You won't believe what happened to my car

[johnrando]

As the title says, you won't believe what happened to my car tonight. Exterior damage only, but here's the story. I volunteered to setup/tear down at my kids middle school for the 1st annual Science Night, where companies and volunteers bring in hands-on experiments and exhibits for kids. So I parallel part on the street away from the school lot thinking it's safe from the door dings of the in n out attendees. So what happens?

Mylar balloons somehow get released from the event, cross the street, tangle in a power line, blow up the transformer and down a power line, RIGHT ON MY CAR! It's scratched from front to rear, exactly where the power line hit. My car was not "electrocuted"... it runs fine. But it's dinged front to back, including the roof (needs further investigation). The power company left me a card for a "claim", but it's got to be THOUSANDS in damages, as virtually every panel on the left side will need painting... hood, door, side panel, trunk. The bright side is that I did want to respray my hood/trunk but this is ridiculous. Hopefully I won't need a new top but that's currently in question. Can you freakin' believe it? Going for estimates tomorrow, and will post pics then. :smh :facepalm

A couple of other cars where hit too. To top it off, it killed the power to the Science Night and the local neighborhood (except for auxiliary power at the school). We had to rent generators from 2 Home Depots to power many of the exhibits. Most everything got running, and the Science Night was successful, but man, what a night!

EDIT: Oh, and the power guy says "Was there some sort of party here? We get calls like this a lot this time of year due to graduations, etc." Crazy, huh?

[Pip]

Man what a bummer. It is just a car and luckily no one was hurt. I hope it is a speedy recovery for the ZHP.


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[NorCalZman]

Sucks. Glad no one was hurt. Now that I've said that....pics please!

[imola red zhp]

John sorry to hear about the car, just glad no one was hurt. Hope the power company pats for it all.

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[Au2bahn]

Sorry to hear the bad news John. Make sure to pick a good body shop using high quality paint. In a month, your car will shine like new. Take pics and progress to recovery.

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[DasMechaniKer]

Man, that is horrible John. There needs to be a "force field" option over at the dealership so nicely painted vehicles are safe! I hope you get it all fixed up how you'd want and in a timely fashion.

I'd send Ryan over there to paint it for you but she won't fly!

[Whitexi]

Sorry to hear about that John, that sounds like my luck. No mater how hard you try to keep something you care about out of harms way it seems to be that you just can't have anything nice.

Im sure they will honor the damages, and the car will look back to new.

[postitpad]

Wow, what awful luck. Sorry to hear.

[kayger12]

Damn. Sorry to hear my friend.


I wish this was sent with a Galaxy S3

[Ryans323i]

Oh my goodness John! I can't believe it. :( I'm sure that was heartbreaking to see.

Like others have said, this can be fixed. And, man I hope it gets taken care of quick.

FWIW, Glasurit is the paint on Lucy and it's what paint BMW of Asheville uses to repair their BMWs.

Again, that's a total bummer, but now you can add stripes!

[GMATT]

John.sorry to hear man............glad you are ok. Car can/will be fixed. Just make it better than before.

Gary

[danewilson77]

FML.

Talk about a wild turn.of events. :facepalm

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[Oli77]

Sorry to hear John. Good luck with the claim.

[Hornung418]

That's a crazy turn of events. Sorry to hear that, John. :( Best of luck with the claim.

[webster]

thread title is appropriate...i'm still struggling to picture this course of events in my head. wow.


glad no one got hurt, and hope your ZHP recovers quickly. "get well, get well soon we wish you to get well"

[328ioc]

Holy hell buddy. I'm sitting trying to imagine the damage. Hope it isn't to to bad.

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[Junior2552]

thread title is appropriate...i'm still struggling to picture this course of events in my head. wow.


glad no one got hurt, and hope your ZHP recovers quickly. "get well, get well soon we wish you to get well"

I was just thinking this, haha. I was imagining another thread about getting t-boned, and this is far from that. Hope everything works out, John. Ain't nothin like some good ol' new paint, though. So, glass half full.

[az3579]

What. The. Motherfudgecookie.

I guess John's getting a new left side. The lucky part is that the company will cover the damages. Better than getting sideswiped by a drunk driver and having him flee the scene! I know someone that happened to...


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[kakashi169]

sorry to hear that dude....would like to see pictures

[ryankokesh]

http://www.bloomingtonshortlist.com/img/ThatSucks.jpg

Sorry to hear that... glad you weren't standing next to the car or anything at the time though!

[iZHP]

Holy crap! That's terrible news, John. I know I'd freak out in a situation like that lol. Hope you're not without the car for too long.

