So, had a slightly harrowing experience back in February driving home on the NJ TPK on a Saturday afternoon - thought I had posted about it here, but no - better late than never, I guess. Anyway, I was doing about 80 mph in the center lane with fairly light traffic when my hood somehow became unlatched and the ~80 mph "wind" (relative velocity to the car) lifted my hood violently upwards causing it to rotate around its hinges, smashing into my windshield, causing numerous cracks in the windshield (and sunroof) with the hood essentially blinding me.
Fortunately, I was hyper aware of my surroundings at that moment and knew there were no cars right in front of me or to my right, so I immediately put my blinker on and slowly moved into the right lane, while slowing down and then moved into the shoulder when I had slowed down below 30 mph, as I could just see ahead of me on the shoulder by leaning way over to the right so I knew there wasn't someone stopped on the shoulder, and quickly stopped after that. It is often said that people involved in intense, potential life and death situations retain extraordinary clarity of such situations and that's absolutely the case for me, as I remember those 10 seconds with nearly perfect clarity.
After coming to a stop, I breathed a sigh of relief and then checked out the damage and flipped the hood back down and amazingly, I was able to relatch it and it looked very snug. Given that and since my visibiliity through the windshield was still pretty good, I got back on the road and the car seemed fine, so I drove the few miles to Exit 9 and then took slower roads back to Metuchen, with no issues. And also fortunately, I wasn't in the left lane or in heavy traffic and the airbags didn't go off, which would have immobilized me in addition to blinding me, which would've been really bad. Like I said, harrowing.
What prompted me to post this thread was the thread on car insurance, since NJM was fantastic throughout this, directing me to a very good body shop and paying out about $6000 for the repair (it's a 2016 Subaru Forester in great condition worth more than that), which was done to perfection. And our insurance didn't go up at all when we renewed in May.
To add insult to almost injury, though, our other car was broken down in Metuchen (starter) at the time, so we spent three whole days living without a car, like settlers on the prairie, although with much better internet than they had back then, lol. Pics are below of the damage to the windshield, sunroof, hood and front quarter panels.
2nd most harrowing experience I ever had in a car - has this happened to anyone else on the board? I read about it happening to a few people, including in Subarus, but not enough to think it's some recall type item - still no idea how the hood became unlatched in the first place (I hadn't had the car worked on recently and hadn't been opening the hood myself).
Fortunately, I was hyper aware of my surroundings at that moment and knew there were no cars right in front of me or to my right, so I immediately put my blinker on and slowly moved into the right lane, while slowing down and then moved into the shoulder when I had slowed down below 30 mph, as I could just see ahead of me on the shoulder by leaning way over to the right so I knew there wasn't someone stopped on the shoulder, and quickly stopped after that. It is often said that people involved in intense, potential life and death situations retain extraordinary clarity of such situations and that's absolutely the case for me, as I remember those 10 seconds with nearly perfect clarity.
After coming to a stop, I breathed a sigh of relief and then checked out the damage and flipped the hood back down and amazingly, I was able to relatch it and it looked very snug. Given that and since my visibiliity through the windshield was still pretty good, I got back on the road and the car seemed fine, so I drove the few miles to Exit 9 and then took slower roads back to Metuchen, with no issues. And also fortunately, I wasn't in the left lane or in heavy traffic and the airbags didn't go off, which would have immobilized me in addition to blinding me, which would've been really bad. Like I said, harrowing.
What prompted me to post this thread was the thread on car insurance, since NJM was fantastic throughout this, directing me to a very good body shop and paying out about $6000 for the repair (it's a 2016 Subaru Forester in great condition worth more than that), which was done to perfection. And our insurance didn't go up at all when we renewed in May.
To add insult to almost injury, though, our other car was broken down in Metuchen (starter) at the time, so we spent three whole days living without a car, like settlers on the prairie, although with much better internet than they had back then, lol. Pics are below of the damage to the windshield, sunroof, hood and front quarter panels.
2nd most harrowing experience I ever had in a car - has this happened to anyone else on the board? I read about it happening to a few people, including in Subarus, but not enough to think it's some recall type item - still no idea how the hood became unlatched in the first place (I hadn't had the car worked on recently and hadn't been opening the hood myself).
