Accident Report - to submit to United Healthcare - April 2024 - v3, edited for brevity
On Sunday, July 16, at 10:50 am, I arrived at Van Wyck Presbyterian Church on Old Hickory Road, Van Wyck, SC, a narrow, two-lane country road. I was turning left into the church driveway slowing down with my left signal on. Suddenly, I saw an object to my left. It was a man rolling away from a bicycle. I heard no warning beep from my car that an object was close. I came to a stop to get out to see if the man was okay, but my car took off like a rocket and I could not stop it. I had no control of the car whatsoever. My car swerved to the left and ran through shrubbery hitting the brick and iron wall to the church entrance, knocking down the wall on both sides of the steps.
All the airbags went off and I felt an excruciating pain in the lower part of stomach. The congregation came outside to help. My car was totaled, and I was picked up by ambulance and taken to the emergency room at Atrium Hospital in Waxhaw, NC. After several scans, I was diagnosed with compound fractures in the L1 and L3 lumbar vertebra. After being fitted with a back brace, I was released with pain meds.
The investigating officer (Jeremy McNeal) was not on scene before I left in the ambulance and so I never spoke to him about my accident. Someone at the church took my drivers license from my purse and gave it to the officer when he arrived. Later when I retrieved the report, I saw that he filled out two different reports, one for the bicyclist, Mr. Hiznay, and one for my car hitting the church.
The report says I contributed to the accident, but I believe the cyclist may have as well. Someone later told me he had said he saw me turning (I did not see him) and was trying to go in front of my car before I turned in the driveway and he almost made it. He must have been so close to me because I did not see him as I looked up the road before I turned.
My car was a leased 2022 Hyundai Tucson Hybrid. It had been giving me trouble for a few weeks with the service light coming on. I made an appointment at Fort Mill Hyundai Wednesday on the week of the accident to have it checked out. The service department said it was an electrical problem, and I would need to leave the car all day to investigate and fix it. But then the accident happened on the Sunday before the appointment on Wednesday.
I had the black box from the car analyzed by a third-party. The results indicated that no warning beeps went off prior to the accident and that my car accelerated to 26.72 MPH in 5 seconds until impact against the brick wall.
Later I saw an article online that Hyundai is recalling 40,000 EV’s for software error that can cause unexpected acceleration after a driver releases the brake pedal. Read more from HYUNDAI RECALL WEBSITE. I feel this is exactly what happened to me after I put on brakes and stopped to attempt to check on the man who rolled off of his bike. I did not have time to get out of the car before my car suddenly accelerated automatically.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
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Accident Report - to submit to United Healthcare - April 2024 - v3, edited for brevity
On Sunday, July 16, at 10:50 am, I arrived at Van Wyck Presbyterian Church on Old Hickory Road, Van Wyck, SC, a narrow, two-lane country road. I was turning left into the church driveway slowing down with my left signal on. Suddenly, I saw an object to my left. It was a man rolling away from a bicycle. I heard no warning beep from my car that an object was close. I came to a stop to get out to see if the man was okay, but my car took off like a rocket and I could not stop it. I had no control of the car whatsoever. My car swerved to the left and ran through shrubbery hitting the brick and iron wall to the church entrance, knocking down the wall on both sides of the steps.
All the airbags went off and I felt an excruciating pain in the lower part of stomach. The congregation came outside to help. My car was totaled, and I was picked up by ambulance and taken to the emergency room at Atrium Hospital in Waxhaw, NC. After several scans, I was diagnosed with compound fractures in the L1 and L3 lumbar vertebra. After being fitted with a back brace, I was released with pain meds.
The investigating officer (Jeremy McNeal) was not on scene before I left in the ambulance and so I never spoke to him about my accident. Someone at the church took my drivers license from my purse and gave it to the officer when he arrived. Later when I retrieved the report, I saw that he filled out two different reports, one for the bicyclist, Mr. Hiznay, and one for my car hitting the church.
The report says I contributed to the accident, but I believe the cyclist may have as well. Someone later told me he had said he saw me turning (I did not see him) and was trying to go in front of my car before I turned in the driveway and he almost made it. He must have been so close to me because I did not see him as I looked up the road before I turned.
My car was a leased 2022 Hyundai Tucson Hybrid. It had been giving me trouble for a few weeks with the service light coming on. I made an appointment at Fort Mill Hyundai Wednesday on the week of the accident to have it checked out. The service department said it was an electrical problem, and I would need to leave the car all day to investigate and fix it. But then the accident happened on the Sunday before the appointment on Wednesday.
I had the black box from the car analyzed by a third-party. The results indicated that no warning beeps went off prior to the accident and that my car accelerated to 26.72 MPH in 5 seconds until impact against the brick wall.
Later I saw an article online that Hyundai is recalling 40,000 EV’s for software error that can cause unexpected acceleration after a driver releases the brake pedal. Read more from HYUNDAI RECALL WEBSITE. I feel this is exactly what happened to me after I put on brakes and stopped to attempt to check on the man who rolled off of his bike. I did not have time to get out of the car before my car suddenly accelerated automatically.
Signed: Julia Willingham, April 16, 2024
- Julia W., fort mill, SC, Canada