My Leaf Rear-ended by a Truck

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knightmb

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 12, 2015
Messages
2,212
Location
Franklin, TN
My 2020 Leaf was rear-ended by a truck, I finally got a chance to get around to posting these pictures. I have a video to go with this, so when I get a chance I'll update this topic with a link too.
To give this some context, I was in the slow lane on the Interstate, following a Tesla actually and traffic had slowed to a stop and go crawl. Sometime after that, got hit from the rear at high speed by a truck. Lifted the back of the Leaf up a little and gave me whip-lash and a back-ache. After a check-up by the Ambulance and Fire Department and some hours of police reports until it was dark, was finally able to to drive away after it was all said and done. Guess who wasn't able to drive away? ;)
The damage to the Leaf is actually more than it appears as all that stuff down at the bottom is broken, the trailer hitch is bent down, inwards, the bumper is titled down from the body, etc. But you wouldn't never suspect it from how it looks on the surface. :lol:

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Ok, made a short video link. There is nothing special to see, so much as what you can hear and car movement from the hit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhJPIyCsIcs
 
Wow. That sucks. You got lucky that your car got lifted... That's likely where a fair amount of kinetic energy went.

Did that Tesla have no plate or did you redact it?

When I was on vacation in the Los Angeles area in Dec 2021 in my former Bolt, the damned sudden highway slow downs happened a LOT. Didn't matter what time of day it was, could happen at past 10 pm. I was so worried every time that someone not paying attention would rear end me and total my car. I would then be left w/a wreck in So Cal, no other car and need to fly home. Luckily, that didn't happen.

In the SF Bay Area, it doesn't seem to happen nearly as frequently, esp. after dark, even say 8 or 9 pm.
 
cwerdna said:
Wow. That sucks. You got lucky that your car got lifted... That's likely where a fair amount of kinetic energy went.
Yeah, the hitch took all the damage. I'm certain that they probably hit the brakes at the last second and made their truck "dive down". That's where the hitch connected with it and sent the rear into the air for a short bit. Their dodge truck weights about 4,000 lbs, my Leaf also weights about 4,000 lbs, so yeah, sucks to be them in that situation. :lol:

Did that Tesla have no plate or did you redact it?
It didn't have a plate. I noticed that too before I got hit. I see that a lot for some reason around here. :?

When I was on vacation in the Los Angeles area in Dec 2021 in my former Bolt, the damned sudden highway slow downs happened a LOT. Didn't matter what time of day it was, could happen at past 10 pm. I was so worried every time that someone not paying attention would rear end me and total my car. I would then be left w/a wreck in So Cal, no other car and need to fly home. Luckily, that didn't happen.

In the SF Bay Area, it doesn't seem to happen nearly as frequently, esp. after dark, even say 8 or 9 pm.
I have the same fear when driving in this kind of traffic, but today just happen to be the day that I got hit. The difference in damage is crazy, you can tell which is going to be more expensive to fix. At the same time, my hitch is probably what saved the rear of my Leaf from looking like the front of that Truck. Best crash protection investment I ever made I guess. ;)
 
knightmb said:
cwerdna said:
Wow. That sucks. You got lucky that your car got lifted... That's likely where a fair amount of kinetic energy went.
Yeah, the hitch took all the damage. I'm certain that they probably hit the brakes at the last second and made their truck "dive down". That's where the hitch connected with it and sent the rear into the air for a short bit. Their dodge truck weights about 4,000 lbs, my Leaf also weights about 4,000 lbs, so yeah, sucks to be them in that situation. :lol:

Did that Tesla have no plate or did you redact it?
It didn't have a plate. I noticed that too before I got hit. I see that a lot for some reason around here. :?

When I was on vacation in the Los Angeles area in Dec 2021 in my former Bolt, the damned sudden highway slow downs happened a LOT. Didn't matter what time of day it was, could happen at past 10 pm. I was so worried every time that someone not paying attention would rear end me and total my car. I would then be left w/a wreck in So Cal, no other car and need to fly home. Luckily, that didn't happen.

In the SF Bay Area, it doesn't seem to happen nearly as frequently, esp. after dark, even say 8 or 9 pm.
I have the same fear when driving in this kind of traffic, but today just happen to be the day that I got hit. The difference in damage is crazy, you can tell which is going to be more expensive to fix. At the same time, my hitch is probably what saved the rear of my Leaf from looking like the front of that Truck. Best crash protection investment I ever made I guess. ;)
I'm guessing that Dodge truck is at least several hundreds pounds heavier than your Leaf.

Well, in LA, the problem is, it can go very frequently from full speed to stop and go. Then, it speeds up for awhile, maybe back to full and the cycle can repeat. :(

If it was mostly slow or stop and go, I wouldn't be as worried.

Geez... in my next owned car, maybe I'll consider attaching a tow hitch for that reason. Hmmm...
 
