The horrible demise of my '00 SSEI

[nickdalzell1]

Wow. I wonder, had the airbags deployed, would he have been so lucky? I've heard horror stories of airbags snapping necks and causing more harm than the accident itself, which may be why I choose to drive safer just to keep it from ever deploying in the first place.

[devin1986]

Well, guess I'll "let the cat outta the bag." Back in the very late 60's west bound on I-70 out of Indianapolis from I-465 to the first exit (Plainfield - about a 5 mile stretch) was smooth, reasonably straight (the three curves were very gentle), no major hills, three lanes wide and no place for law enforcement to hide. More times than I care to think either myself or someone I was with would see how close we could come to redlining our cars in top gear. Some of us would approach 140mph. I still can't believe someone wasn't killed because of at least a tire failure. I definitely would not recommend anyone trying to do that even today unless on a closed course with emergency personal on sight. Some of the stupid things you do when you're young and you wonder how you lived. - BC

Agreed. There's a video somewhere online of me going stupidly fast in a porsche. Yay for growing up!

[l67se]

Thanks for all the input and well wishes.

I only had liability on the car. Excluding a few interior parts I kept (cluster, radio) and the
300 dollars I got for scrap, it was a total loss. Just couldn't stand to look at it anymore.

The 97 SE was my driver prior to this car. It's now my driver again until we find out after
court whether he still has a license. And even then it may stay with me. Haven't decided
yet.

[Jrs3800]

I am glad to see your son is ok and barley got hurt... Hope this will keep him from doing this again..

On the Bonneville... The structure of the A pillar is one of the stronger ones that I have seen... IIRC its like having an A pillar with an inner support... If you were to try and cut through it, you'd be there a while.. Very structurally sound to say the least.. If he had been in a smaller or lesser car I don't think the results would have been the same.. Glad he is here to rome the earth with the rest of us.. He is without a doubt very lucky...

Now for structure, the 91 Bonneville was part of the structural change over or improvement.. The H bodies even tho wearing the old sheet metal, was improved and updated like its 91 C body kin... So the 91 Bonneville even tho the old body is a direct relative of the 92 Bonneville...

All of these bonnevilles are very structurally sound and have been for a long time... They are safe cars and most get to walk away...

I wish your son the best, and I hope he will never do this again, But we are glad he was able to live to tell...

[KelvinVV]

I know exactly what you mean, 1oldman.

As a teen, I've done some really stupid stuff. Stuff that im probably on borrowed time for. What i think what takes the cake, though, is my freshman year in high school, a buddy of mine had just gotten a 2007 Grand Prix GXP. This was by far the fastest and newest car in our entire high school and we knew it. Well one day, me, my buddy, and 6 other buddies thought it would be a neat idea to cram 8 people into this car and hit 147 on Highway 60.

We all came out fine, save for a few cramps and such, but looking back at it, if anything would have went wrong, we would have had 8 dead kids in that car. A deer could have ran on the road and that would have been the end of it and us. A tire could have blown and we could have veered into another lane or off the road and roll.

Pretty much just thankful nothing bad happened. And now I know when I have kids they're going to do some stupid stuff. Hopefully I teach them that while its ok to do stupid stuff, it had better not be very dangerous.