Stephenkng

Alex, which body shop you took your car to?

jhbrennan

Cellphones.

THPorsche

Man, I am glad you're okay. I am on 680 from San Jose to Fremont everyday and I've a few close one when people not paying attention what's in front of them.

Alstoy

Glad to hear you did not suffer any injuries. Your health is the most important thing. Everything else can be replaced.

OH997

Triode

My son in college drives a crappy Honda too!

axhoaxho

Mathews-Carlsen body shop at Palo Alto (it is sort of related to the Carlsen Porsche dealer, I think.) I know Paul over there, through my mechanic friend, and he took good care of my cars before.

With best regards,
- Alex.

KeninBlaine

I may be stepping on some toes here, but I think the police should confiscate a driver's cell phone (if with him at the time) and look at the call record to see if it was in use when the accident occurred. If in use, I think these people should be charged with driving without due care and attention. To me, many cell phone users are a menace to other drivers because they are too distracted from the task of driving.

MartyB

[QUOTE=Mr. Brown;5344845Here's another thought: If you're stopped and you see that the guy behind you is definitely going to hit you, you should move up so that your front bumper is touching the rear of the car in front of you. The impact of the hit to your rear is lessened when you're in contact with the car in front of you.
Mr. B.[/QUOTE]

I respectfully but wholeheartedly disagree with this recommendation. If you make contact with a car in front of you, intentionally or otherwise, before you are hit in the rear, both the driver in front of you and the driver behind you, if they see it, will tell the investigating officer that you had already "collided" with the car in front of you. This will result in you being cited for following too closely and most likely will result in you being at least partially responsible for the property damage and bodily injury to the person in front of you. Even if you barely touch the car in front of you and you are then slammed in the rear by a car going 60mph, there will so much damage to the front of your car and the rear of the first car that it will be very difficult to prove your speed at that point. Just my 2 cents worth.

ds2k1

I think I saw your car on the side of the road! On my way home last night, on 101N, at about 7:30-7:45 I noticed an arctic silver carrera being placed on a flat bed on the southbound side of the freeway. I also noticed that the rear end looked messed up. Sorry to hear about the damage, man. I was rear-ended on the 101 a few years ago in my Boxster S...exact same scenario you just described. I wish you the best of luck. Are you having it repaired by Carlsen's auto body repair?

Jim 'n' SC

I agree with Marty. You may not be hit hard enough to impact the car in front, if you are already touching him you will certainly damage the front of your car as well as the rear! Dumb idea.

Mr. Brown

It has something to do with physics. If you get hit in the rear, you absorb ALL the impact, but if you're in contact with the car in front of you, the impact is spread between the two cars and not ALL the impact is absorbed by your car.

Any physics majors out there who can provide the facts??
Mr. B

Edgy01

Your color didn't help highlight you to that inattentive driver. One reason I got such a loud color was to be seen. Silver sort of blends in with the background and pavement I have found. Glad to hear you're okay. These cars are made from the start to handle this sort of damage and then be repairable.

MartyB

The argument for doing what you suggested is that you minimize the rapid accelleration/deccelleration of your car/person because the guy in front of you absorbs the impact and will be the proverbial ball in the slingshot. Imagine an eight ball and a nine ball resting solidly against each other and the eight ball being struck flush by the cue directly opposite of the nine. Not accounting for spin and any offset of the shot, and due to the equal mass of the *****, the eight ball should not move, but the full speed of the cue will be transferred to the nine. Unlike billiard *****, cars are designed to crumple. I am unsure of how this technique would effect passenger compartment intrusion into the middle car by a vehicle in the front or rear, but I still don't recommend it.

jackball

Also, if any of the involved insurance companies discover that you hit (even gently) the car in front of you first, they will likely place the majority of the liability on you.

Another lesson to learn from this is to double check your insurance limits. I think I had $50k in property damage coverage (including underinsured/uninsured) on my previous car, and my insurance company did not even think to suggest raising my limits when I bought my 997S. You never know when someone with minimum insurance (or no insurance) will hit you. I raised my property damage limits to $100k in case I am hit by an ininsured driver or if I damage someone else's 100k car.

MUSSBERGER

Next thing you know people will carry throw down cell phones.