[johnrando]

Thanks all. It's just crazy, and yes, the bright side is it could have been worse (@BP, how terrible) and thankfully no one was hurt. I wouldn't feel right bumming about a paint job if someone got hurt for sure. The other bright side is I will have freshened paint... just hope they pay for it fully w/o hassles. And Ryan, that stripes comment had me rolling, too funny!

Really appreciate the mafia's sympathy/empathy... that really does help make me feel better. I'm half bummed, half happy it wasn't worse, half just laughing at the circumstances because how do things like that happen? Wait, that's 150%! That's how weird it is.

Going in for an estimate, I know a good shop. (Maybe they'll fly Ryan out). :) I'll keep you posted.

[jreyes19]

Wow icouldnt believe this, I hope everything works out and sorry about what happened :(

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[MrMaico]

Damn John, that just sucks! Is it just paint work needed? No denting of the sheet metal? At least I would think black should be an easy color to match.

I constantly worry about an accident or something like this happening. I don't know if I could handle the stress of having a brand new Bimmer. LOL

Barry

[Marcus-SanDiego]

John, you bringing the ZHP to the party today?

[terraphantm]

Wow that's crazy... I would say you may as well use the insurance money to get a nice upgrade, but your car already looked perfect coming out of the factory

[midlandtech]

Wow impressive course of events atleast the power company left you info


~Steve
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[johnrando]

John, you bringing the ZHP to the party today?

Since I'm bringing the kids, I was going to drive the wife's car, but she just told me she needs it, so I'm bringing mine. You'll see the damage first hand. Got an estimate. $3600 for the paint, and an additional $5500 for the top. Fortunately, black is not a hard color to match. I'll post pics tonight when I'm back from San Diego.

[RITmusic2k]

Holy crap, John. That's nutsdiculous. Looking forward to updates!

[terraphantm]

Yikes - if your car was an 04, that might've been enough to total it!

[Marcus-SanDiego]

^^ agree


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[BRGcoopahS]

Ouch. Hope you get everything taken care of and they pay for everything. Your car is beautiful.

[cakM3]

Dang John!!!! How did I miss this thread! Sorry to hear about your car! Hope everything will work out for you!

[brettbimmer]

Noooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!! John, glad that no one was hurt, but sorry to hear of the Bimmer Bummer. :crying I hope that you are able to get it repaired in short order.

[johnrando]

I know. The car is worth $24K bluebook excellent condition. It's close. Whew. Unedited pics that I just tossed up... many duplicates, sorry. I'll go through them later, toss out the duplicates, and take some better ones. Heading to San Diego, meeting up with Albert on the way down!

http://img.gg/yNNsw2N

[static667]

That really blows, John. Make sure you go to the best body shop available for the repair.

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[BRGcoopahS]

Im not seeing anything. NVM, had to reboot safari, now I do. Geez that looks like a PITA

[Newjack]

Really sorry to hear John. I can't imagine how badly I would freak out if this happened to me. After the respray your car should looks as good as new, if not better. I hope everything works out for you!

[WOLFN8TR]

Wow John I can't believe this happened! I get pissed when I get door dings, if this happened to my car I would go postal!
Weird how you just mentioned about getting your hood resprayed instead of doing the Dr.ColorChip.
So does this change the plans for a maintenance weekend at your place?

[danewilson77]

At least this didn't happen.

http://i1015.photobucket.com/albums/af278/nicee46/Funny/Carwrappingpole.gif

[yura]

Insane. Never could have imagined this is a "regular" accident. Hope everything works out and the car gets back to 100% ASAP! They should be compensating you for not only the repairs, but also all the time you're going to spend on this, and re-sale hit due to accident. Have you talked to your vehicle insurer, do they suggest anything?

[Johnmadd]

Wow, that's some bad luck. Sorry man, just a freak accident imo.

[derbo]

Luckily no one got hurt! Your car will be fresh in no time! :D

[DasMechaniKer]

Going in for an estimate, I know a good shop. (Maybe they'll fly Ryan out). :) I'll keep you posted.


No No John. You don't understand. She wants to go fishing in British Columbia, but wants to drive up there. This girl won't get in anything that flies, except Kpros 135!

[Stu]

That is literally the shit that makes insurance actuaries cringe: THEY COULDN'T PREDICT IT!

That sucks man :( At least it was an extremely rare thing that happened, no one's fault at all. It'll get fixed and you'll be good :) Probably not even a premium increase.

[Marcus-SanDiego]

I saw the car today. Crazy damage. Almost every panel was touched. And yet, I could see me taking the insurance money and not even get it fixed. It's that crazy. Just surface scratches. All over.


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[mLuMaN83]

Dam bro. Life is so crazy.

[johnrando]

No No John. You don't understand. She wants to go fishing in British Columbia, but wants to drive up there. This girl won't get in anything that flies, except Kpros 135!

