead of toys is worth the risk.

 

[jaybird]

[ QUOTE ]
Hitting a MG should be far more serious of a crime that a mere hit and run. I think a pound of flesh would be an appropiate punishment. Hopes she gets all that's coming to her!

[/ QUOTE ]
I think hitting an MG is a crime punishable by hanging. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/yesnod.gif And a for a nanosecond, I wanted to pound her flesh when she was denying she hit me and that I must have been speeding & hit her -- with my left back quarter panel. But I figured she's been hit with the 'stupid stick' enough already.

I happen to know her insurance agent. An acquaintance of mine, my son & his dot went through school together. I intend to call Chet before his office opens and leave him a voice mail.

And I'm taking the B for an estimate tomorrow. John Mangles https://www.themgdoc.com here in STL belongs to our car club and does VERY good work. I wouldn't let any one else touch my B. Of course I don't know anyone else that works on them either!! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

 

[jaybird]

[ QUOTE ]
...driving your B is still a GOOD thing... Too many people keep 'em in the garage, just so stuff like this doesn't happen... But to my mind, anyway, treating Bs like cars instead of toys is worth the risk.

[/ QUOTE ]
AMEN! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/iagree.gif

As purdy as they are, I don't want a showcase car. I want a car I'm not afraid to take out whenever I get the urge. One I'm not afraid to drive in the rain or a little snow. And two, I can't bear the thought of not driving her for the winter months here! I'm just not a 'trailer it to a car show' sort of guardian. I drive the B several times a week, even during our winter here. Couldn't stand not to.

 

[Steve]

Now in all fairness you have to concede that driving in winter in St Louis is different than driving in winter up here. I wouldn't dare drive with all the salt they put on the roads here, the slurry that constantly lives on the roads is like salt soup, you can almost here the cars corroding! I would if I could!

 

[jaybird]

[ QUOTE ]
Now in all fairness you have to concede that driving in winter in St Louis is different than driving in winter up here. I wouldn't dare drive with all the salt they put on the roads here, the slurry that constantly lives on the roads is like salt soup, you can almost here the cars corroding! I would if I could!

[/ QUOTE ]
Ahh yes. STL is like the tropics compared to Wisconsin winters! And I won't take the B out on icy or salt-chem covered roads. But was sunny, mid 40's here today. I had to resist dropping her top before I took her out. Probably a good thing the top wasn't down because I probably would have involuntarily flown out of the car and shook the woman.

Top WILL be down tomorrow though, has been up 5 days now and she's getting a complex!! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/driving.gif

 

[Steve_S]

I'm so sorry to hear of your misfortune. I know exactly how it feels from personal experience. Unless I'm mistaken, leaving the scene of an accident is a felony and you can charge her with such. Best of luck with repairs!

 

[Americanshine]

Wow Jaybird, good thing you did not get spun around and clobber sometning else! I know that I make some good products, but I don't think that my wax will take out that ding!
A couple years ago, we received a really nice check unexpectedly, so I was going to surprise my bridse with it when she got home. She called me before she left work and said that she was going to stop at Target to pick something up. I was tickled that I was going to surprise her with a night out on the town.
I'm the one who got the real surprise. When my bride got home, she came in and told me that I needed to go and inspect the Fairly new Jeep Cherokee that we had. Upon walking out to the Jeep, I noticed that nothing was obviously wrong on the drivers side, things seemed to look ok. As I walked around the back, things looked ok, nothing wrong there. And as I walked around to the passenger side I noticed that the front passenger door was completely caved in.

 

[mightymg]

I had the same thing, I got plowed in my 76 midget, by some lady in Spokane good thing I had 5 point harnesses. AHHH its still not on the road yet.... I feelyour pain Buddy /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/patriot.gif

 

[Americanshine]

Wow Jaybird, good thing you did not get spun around and clobber something else! I know that I make some good products, but I don't think that my wax will take out that ding!
A couple years ago, we received a really nice check unexpectedly, so I was going to surprise my bride with it when she got home. She called me before she left work and said that she was going to stop at Target to pick something up. I was tickled that I was going to surprise her with a night out on the town.
I'm the one who got the real surprise. When my bride got home, she came in and told me that I needed to go and inspect the Fairly new Jeep Cherokee that we had. Upon walking out to the Jeep, I noticed that nothing was obviously wrong on the drivers side, things seemed to look ok. As I walked around the back, things looked ok, nothing wrong there. And as I walked around to the passenger side I noticed that the front passenger door was completely caved in.
My bride came and reached in and as she was doing so said very loudly, "hey, at least the left this note!" She turned around and handed me this note that the damageing party had left. This is what the note said:
"The only reason I am writing this note is because there are people who saw me hit you and can see that I am leaving this note, sorry, but it looks like you can afford it, I can't. bye"

Guess what we spent our "unexpected" check on. This all come under the heading of *HIT Happens. Hope it all turns out ok.
Dave

 

[jaybird]

Hey MM, welcome to the forum! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/patriot.gif

Steve_S, think I can charge her with stupidity too? I know my B is fixable, but her stupidity is permanent! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/devilgrin.gif

AShine...I may be needing some of your products! I think a lot will buff out. And where it is dented, looks (to my amateur eye) that it's a good dent. I think it may 'pop' out. And you're absolutely right, 'it happens! That's why I don't sweat the little stuff.

Still wish it had been the Solara instead of the B though. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[Americanshine]

Steve:
After years of cruising Van Nuys Blvd, we had what we called the Van Nuys dent repair kit with us at all times. If the dent is not too bad, take your household plunger, get it wet, and plunge the dam dent. Worked all the time on Van Nuys Blvd on Wednesday nights when some cruising dents would occur. Just have to pull it quickly for the dent to pull out. ( I have done this numerous time since then) Hope everything works out for ya. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/hammer.gif

Dave