Incredible Z3 Accident Story

W

WLH

Lifer
 Taxsylvania
A friend of mine sent me this today...

I bought a 1997 Z3 2.8 brand new in March 1997. It is truly a garage queen that has only been driven in the rain a handful of times. It has only about 30K miles and is/was still in pristine condition. I drove it to the first two Z3 reunions at the plant in Spartanburg.

This past Fri, I drove the car to work. When I left work at about 7pm, I started south on a 4-lane road divided by a grass median. I was accelerating and probably reached about 50-55mph. In the distance ahead of me, I saw a Ninja motorcycle coming north, clearly at a high rate of speed. The bike was at the entrance of a curve to his right, my left.

It became clear very quickly that the motorcycle had no hope of making the curve. The bike crossed the center median as if on air. The angle of trajectory was straight for my Z3. In the small amount of time that I had to think, there was absolutely nothing evasive that I could do.

The motorcycle impacted the center of the front bumper of the Z3. The sound of the impact from inside the car was unbelievable. The airbag deployed. I smelled smoke and got out of the car as quickly as possible. What remained of the motorcycle was on fire.

I have a couple of cuts on my forehead, presumably from contact with the airbag. I also have burns on one of my arm, also from the airbag. I have cuts on my right hand because I either attempted to downshift or just grabbed the shifter to brace myself. I ended up ripping the entire shifter from the floor of the car. I also have the other typical rapid deceleration effects (bruises from the seatbelt, etc). Other than that, I walked away from the accident.

The motorcycle rider was thrown from the bike on impact and flew quite a ways until going through the front windshield/roof of a Toyota Corolla which was trailing me. Needless to say, he did not survive.

In investigating the crash, a highway patrol officer noticed that the speedometer on the motorcycle was frozen at 115mph. Other witnesses to the crash said that the rider had been racing another car. I have only a vague recollection of seeing the other car.

Unbelievably, as I was standing in the median trying to collect myself, one of the passers-by who had stopped to help came up to me and said "hey, I just wanted to let you know that I turned your car off". The Z3 was even still running!

Sorry for the long story, but the point here is to praise the incredible resiliency of the Z3. I inexplicably walked away from a head-on collision with a motorcycle going 115mph plus whatever speed I was going. I really have no idea how much I may have slowed down before impact. I don't really recall whether I slammed on brakes or not.

I will attempt to attach a photo showing the Z3 and what remains of the motorcycle.
Click to expand...

bmw2.JPG
 
F**k me :o

(apologies for the language, but that's the first thoughts I had seeing that photo - seriously scary looking impact)
 
Wow - I feel for the driver in this sort of accident when they are innocent victims. The biker - well I guess the lower end of the gene pool has lost something
 
yikes... lucky escape for the driver of the Z3, had he been driving something with a more average nose-length, probably would have been a different story.

I really feel for the driver of the Toyota though, If they survived; that's an image you're not going to forget!
 
With CJ on this one.....having nearly lost my wife on the motorway a few years ago, albeit to a drunk pedestrian, the "other party" can just eff off and die as far as I'm concerned.

Amazing escape....
 
Wow, its twats like that, that get us bikers a bad name, I went out with a group of bikers at the weekend and it was not long before as CJ put it, the lower end of the gene pool starting acting like idiots, off they went like a load of lemmings into the corners, sure enough, 20 minutes later one of them had lost control on a corner and slid into a wall, luckily it was only a wall and not some innocent coming the other way :headbang:
 
WOWWWWW!!!! If you just showed me that pic I wouldn't be able to tell you what car it was.

It would have been 2 fatalities if it was another car though.
 
wow! lucky escape!

as others have said its great that he is ok. as for the idiot on the bike....well....who cares.

edit: where is the car the biker landed on?
 
Yes but have we all endangered other people’s lives in the process?

If he were to get banned for speeding people would say that it serves him right?

So if he was at the speed indicated and wasn’t in full control of the bike, consequentially endangering other people’s lives, then why should I/we have any sympathy for him?

If that had have killed WLH’s friend, which it could easily have done, I’m sure people would have been ranting a hell of a lot more.

Rather them than innocent motorists.
 
Rudd_2002 said:
Yes but have we all endangered other people’s lives in the process?

If he were to get banned for speeding people would say that it serves him right?

So if he was at the speed indicated and wasn’t in full control of the bike, consequentially endangering other people’s lives, then why should I/we have any sympathy for him?

If that had have killed WLH’s friend, which it could easily have done, I’m sure people would have been ranting a hell of a lot more.

Rather them than innocent motorists.
Click to expand...

+1 :thumbsup:
 
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