Hi! Here's the story of my accident: What you can see in the "before" photo is mine and my fiancee's first car. Of course, being male, young and stupid and having just passed my driving test, I had the stupidity to "give it some" on the road, which eventually lead to the following:

This was Friday 13th December 2002 (yes I know I should have stayed at home that day) in Leicester, England.

I was driving down a dual carriageway way too fast (80mph on a 50mph road) yet still had full control of the car, when I had to break fairly hard to stop behind a car in front waiting in a queue for the lights to change.

As soon as I stopped, I was hit in the rear by a car that I guess was going at about 40mph when it hit me. A second after I realised what happened and found my car rolling forward. Footbreak wasn't working, so I used the handbreak to stop. When I got out I realised my car jumped forward at the impact and hit the car in front damaging its rear bumper.

Of course, the main damage was to my car and the guy behind me. You can see my car from the pictures. As for the guy behind me, most of his bonnet was bent inwards with the engine and everything.

Both his air bags deployed, minde didn't. His passenger was sent to hospital with head injuries (jusging by the broken windshield on the passenger side, she wasn't wearing seatbelt). He seemed OK. I suffered minor injuries including: whiplash and headache for about 10 days, both knees bruised, some back pain and light brusing all over the body. Also, rib cage hurt for a month or so.

The car was new - 5 months old or so with 5K on the clock or so. It took 7 weeks to get an excact replacement through insurance, £70 phone bill and hours of arguing with them on the phone.

Well, here's the conclusion part:
You may know your car, how fast it accelerates, how fast it brakes, etc, like myself, but it's well worth driving carefully, because of all the bad drivers on the roads these days - YOU HAVE TO NOT ONLY WATCH YOURSELF, BUT OTHER DRIVERS AROUND YOU as it will often be the idiot behind you (or in front of you or wherever) who will cause you injuries and insurance hassle! Also, WEAR YOUR SEATBELT, I would probably be in the hospital now if not for its help.

Take care of yourself and your passengers.