Well, for anyone who actually noticed I haven't been here to harass them for a few days, it's partially because I took a trip last week to my brothers to go see Collective Soul which was awesome but then had to return after hearing news my wife was in a car accident.
Most importantly of all things, she is fine and so is her Mom that was riding with her. Sharon's neck is very sore. She already had a bad neck from being rear ended 2 or 3 years ago and this re-aggravated it. Her Mom took a bad bump to the head but no concussion. Slight bruises for both.
They hit a patch of black ice at 9:00am on a sunny day but it was a spot where the sun doesn't hit that side of the hill until noon or so. The Jeep skid sideways until it ran out of ice and then flipped when the tires hit the traction of solid pavement again. Judging from the fact that the roof is totaled & much of everything underneath was beaten off when it landed back on the tires (of which three blew off the rims) but the two sides are relatively unscathed, I'd have to say they had some air time before and after the bounce to the roof.
In any case, the roll bars did their job and kept the roof from crushing in on them and the seat belts kept them tightly in their seats so they were released from the hospital quickly after being checked out with no serious injuries.
I can't tell you how scared I was when a fellow Jeep club member & buddy called me to see how I was because he was on his way to go help out after hearing the news from yet another Jeeper who came across the accident and stopped to help. I was doubly scared after calling my wifes cell phone only to have it answered by a nurse.
Thankfully, they were safe and my fears turned to frustration as I was a 4 hour drive from returning home. My buddy kindly continued on straight to the hospital and was there to greet them when they got released and were just starting to try and figure out how they would get home.
The Jeep is probably a write off. Although that's irrelevant because it did it's job and kept them safe. The investigating officer said that after looking at the skid marks and the huge patch of near invisible ice, any vehicle would likely have ended up rolling if it had skidded sideways so although some may say Jeeps (any tall vehicle) rolls a little easier, in this case it was the vehicle that saved them with the sturdy roll bars (and wearing seat belts) from the crushing blow that the roof took.
I met with the adjuster while he looked over the vehicle and he said it would be an easy write off from what he sees so far but since it is a specialty vehicle (Rubicon plus the thousands of aftermarket parts I put into it myself) he is going to reserve his decision until he has the frame measured and he checks to see if things like the axle tubes are bent.
At this point, I really don't care as everyone is safe.
In another interesting note, the adjuster told me that my wife was double lucky that she was in a Rubicon because the drivers air bag is calibrated to not go off unless it takes a very specific frontal impact. This is because a Rubicon is expected to be driven in rough conditions off road, even more so than a regular Wrangler. In any case, a steering wheel airbag serves little to no purpose in a sideways roll and would have likely injured her further in this specific scenario.
Sorry for the long explanation. It started as quick paragraph but I suck at executive summaries.
