What a dead Jeep looks like

On May 28th, I was severely rear-ended in the middle lane of Highway 85 just by the Saratoga exit (this is about 3 miles from our Cupertino home). I was stopped in rush hour traffic, and got hit by a Toyota Tundra (driver has AAA insurance) doing between 40-50MPH. My car was pushed into another car in front of me, and that car (a Nissan Altima) was totaled also.

As you can see, my Cherokee is totaled. All four doors are sprung. The body has been accordioned. The rear suspension is trashed. And the front is trashed and leaking water now.

See this picture. The Cherokee is actually folded upwards in the middle.

My insurance company came and hauled it off from the driveway last week. Amazingly, with all the damage, it would still barely run (at a top speed of 25 MPH). The tailpipe had been bent down and was rubbing against the right rear wheel, so it smoked like crazy when I drove it. But I was able to limp it home.

At first, the emergency room at Good Samaritan Hospital (Kristi came to the wreck site and drove me to the hospital) thought that I may have broken my right wrist, and strained my lower back. But now, we think the wrist was just severely jammed or strained. I'm pretty sure the impact drove me forward and my hand came off the steering wheel and smashed into the dash. I had scraped knuckles on my right hand that I could not account for. I was in a wrist cast for about 10 days, and was xray’ed by my general practitioner last week. Luckily, he says the wrist is not fractured. My right hand was noticeably swollen. I understand lower back soreness is common in automobile accidents, and I’m hoping my back heals up in the next few days.

USAA (our auto insurer) has said that they will be “buying” the Cherokee from us at Blue Book. So I guess we will be in the market soon for another car.