Nearly lost my best friend a couple nights ago:

[speeder]

My best friend of almost 30 years in L.A. lives on a small ranch about 60 miles away on the edge of the Angeles National Forrest. It's where I store my Airstream trailer and a few cars, I drive up there frequently when time allows to work on stuff. The drive is awesome up the famous ACH and Angeles Forrest highway, Big Tujunga, etc. These are some of the most legendary roads in the land, hundreds of miles of mountain twisties.

My buddy was driving home early Weds am from his job managing a nightclub in LA, (maybe 2am), when someone coming the opposite direction crossed the double yellow center line to pass someone and hit him head-on. This is basically the nightmare scenario on those roads, everyone is really cooking in both directions w sports cars and MCs sometimes barely staying on their side of the road. He had almost no time to react but tried to go off the road to the right shoulder, the per car caught him right in the left side of grille and headlight, basically.

Closing speed would have been 100 mph easily, I think it was a less than perfectly direct hit or there would have been zero chance of survival. This is how people die up on these roads a lot. He was driving his 2001 BMW e46 sport wagon that he bought new and had well over 200k miles on. He has a couple other vehicles, thank god he was driving this one. It gave its life for him, did its job.

He has a broken foot and lots of sprains, it's simply unbelievable that he's not hurt worse or dead. I've already told him to buy another of the same car w low miles in mint condition, he's particularly fond of this model.

Check the photos of the car, I could not accurately capture the deformation of the driver's cockpit:

[manbridge 74]

Youch!

What make was other vehicle?

[love911]

Your friend is a lucky guy, I wish him fast recovery.
Angeles crest highway and Big Tujunga is right in my back yard,and I drive there usually Sunday mornings with my kids, and I tell you there are lot of wanna be racers in that road,who not only could hurt themselves but also cause accidents for innocent drivers like your friend.

[cstreit]

Yikes! You're right, hes quite lucky.... The car saved his bacon....

Fast healing to your buddy!

[speeder]

Originally Posted by manbridge 74

Youch!

What make was other vehicle?

2016 Honda, not sure which model. I think the other guy walked, (or limped), away as well.

[billybek]

That is a hard hit!
Hope he is ok...

[Evans, Marv]

Best wishes to your friend & hope he recovers quickly and comfortably. Seems like somebody always manages to screw up the things you like the most.

[slow&rusty]

Smoking Tire hosts their online show on this section of road, and Matt Farah drives like a complete insensitive idiot tearing up someone else's car as if it was his own private track. There has been many close calls with other motorists and several cyclists (who frequent this road also). I wish they would take it to the track...in my opinion they are on borrowed time before there is a crash.

[yetibone]

I now have a newfound respect for BMW cars. Still don't like working on them, but I am a believer in the engineering behind their safety and drivability. That guy needs another one just like the last, no doubt about it!

Denis, please do wish your friend a fast and full recovery from all of us. Glad that he didn't get hurt worse, of killed.

[Tobra]

Lucky he had quick reflexes and turned into a more glancing blow.

Good chance he has a Lisfranc joint injury, which is often missed. Hope he gets over it quickly and makes a full recovery.

[Lyle O]

Glad he's OK. These Hondas have had the issue of the Takata air bag inflators problem, so it sounds like he dodged that bullet also...might be time to buy a lottery ticket.

[speeder]

Originally Posted by Tobra

Lucky he had quick reflexes and turned into a more glancing blow.

Good chance he has a Lisfranc joint injury, which is often missed. Hope he gets over it quickly and makes a full recovery.

He told me which bone fractured but I forgot. I know that foot injuries can be very painful and persistent, having had my share of them.

This guy is pretty active and athletic, in his early 50s but still teaches martial arts and works out a lot, etc. The doctor he saw so far said that his general physical condition probably saved him from worse injury.

If you were local, I'd send him over.

As for reflexes, yeah, if you drive that road every day you have seen a lot of these collisions and played this movie in your head quite a few times. It's a fun, beautiful drive but death is always "right there".

[KFC911]

Hope your friend fully recovers Denis...that's a tough one for sure.

[scottmandue]

Glad your friend is okay...

Quite a testament to the crash worthiness of modern vehicles...

I totaled my Hyundai earlier this year, but was able to get to the side of the freeway to exchange info with the other driver, then drove off the freeway to a gas station to call AAA.

[ckelly78z]

Wow, this reminds me of my accident 4 years ago, and how lucky I was to survive (17 broken bones). There are alot of distracted drivers out there that are only concerned with what is happening on their phone, or in their car. At 2 A.M., I would say, probably half of the drivers on the road are impaired fom some substance, or sleep deprivation which makes it a dicey situation all around.

[Jeff Higgins]

Sure glad your buddy is relatively unhurt, Denis. Close calls like this really drive home just how thin of a thread we are all hanging from... just one brief moment of indiscretion, be it our own or someone else' can change our lives. Or end them. All the best to him for a speedy recovery and no lasting complications; healing is never fun.

Aren't these "headlight to headlight" collisions one of the newer focuses of the NTSB? Seems I saw a program on how they had concentrated for so long on dead-nuts square, full across the front head-ons, and had neglected this kind of "barely overlapping" collision, which are far more common. It looks like the BMW did quite well, considering the likely closing speed. Like you point out, it almost certainly saved his life.

[dan79brooklyn]

Doesn't the E46 also use Takata airbags?
Looks like all the safety equipment and crumple zones did their job this time. Lucky.

[speeder]

Originally Posted by Jeff Higgins

Sure glad your buddy is relatively unhurt, Denis. Close calls like this really drive home just how thin of a thread we are all hanging from... just one brief moment of indiscretion, be it our own or someone else' can change our lives. Or end them. All the best to him for a speedy recovery and no lasting complications; healing is never fun.

Aren't these "headlight to headlight" collisions one of the newer focuses of the NTSB? Seems I saw a program on how they had concentrated for so long on dead-nuts square, full across the front head-ons, and had neglected this kind of "barely overlapping" collision, which are far more common. It looks like the BMW did quite well, considering the likely closing speed. Like you point out, it almost certainly saved his life.

Originally Posted by dan79brooklyn

Doesn't the E46 also use Takata airbags?
Looks like all the safety equipment and crumple zones did their job this time. Lucky.

I don't know much about the NTSB but I've thought about this type of collision quite a bit, they do seem common. On the one hand, it has a better chance of spinning the car when they connect and deflecting some energy but they can also result in a super-focused punch that has to go through a lot less car to get to the driver or front seat passenger. This one had a lot of straight punching power and the BMW really did an amazing job of soaking up the energy. He sometimes drives an old Mitsubishi mini-truck w no airbags, (for Home Depot or dump runs), he'd almost certainly be dead if he was in that, IMO.

And Dan, I think it does use the recalled Takata airbags. That was actually one of my first thoughts when I heard about it. Luckily, it performed as designed @15 years old.

[glewis80SC]

Scary scary glad he will be ok.