Had an Accident, can anybody help me figure out what happened?

I've read the other responses so far, and this is my best wild ass guess

-- you've never been in a situation quite like that before, and your perception of the car taking "too long" to slow down is attributable to the fact that you've never had to come to a dead stop from sixty miles an hour (or more?) in 100 feet.

People don't quite get the following distance thing. I don't consider myself a tailgater by any means, but in thirty-five years of driving, I've hit the shoulder twice, still going at least thirty, when I found stopped traffic dead ahead. You learn from your mistakes.

One thing you can be sure of, it was not the ABS. ABS either operates or it does not. When operating properly the microprocessor pump the brakes, up to

16 time a second, to apply brake but not the stop the wheel(s) completely so one can still steer. If the ABS is not working properly the braking system simply works normally, as if the vehicle did not have ABS.

As to what "happened," basically you were not in control of your vehicle under the conditions in which you were driving.

mike

Methinks your car is close to toast. Probably will be written off, depending on the adjuster. But a 97 with Unibody damage like this will probably be written off.

You mean the same Tom & Ray that told the RWD Ford Aerostar driver, that the noise coming from the front of his van when he turned left, was most likely the result of a bad CV joint, that Tom & Ray? LOL

mike

Previous posters have suggested that the ABS was doing its best, and likely it was. Here's another possibility: pad glaze.

A driver (such as I suspect, yourself) that commutes sedately round town and does not mash the brakes all the time does not work the pads too hard. With time and light braking, the pads get a glazed surface that dramatically reduces the friction. Normal braking is affected, but is generally not noticed: the driver just presses a bit harder.

The problem comes when emergency braking is required. The glaze takes a while (enough to have an accident) to burn off, and until this happens, the car seems to "glide" without stopping at the rate you would expect and hope.

I drove a friend's Ford a couple of years back, and tried a fast stop from

100 kmh. It was PATHETIC to the point of lethal has this been an emergency.

Hence, every 4-6 weeks or so, its a good idea to find a stretch of quiet road and do two or three 20-100-20 kmh sequences to really heat up the brakes and burn off the glaze. My friend was amazed at the difference in braking feel and effect after this simple de-glazing operation.

SD

ABS means Antilock Brake System. Its purpose it to NOT stop the wheel from turning, so that one can still steer to control the vehicle in less than desirable traction conditions, albeit dry concrete.

Brakes by design function most efficiently just before the wheel stops turning, for the simple reason there is less tire patch area that brake area and a wheel that is not turning, can not steer.

ABS was never designed to stop a vehicle in a shorter distance and they do not. Conversely ABS does result in stopping in a greater distance either, as many believe. The ABS functions on and off 16 time a second, faster than the best of drivers would be capable of modulating the brake to prevent lock up. It one perceives the ABS to be not working, that is exactly what it is, a perception. What is happening is tire traction is lost

mike

YOu might go back and inspect the pavement and bring a gallon of water with you. First feel the pavement dry to see if it is unusually slippery. Then wet it slightly. You didn't mention whether the pavement was wet or dry but put a tiny amount of water on it. I've seen defective pavement that is unusally slippery under wet and/or dry conditions.

Thanks for answering me, you're desciption sounds the most like what I felt that the car was going through. It did feel like what you're describing.

I hadn't driven the car in about a week and actualy I've only driven the car about 10 to 12 times that month.

If I'm thinking of what would happen under these conditions it does seem that it could have been what I experienced.

If it hasn't rained heavily for a while, there could have been an oil slick.

qslim" :

That was my point. The ABS feature is designed to take over for you, but in the heat of the moment, you may forget all about it.

Natalie

No one is perfect, as you show quite often.

However, IIRC, that was about a AWD Aerostar, not a RWD Aerostar.

Jeff

"Jeff Strickland" ...

Heh, that's actually what I meant. We'd fall back into whatever habits we have in a crisis, which is way different from normal driving.

Natalie

Why do I not find it odd you would think that particular Aerostar was an AWD, when it was a RWD? Can you supply the URL? LOL

mike

Hey, Jeff, the dealer I was working at (used cars) sold mostly Salvage Title vehicles.

You wouldn't *believe* the small amount of damage that would cause some cars to be totalled! We had a Honda Accord come in once, the B pillar was bent, and it needed a door and a fender. $240 to straighten the pillar, and about $300 more for a fender and door. Our guy repaired the small crinkle in the hood.

So, for a total of $4800, we had a '98 Accord (in 2002) with 60,000 miles that we sold for $6900.

I saw trucks coming in with bent control arms, and a fender, or a stuffed transfer case, and no other damage!

Yeaa, there is a 'rule of thumb', but it's often to the whim of the adjuster, or the owner says, "I don't want it fixed".

The only way to tell whether or not the tire were under-inflated is to check the air pressure with a guage.

If you could not see the whole braking distance, you were most likely following too close for conditions.

Your friends who thought that the tires were sliding on the rims were incorrect, unless the tires were almost flat.

I used to have to check out cars that had been involved in accidents, and in almost every case, the drivers claimed that the brakes did not work properly, causing them to rear-end the vehicle in front of them. In every case, the brakes checked out and were functioning properly and the cause of the crash was determined to be following too close for conditions.

I'm sorry, what I meant by I couldn't see the road conditions was that there's too much traffic on the road while I was still there waiting for the tow truck and I have no car right now to go back.

I'm tacking responsibility for the accident like I said, but with all my years of driving I've never had the brakes feel the way they did this time they just felt wrong.

If you could read what Stewart DIBBS wrote in this thread maybe you can see what I'm trying to say.