March 2007
It was my first trip down to Baja. We left San Tomas at around 10:30am. We were hauling on a graded dirt windy mountain road. I came around a blind corner to fast, saw a brand new double-cab Ford Ranger, slammed on my brakes, he slammed on his, I couldn't turn any sharper, burm on the outside, I had no choice but to plow right into him. we had a head on collision at 10:40am, 10 MINUTES INTO MY FIRST TRIP, ON OUR FIRST DAY!!!!

Alejandro’s truck had considerable damage, it wasn't drivable. My truck drove away no problem. A broken Light Force HID was the most expensive thing that broke on mine. I also bent the hood, fender, bumper, and core support a little bit, and broke the grill. We had the insurance adjuster come out and we talked to him for about an hour.

Then the Polcia came out and we all talked for another half hour. Things moved slowly because I didn't speak too much Spanish, and the adjuster and Alejandro spoke no English. In the end, my Mexican insurance (that costs me 64 dollars for a week of coverage) covered all of Alejandro’s damage and none of mine. Which was fine with me. We left San Tomas at 3pm to drive for another 150 miles to San Quentin that day. It went on to drive for another 5 days around Baja with no problems.

The best part was that my US insurance doesn't go up because Mexico does not report anything to the US, even with vehicles from the US involved. GREAT TRIP!

Next month we will be doing a full feature on Eric's Ranger...before the accident.