In the video that "beep" you hear during the crash was all the "emergency brake" sensors on the dash lighting up at once, it also set off the SoS system too which I had to quickly turn off since I wasn't in need of emergency medical assistance, but glad to know it worked. :mrgreen:
 
I am glad you are OK (except sore). There is energy absorbing material hidden by the somewhat flexible rear bumper cover so there is probably more damage than you think. Receiver-type hitches do reinforce the rear of the vehicle quite a bit and they do a lot of damage to the vehicle behind (especially if there is a ball hitch inserted).
 
GerryAZ said:
I am glad you are OK (except sore). There is energy absorbing material hidden by the somewhat flexible rear bumper cover so there is probably more damage than you think. Receiver-type hitches do reinforce the rear of the vehicle quite a bit and they do a lot of damage to the vehicle behind (especially if there is a ball hitch inserted).

I suspect that too, everything looks "too" good on the outside, but until I have the day-time sun to take better pictures, from what I could see at the time everything is cracked and broken all around the bumper area and below, so once I take it to the repair shop, then I'll find out the true extent of the damage.
 
Got some better pictures today now that the sun is back up for better lighting.
For context, the first 2 pictures are just the back, just some broken body trim for the most part.

The next 2 pictures after that show the back where the panel has separated from the body was moved "downward". It made an illusion that the trailer hitch was bent down, but after taking off the bottom panel and looking at it, the hitch is actually just fine. It's still in straight, no movement of the bolts, nuts, nowhere is even bent. It's still as solid as when I put it in. Oh Yeah! :mrgreen:

The picture after those is a shot looking straight up at the hitch where it attaches near the bumper. The bumper was been "mashed" into the frame, I think the hitch stopped it, but it's a good bend job for sure. What looks like a little plate bending towards the black hitch metal is not suppose to be like that. :lol:

The next to last picture. Looks up into the body at the rear bumper, you can see where it has been crushed into towards the center near where the hitch sticks out, the hitch is that black bar looking thing on the bottom left side of the picture.

The final picture is just the rear from a further back distance, where you can see the hitch is relative to the center of the rear. Seems they kind of came in at an angle when they hit, seems to reflect what you see on the truck too since the hit isn't dead center on it.

I'm not an auto-body expert, but I didn't see anything that stood out as "frame damage", so I think it will be easy enough to fix everything by just replacing all the broken parts (hopefully).

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The Leaf is, AFAIK, a unibody construct, so as long as the various mini frames can be tweaked back, I agree that it shouldn't be totaled. Make sure that any insurance estimate covers ALL of the bits that need replacing, because in auto part parlance, a "bumper" is now just the plastic cover that is painted. I learned that the hard way with my Civic Si.
 
LeftieBiker said:
The Leaf is, AFAIK, a unibody construct, so as long as the various mini frames can be tweaked back, I agree that it shouldn't be totaled. Make sure that any insurance estimate covers ALL of the bits that need replacing, because in auto part parlance, a "bumper" is now just the plastic cover that is painted. I learned that the hard way with my Civic Si.

Good advice, thanks for sharing your wisdom, I will certainly make a note on that in the claim. Because all the body shops in the area are so overloaded, the earliest date to examine it won't be until the end of November :shock: I think I will be fine until then provided no one hits me in the rear again before that, :lol:
 
LeftieBiker said:
Glad to know hat you're more or less ok. I hate crashes...

Geez... in my next owned car, maybe I'll consider attaching a tow hitch for that reason. Hmmm...

They should make hitch covers in the shape of large fists.
I saw an insert, years ago of a fist giving the finger. :lol:
Maybe I should put an insert of a pointed spike about a foot long. That way next time, the vehicle behind me can just stab itself. :mrgreen:
 
Some photos courtesy of the repair shop, if you ever wondered what you Leaf looks like with the rear taken apart :lol:
The bumper had a bad day during that collision, but the trailer hitch is un-touched in damage. Guess 70 lbs of solid steel is hard to bend. :lol:

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Glad to hear your ok. It looks like the bumper really did it's job there. I have the same hitch ...I guess it's a good thing.

My wife has been hit twice from behind on her CRV, and my sister just had her Lexus totalled. Every one of these accidents they were hit at some speed by a driver in town while the car was stopped at a red light. Lot's of distracted drivers out there...
 
denwood said:
Glad to hear your ok. It looks like the bumper really did it's job there. I have the same hitch ...I guess it's a good thing.

My wife has been hit twice from behind on her CRV, and my sister just had her Lexus totalled. Every one of these accidents they were hit at some speed by a driver in town while the car was stopped at a red light. Lot's of distracted drivers out there...

Yeah, I'm fairly certain the hitch is the reason the back of my Leaf didn't look like the front of that truck. :lol:

It may be hard to tell from the picture, but the truck was lower to the ground that I'm use to usually seeing trucks, so it looks like the front of it was kissing the hitch and did a lot of the damage.
 
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