Mooooo ....SMASH!

Hey

So driving down M4 on sunday and all of a sudden i see this Massive Bull in the middle of the motorway in my lane. I was going at 80MPH. This was at 1am and i did not see it until last millisecond. Anyway, it wrecked my car badly. Pics.









So, waiting to hear if its a write-off or not. What do you reckon?

Well the only damage is the front side panel, the rear is fine. Dont know if there are any damages underneath.

Also, the airbags didnt inflate, the just appeared as in pictures, which was extremely scary and not right! So i will be going to VW and having a 'word'.

As far as my health, i escaped without any extremely major injuries. I suffered from some lung bronxilocious or something from smoke inhalation, bruising ribs and extreme shock.

According to the police this is the third time this has happened in the last 7 days.

If its a write-off what do i buy!!!! I loved this car. I'm so sad at this.

So, any ideas? lol.

****ing hell you were lucky, head on and you'd of been a gonner. Least your ok.

Did a better job then merlin, I'm going for a yes on the write off. How about a Leon Cupra R next?

You should have asked him to moooooooooove.


Sorry, i'll get my coat.

I cant really comment as to whether its a write off, but it certainly doesn't look good.

All the best.

Gitta be a write off surely, aren;t the pillars damaged on the pictures?

If you loved the car, buy another? Or the R32?

Sounds bad. The car looks a right mess, although imo it doesnt look like an 80mph smash, you were lucky Just think if you had been driving a saxo

Are you sure airbags didn't inflate? They don't stay inflated, there is only 'air' in them for a few milliseconds during the actual impact. Chances are you didn't notice them actually filling with air in the confusion of the moment. The fact that you are suffereing from some smoke inhalation suggests to me that they did infact inflate, they tend to fill car with smoke when they deploy.

As for the car, I'd definately say it'll be a write off

Glad you are OK though, you are bloody lucky

Wow, bad luck mate but at least your alright and all that.

You didn't mention how the Bull came off in all of this?

The airbags didn’t inflate? WOW

I would take that up with VW asap.

That's quite a lot of damage/work required, but it may look worse than it is.

You were very lucky for it to only be like that, I'm guessing that the local farmer is in the poo with the the police if it's happened a few times already.

InvG

Holy crap!

Definatley a write off I'd say.

I'd definatley be talking to VW about those airbags. Get some legal advice aswell. You've payed for the security of airbags and if they did not inflate, they will not save you from a serious head injury.

mark66 said:

You didn't mention how the Bull came off in all of this?

Click to expand...

Going by the windscreen and the speed...not well.

EDIT: Unless that is dirt and not blood. :/

InvG

Looks as if the cow crapped itself as you hit it too. Considering the size of a cow, and the speed you were going I was actually expecting more damage. If its not a write off its going to cost a bomb to repair thats for sure.

The police are tracking the farmer and following up on this.

Maybe i am missunderstanding how a airbag works. I crashed, i was fully conscious and knew what was happending and the airbags just didnt seem to do anything that i thought you would do, i.e soften the blow.

About 6 months ago i took the car to the VW Garage saying the AIRBAG FAULT LIGHT was on, they checked it and said everything was fine (took them 3 appointments to come to this conclucsion...muppets) and now that ive crashed, they didnt work properly so i will be taking this up with VW.

The Bull died straight away....no **** !!! The stuff on the windscreen is his hair and blood/mud.

Ouch!

Definitely looks like a write off

As for a replacement - maybe another GTI or perhaps a Megane R26?

As for the airbags - they probably inflated but you might not have noticed as it is only for a few milliseconds. When I had crashed my Mum's Astra years ago I didn't notice the airbags inflating - all I heard was an almighty bang and a lot of what looked like smoke in the car. This 'smoke' was probably the powder the airbags were packed in

It takes a fair bit of force for the airbags to come out and unpack as shown above

Glad you're OK though - that's the main thing

The very act of ignition causes them to inflate and deploy, so if they don't inflate, they can't deploy, yours are deployed, so they had to inflate.

The smoke is caused by the solid propellant igniting.

The airbags are covered in cornstarch or talcum powder, but the majority of the smoke is from the solid propellant.

You'll also have smoke from the ignition of the seatbelt pretensioners.

Edit:

the airbags just didnt seem to do anything that i thought you would do, i.e soften the blow.

Click to expand...

They're not there to "soften" the blow, they're there to prevent fatal injury, they bloody hurt when they smack you in the face, but it's better than dieing.

Holy cow.

Thats some serious damage.

jesus christ! I'd give you a pat on the back for walking away from that one!

Nasty. Glad you are OK though.

Talbs13 said:

soften the blow.

Click to expand...

As said above, they don't 'soften the blow', they are actually pretty solid during those few milliseconds of infaltion. They are not designed to give you a nice squishy pillow, they are there to stop you smashing your face on the steering wheel/dash/windscreen.

Hey, how was the bull in all this? Steaks for a year?