With the two vehicles cleared, the ambulance off to the hospital and traffic resumed, the rest lay in the hands of ICBC. I'll admit I wasn't looking forward to calling my contact at Mazda Canada to tell him the Tribute, in his hands less than a week, was pretty banged up. Admirably, his major concern was my well-being. Not surprisingly, that was the overwhelming sentiment from family and co-workers upon hearing the news.

I wasn't looking forward to calling my contact at Mazda Canada to tell him the Tribute was pretty banged up, but his major concern was my well-being. (Photo: Mazda)

As I've reflected on the accident over the past couple of days, what I keep coming back to is how well the Tribute, an upscale version of the Ford Escape, took the impact. True, I wasn't travelling very fast upon impact -- after jumping on the ABS brakes the Tribute was pretty much stopped when the compact hit -- but I still received a pretty good body blow (I'd describe it as a really, really solid body check against the boards).

The Tribute ES' standard ABS brakes and front airbags did their job exceptionally well in this accident. (Photo: Mazda)

I feel I owe my good condition to the six-cylinder Tribute ES' standard front airbags, along with its larger overall mass than compact that hit me. It features standard side airbags too, which didn't deploy, and ABS brakes that, again, took a fair bit of wind out of my sails before I was hit. All the safety systems did their job exceptionally well in this accident.

I've been asked by a number of people if I was 'burned' by the powder residue from the air bags. I wasn't. If not for the airbag, I most likely would have got a pretty good bruise from the steering wheel, or worse.