Hit and Run

We have had a rotten time with things automotive recently.  Kathy had the scoobie go bang and roll to a stop on her return from Bendigo in February.  I borrowed a ute.. hired a trailer and went out and recovered it.    It started fine and ran fine afterwards.  But with the odd blip in temperature.    We decided it was head gaskets.   I rebuilt the top end of the engine in March.  This exercise  cost slightly under 1 K.

I borrowed a Ford Ute from Marky in the meanwhile

Still the odd weird overheating issue  The gaskets were dodgy but obviously were not the entire story   Eventually I took the thermostat out and drilled a 3 mm hole in the shroud.  No more problem.  Its been good as gold since.  

Marks ute remained unused.  And one day last week  I parked it on the road to give room to mow the lawns.

This is the ute from the driveway across the road. Because its black its not so visible in this shot but behind the seats on this fairly narrow street soma absolute dip shit asswipe has hit the car solidly with his white vehicle.   And being an arse has of course ran.  

Oh I would like 5 minutes alone with this charming person.  I really hope karma has some really nasty issues in store for him.   We put a lot of effort into finding him and I am seriously investigating the whole dash cam, black box issue.    Didn't find him tho.    Sux.

So I spent Saturday knocking the worst of the damage out.   Only 20 or so hours work for me.. or a half day for a panel shop and it will be sorted.  Sheisse.

Where do such people think they have the right to screw others over?   And where do they get to be such bloody incompetents anyway?   I is really bloody annoyed.

Oh but it gets better.  

Last tuesday Kathy is commuting into town... bumbling along in the RH lane (cos she can actually do 100 around the slight curves on the Melbourne Eastern Freeway and most people seem to be unable to. At Bulleen Rd the freeway is 4 lanes wide.. and the traffic turning off there is banked well back and that lane is stopped. 


Guy in the next lane travels along next to the stopped cars for a 100 metres or so.. thinks (if thats the word) "OMGosh I must get off here.. and unable to get in the lane jumps on the brakes and stops dead. Apparently a really decent emergency stop
Girl behind in Barina brakes.... panics swerves into next lane while stopping. 


Fully loaded Semi... inches behind Barina brakes as hard as he can.... smoke from everywhere , relises he is going to hit Barina starts moving right so as to give her a chance. 


Kathy sees the semi braking hard... brakes like hell... Semi beside her braking hard Loud crunch. Semi plows into Barina. Side wheels of prime mover clobber Subara as Kathy moves as right as she dares into the emergency lane. 


Our hero is given a gap in the line of cars.. gives a glance over his shoulder at the blocked freeway... doubtless mumbles something about stupid drivers and bumbles off unconcerned and uninvolved.

My Subaru is probably a write off.  And I cant find a decent mid 90.s manual 10 sp Liberty with a tow bar for sale anywhere.    

You cant see in the pic but the guard forward of the front wheel is slightly scuffed.  The mirror was slightly scuffed and folded back.  The ding at the front of the rear door is from the second of the Prime Mover,s axles.  The quarter panel is from the third axle.   Both have tire rubber in it.  The front scuff is therefore from the steering wheels.    Close huh?  

Ok the trucking company seems like decent people.  Still in the end we (and of course the Barina owner but at least she made some slight error of judgement) cop it cos some fool is breathtakingly stupid.

All of which makes me grumpy.