| |
BGonline.org Forums
My Most Negative EV Tourneys to Date - Atlanta (long)
Posted By: Stick
Date: Tuesday, 5 May 2009, at 8:50 a.m.
Before Atlanta this past weekend it was very clear what my worst tournament ever was, last year in Cleveland. I went, I lost everything I was in, I came home, a standard tournament in some respects so why you might ask is it currently one of my top two -EV tourneys? It was the tourney where upon arriving home I came down with pneumonia and medical bills easily exceeded 10k.
Now I'm cutting up Atlanta in to what we be several posts as I catch up. Atlanta may overtake Cleveland 2008 as the top spot on my -EV list. Just as with Cleveland 08, I came, I played, I lost everything, so again, typical weekend until I leave. I stayed an extra day because I had to drive 8 hours + and didn't want to do so on little/no sleep. I got a lot of sleep and ended up leaving Monday morning around 3am +.
A bit after 6am I'm passing through Knoxville, 75N (the technical spot is listed as 275N) and on a 3 way highway with little traffic I'm swinging around a turn where it had been mildly sprinkling. My wheels slide a tad one way, a tad the other way, and as I try to do basically nothing to allow them to right themselves they decide against this and I end up playing who's tougher with the cement median. Needless to say I lost.
As Ray will be happy to hear, I was wearing my seatbelt. The airbags deployed and seconds later all I knew was I was against the wall and it smelled like smoke. Not having ever been in a wreck where airbags deployed I didn't know it was only a 'smoke smell' from them being deployed. Regardless, I made one lunge at the keys in the ignition and they wouldn't disengage, ripped off my seatbelt and bolted from the car.
Bolted why? My car is sticking out into the fast lane around a corner and it's very possible it will be clipped again by another driver, esp. if anyone else has the same non issue issue with the corner as I did. So I hope over the rail, pop 911 into my phone which I grabbed when exiting the car, and start checking myself out. If I could flee from the car, can't be that bad right? Seems so, I barely have a scratch on me. There's one spot on my left forearm where it hit the airbag but that's it. Not bad for ramming a cement blockade at XX mph.
While I'm on the phone w/911 I run up the road around the corner trying to flail my arms like a raving loon to alert ppl that something might be wrong lest they take the corner. They would only have to swirve a smidge to miss it, but on this corner that's likely to cause the same thing that happened to me and cause more accidents. Call went through, local authorities on their way, and I'm standing on the other side of the guard rail still waving like I'm at a New Kids concert. I call my mom to get my heartrate down and I see one cop go bye!? Wtf, he slowed a little then must have decided it a non necessity to stop immediately?? Between him passing and the next guy actually arriving wouldn't you know it. Red car comes around the corner, sees my car, overreacts by braking & sliding, spins around a couple of times, clips a green truck, and ends up on the other side of the road. Everyone was fine and he actually missed my vehicle but his red car is probably totaled and I'm not sure about the green truck.
The next cop comes, lights on in front of my car so that should stymie that. The guy that is taking my accident report is a bit younger than I am and what's weird is I'm never even asked a simple question like "how fast were you going?" There was never a thought of asking what happened, it was assumed, and having noticed this I waited for my moment to engage the subject. He tells this happens basically any time it's wet out on that very corner. I'm not 100% sure if he's trying to settle my nerves or is telling the truth, but he goes on to tell me he's worked twice over the weekend and has been to that corner 2x.
Now after we get my car off the median and I'm chilling in the back of a car, another cop comes over and they're making small talk and he says something along the same lines without addressing me like they should just stay there all day as it's bound to happen again. Then the wrecker guy (tow truck) comes over, loads my car up, and I hop in his vehicle. He continues to tell me that they get more business from that curve than anywhere. It would later be referred to in his shop by other employees as the "money spot" and he mentions how a woman has died on that curve and how a cop lost it around the corner before.
At this point I'm baffled to say the least. It seems like this is a routine happening any time it's wet out and everyone accepts it. WTFF? The rentacar guy comes to pick me up next from the wrecker service and the small talk of me putting my car into the median wall comes up and he says "were you up on 275N?". Common knowledge. He goes on to say that part of the road didn't used to have the median until the cop (presumably from the first story) went around the curve and went across. Then the state put up the blockade and he goes on to tell me on the south side they have put some magic "anti slick pavement" application. I'm not sure what that is but he tells me they didn't put it on the northbound side, so that's where all the accidents are now. Have I said WTFF? in the last minute?
The rest is boring...got a rental car and finished the journey that day. Hopefully my car gets totaled out because I honestly don't want to go back to TN to retrieve it. I'm waiting on my insurance appraiser/body shop to figure out what's going on. From what I can gather, they total the car out at ~80% of the car's current blue book value. Depending on the mileage that car now blue books for 8-10k so it'd definitely be totaled by 8k. I hear it's a couple grand to reset the airbags. The front window was cracked, the back bumper is hanging off and one of the taillights is knocked out. They'll have to replace the back right of the car and the front right. I think it'll be close.
So Chuck, that's where I've been. MCG & Chris, eat it, that $5 is mine.
Stick
| |
BGonline.org Forums is maintained by Stick with WebBBS 5.12.