Catherine's Last Drive

As August 2019 ended, so did the lifespan of my 2011 Lincoln MKX, which I called Catherine. A pickup truck crashed into the back of Catherine, which totaled her. We were pretty lucky. No none of us were injured, nor did the truck hit another car when it crossed the highway, or when it crashed into the house. It was also rather fortuitous for me because someone else killed my MKX before it had a chance to self-destruct. Ford's cheapness is job #1 engineering built-in a number of flaws that eventually would have cost more to fix than the car was worth. But the pickup truck got to her before ford's awful engineering did.

Someone who witnessed the crash since he was driving right behind the truck that hit me offered to send me the video from his dash camera. You can actually see when the driver of the pickup had the seizure and lost control of his truck when it started weaving across the highway. Then you'll see when I tried to swerve onto the median which is immediately followed by the crash. Following the crash, you can see the pickup continue across the other side of the highway and go into a stand of trees.

 

Catherine took the impact on the right rear quarter. Though it doesn't look that bad, and the four side doors opened and closed okay, the body is a little racked. It would have cost too much to fix her, they said. On the other hand, the ABS, and stability control did exactly what they are supposed to do. Despite the impact and being entirely on grass, Catherine tracked straight down the median and eventually came to a stop. It seemed to take forever to come to a full stop on grass! And while I could see ahead fine, I could see nothing of what was happening behind us because of the huge dust cloud.

Catherine's impact area.
It doesn't look bad, but... it was bad enough. From a different angle, you can see the roof on the passenger side is bent. I'm surprised the glass roof didn't break.

 

After the truck hit my car, Catherine, he continued left crossing the opposing traffic lanes, ran though a stand of trees and hit a house.

Right after I stopped my car, I exited and looked for the truck that crashed into us. I couldn't see it! It was not plausible that he would have been able to drive away, but ... where did it go? Then one of the people who witnessed the accident pointed out the pickup against the house across the roadway. She said that was the truck that hit us.

One of the people who stopped to check on us was in the intersection waiting to turn left. You can see her SUV in the video at 1:35 in the turn area. She said that he almost hit her car, too, but missed her. On the other hand, she had a front row seat for what followed.

 

Truck went though this group of trees
They're towing the truck backward though these trees. It originally ran though them blazing this trail.
After the truck hit me, it ran into this house
The truck as it was after hitting the house. You can't see it, but the house is knocked back about an inch. You can see where the foundation split because the house was pushed by the impact.

I didn't take a photo, but around the back of the house, the rear wall of the foundation was tilted several degrees off plumb where the impact racked the house backward pulling the foundation out of line.