A Cautionary Tale of Woe (whoa?)

OK- I'd like to say I was off roading, having a blast, when a "Bad Thing" happens - but no... turning right at the end of a parking row in a Safeway parking lot in South Lake Tahoe and ran into a very inconveniently placed boulder. I was only going (maybe) 2 miles an hour, and can you believe this cost more than 8K to fix ?! Turns out the boulder grabbed the door and shoved it back bending (just every so slightly) the door hinge pillar and the center pillar

Sad thing is I knew that boulder was right next to me because I saw it when I pulled into the parking spot - but it sat below my line of sight and I totally forgot about it.

Remember what's around you people (hard lesson learned).

 

Is the wife ok?

 

Wow.

 

Looks like sliders really are needed for parking lots.

 

A boulder? I could say "That Rocks", but that might be in bad taste, so I won't...

 

Body work is getting stupid expensive.

 

Yeah - that or a memory.

 

That's totally something I would have done

 

Funny (sad?) thing is that my brother-in-law was with me, and he's a gadget geek, and he had his dashcam hooked up - my son's GF saw it and wanted to turn the noise it made into a ring-tone. I used to like her...

 

I did this once, but while offroading at night. Didn't see a big rock and I just slid up on my sliders, no damage luckily. Sounds like you need a set of sliders, just for those sneaky parking lot boulders.

 

My wife’s Camry has the 360 camera, and with that low resolution display, you wouldn’t know if it was a boulder or just dirt. It also takes a fair bit of adjustment to learn how to drive by camera VS mirror.

 

I just went where the insurance company sent me. Expensive, but they did a great job - I looked hard for the weld marks on the pillars and can't see a thing.

 

I could never recall where the decorative boulders are. Jason Bourne probably could though. I DO however have a better weapon in my arsenal, which is paying attention. As in, upon exiting the store, I will have long forgotten about boulder placement. But immediately after exiting the store, I am vigilant about decorative boulder identification and their respective geolocation.

 

For $8k there should definitely be a Happy Ending.

 

Nahh.

 

Since this is TW....that would have not been an issue with a 4" lift and some sliders.....so get out your wallet!

 

Betcha they make a TV commercial out of this accident!

 

Oh man, that forgotten obstacle.

Old lady got in the truck the other day, and I had a birthday card envelope someone had given me with the word "Post"with an arrow on it pointing to the right. She asked what that was about. Explained that I'd pulled into a parking spot in an underground garage that had a low 3' tall protection post next to the spot. I knew I'd forget that thing was there when I backed out and went to cut over, so I wrote a little note to myself and stuck it on the dash for when I returned! Glad I did because that stupid post was the last thing on my mind when I returned to the truck.

 

I have a similar story, but got off with less damage. I did a 3 point back out of a sonic slot and thought I bumped up against the landscape median in my FJ. Right pedal = go, right? Thought I’d hop the curb because I knew I was right at the end of it. Nope. Landscape boulder. Before I knew it I was up and over it with my right tire and dropped off the backside.

Backside of the boulder was about a 2’ vertical drop into a dugout hole. It took 4x4 to get off the boulder and I slunk off snacking on my fries. Thankfully a solid set of rock rails saved my rocker panel. A week later I notice a dimple crease at the apex of my fender well. I figure I came down hard enough that the weight torqued the sheet metal long enough to dimple it. 100k miles later I sold it as is.

Those boulders are usually there for the big rigs, but it’s the small guys that end up with the damage.