We love to publish experiences that people have had in Citroëns. Here is Citroënvie member John Chassin’s description of a head-on crash in his DS with another one in France when he was living there.
I was coming back from picking up the boys from Saturday AM school and was climbing the hill back up to the top on a rainy two-lane road. At the top appears a blue DS cab taking the turn across both lanes. Now, I can hit the cyclist pushing his device up the hill on my right, or go to the left where the cab might go to avoid me. I brake, slide up the hill and the cab is still in the middle of the road. BANG! Can’t open my door, so I get out the right side and get my 2 bloody-nosed boys out the rear seat. I go and pry the cabbie’s doors. They had not used their belts and were bloody-nosed too. Both cars badly bent on both center to left front, left wheels bent back. No fire, no steam, no deaths. We were both going about 50 mph, so that makes a 100 mph impact.
I took the boys home with someone who knew me and came back to the scene with my green pop riveted DS where the cops insisted on a booze test… They thought I had fled the scene and were surprised to see me come back with yet another DS. The local Vernon dealer straightened up the car and I used it for a few more years until I shipped it back to the USA and tried to ford a flooded area in the Chicago area. (Ed note: Where John lives today.) Lift stud collapsed after that and I did not want to bother rebuilding the frame. Citroën execs were selling their demonstrator cars for appetizing prices.
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