Roadie it is, lol. Mark and Casey had some interesting ideas wrt insurance buyback, etc. Gonna look at that, but one way or another, I'm fixing 'er up and getting it back. It really is just surface scratches for the most part (except still not sure about the top), but there are so many of them, all the way front to back. The power line ran parallel to the car. And again, thanks to all for the words of encouragement.

[danewilson77]

John....did the wire have juice in it, and was it wiggle warming all over the place.

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[johnrando]

From what I understand the transformer blew, sparks were flying, and the wire came down. Even a small fire got started in a back yard and was put out immediately with no damage. I think it had to have some juice left in it but since the transformer blew, maybe there wasn't much left (fortunately)? I don't know much about how that works and I never got full detail. From the looks of the damage on my car I don't think there was a lot of wiggle but there are a couple of separate lines on my hood.

[johnrando]

Wow John I can't believe this happened! I get pissed when I get door dings, if this happened to my car I would go postal!
Weird how you just mentioned about getting your hood resprayed instead of doing the Dr.ColorChip.
So does this change the plans for a maintenance weekend at your place?
No, we should still plan this.


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[Blaster3500]

Ouch! On the bright side it seems like they will not have to do much body work. Just make sure to find a good shop and it should look great!

[jayjay_dee]

not sure how i missed this thread John... sorry to hear bro...

keep us updated please...

[toddness]

I saw this a couple days ago, and couldn't find the words to respond. Absolutely unbelievable. Glad nobody was hurt. Best wishes with the ZHP.

While not trying to make light of the unfortunate situation, I do think I should harbor some of the blame for this occurrence.

I should have made everyone aware of not parking under power lines and updated the ZHP bulletin to include this as being a no-no.

See, I have a power line that feeds my house that crosses over my driveway and ultimately over where one my cars park. Birds love to sit on power lines, they love to sh*t from power lines too. Park under a power line, and birds share their love.

[johnrando]

Todd, too funny. The thing is, I actually didn't park directly underneath the power line. It ran down the sidewalk, and I was in the street. When it fell, it fell to the side, toward the street. Update: I got another estimate today, waiting for it to be emailed to me, then I'm going to file the claim. Here's a pic I took later in the evening.

http://i1214.photobucket.com/albums/cc481/johnrando/2012-06-01182600.jpg

[quikryptonite]

Dang Gina, I'm really sorry to see this thread. Life is just plain unfair sometimes.

[LivesNearCostco]

OMG. I thought SCE was going to blame the shutdown of San Onofre for any summer power outages, but now they have a new excuse: Science Night and mylar balloons!

[kpro]

wow, what are the chances!! let us know how everything turns out!

[wsmeyer]

That's the craziest story I've heard in a long time. I'm crossing my fingers they pay without a hassle but that's a lot of $$$. At least you can show them plenty of previous pics from that photo shoot showing no previous damage.

William.

[johnrando]

So of course Edison denys my claim. I've sent another email to them strongly urging them to re-review the case or I'll bring it to court. I've started filing online for small claims court. I'm also going to reach out to my insurance company.

[danewilson77]

Unbelieveable.

Though...proving fault in this case might be interesting. It may be whoever released the balloons fault? The school that was coordinating the event that released the balloons? If the balloons are what caused their gear to fail (i.e. blown transformer?), maybe it isn't their fault.

Shitty situation....and of course the innocent guy is going to have to pay (or his insurance)

[Ryans323i]

Hate to hear that this is going to be more work for you JR. Just persevere, we'll be wishing you the best the whole way.

[WOLFN8TR]

That Sucks John. Such BS! I went thru a similar situation years ago trying to get Diamler Chrysler to pay a valid warranty claim. It took a year to get them to pay up. As Ryan said don't give up.

Good Luck...


Bayerische-Motoren-Werke

[328ioc]

Hope it doesn't have to go to court that could take a good chunk of time.

Good luck and hope you get it resolved fast.

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[RITmusic2k]

Sorry to hear about the setback, John. Hope this clears up for you soon...

[johnrando]

So, my insurance company advised me to make the claim with them, and to pay the deductible, and get the work done. Fortunately the value is such that totalling the car is out of the question (which it would be anyway, but now I don't even have to argue with them). They will go after Edison for reimbursement and if so, my deductible will be covered. There's still some paperwork to be filed, etc, and an inspector has to come out, but this is now "the end of the beginning".

[imola red zhp]

So, my insurance company advised me to make the claim with them, and to pay the deductible, and get the work done. Fortunately the value is such that totalling the car is out of the question (which it would be anyway, but now I don't even have to argue with them). They will go after Edison for reimbursement and if so, my deductible will be covered. There's still some paperwork to be filed, etc, and an inspector has to come out, but this is now "the end of the beginning".

Thats great John someone else to the fighting for you and your car gets repaired while this goes on...

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