I was almost in a car accident today. (1 Viewer)

I was taking a taxi to work when the driver's attention was distracted. All of a sudden, we hit the metal divider between the road and the lake. I was jolted out of my book-reading trance and I'm still reeling from what happened.

On top of that, I hurt my leg (not severely, Thank God), so I'll be off my feet for a few days.

While it wasn't serious, it did scare me. Has anybody here ever been in a car accident or something close to it?

Sincerely,

John Kilduff...

It's very scary to deal with.

Glad you are ok. I would have used my last bit of energy to smack the driver in the head.

At least you didn't lose your 2 front teeth like Mets pitcher Tom Glavine did in a taxi ride last year.

I had a head-on collision about 10 years that totalled my car, but I survived, with bumps and bruises. All hail the seat belt and airbags.

Yup. Rolled over my Ford Explorer at an exit and walked out without a scratch. Well, more like "crawled out" of the window (car was upside down) after picking up my glasses and cell phone from the "ceiling", unbuckling and rolling down (up?) the window, all the while wondering if the car was gonna blow up (too many movies). The experience was less funny than it sounds. The people who saw the accident looked like they were gonna pass out. What the hell?

No pains whatsoever. OK, I did scrath my arms in the bushes while crawling out. But given the enormity of the situation, I think I qualify for "walked without a scratch" status. The car was totalled.

Glad you made it.

--
H

Losing my two front teeth would've been a bitch. One of my two front teeth is chipped, though, but that was before the crash.

This was my first fender-bender and (God willing) my last also. The cab company is working out the details, though, so hopefully everything will be okay.

Sincerely,

John Kilduff...

Finding it odd that I'm listening to Bird York's song "In The Deep" from the movie "Crash" right now.

EDIT: To answer Holadem's question, I did see a doctor. She was the one who said I should be off my feet for the next few days. I'll need it...The leg is feeling a little odd. Ice and Tylenol were recommended as well.

I haven't been (knock on wood) but my brother did when he was 16, wasn't wearing his seatbelt and made a concave (or convex depending on your POV) impression in the windshield. He was pretty damned lucky on that one. The Cougar he was driving sat in the driveway for awhile then was sold for parts.

John,
Sorry to hear about your accident. Hope you don't discover any other aches and pains.

BUT!! Isn't the Bird York song awesome?

Did you almost roll into Greenwood Lake??? There's enough weeds and growth in that lake for 1 taxi to almost drive on the surface!

I've been in one car accident with another driver involved and one accident where it was me basically sliding off the road in wet rain with my sister's car which happened to have bald tires...

I was in one bike-car incident where some driver cut me off making a right turn, but it was at such a slow speed, I simply grabbed his B-pillar (it was a toyota camry 4 door sedan) and turned with the car til the idiot stopped.

Jay

When I was 16 I let my friend drive my car. Another friend was with us but the driver friend always loved to speed and I let him since I was dumb enough to believe he was a "great" driver. Well, one night around midnight we ended up going into the air and then coming down head first into a telephone poll. Apparently we were going around 75 when we went into the air and hit.

A bit of back history that we later found out is that five cars had hit that same pole within a three year period. The other four cars had everyone get killed and they were wearing their seatbelts. Scary part was the police said they all hit going under 50mph. My friends and I weren't wearing seatbelts, were going at least 75 and all three walked away without a scratch. My friend in the driver seat hit his head on the windshield and cracked it but it left no marks. I was in the back seat and got thrown into the back window, back down into the floorboard and then back up into the air to hit the roof before landing in the front seat. I walk out without any cuts, bruises or scratches.

When I had learned the four previous wrecks there killed everyone I puked right on the spot. After the wreck I was curious to know why we weren't dead but after hearing those other four all died when they were going slower than us AND were wearing seatbelts...

It was a rather strange feeling thinking that there was no humanly way you should be alive. Not to mention the fact that none of us had any type of injury.

To answer Jay H., we were actually taking Lakes Road into Monroe when the event happened. We hit the barrier that was catty-corner to Boccis' Italian Restaurant.

And in response to Michael, all I can say is that you're extremely lucky. It seems rather odd that things turned out that way, but at least you survived.

Sincerely,

John Kilduff...

I'm re-living it over and over again in my head.

The site of my accident featured vestiges of at least one previous wreck as well. It certainly is one dangerous exit, albeit with "Sharp Turn XXX Feet" warnings galore.

--
H

I was in a wreck when I was 17. A drunk driver t-boned me in an intersection while he was running a red light. He had already hit one car and was running from that when he hit me. Completely totaled the car, but I was OK. The airbag cut up my face a little and my head glanced off the side window so I had a little knot.

The guy had had insurance for less than a month and his company had to pay out for the entire value of my car in addition to the other cars he hit. I'd say the insurance company took a pretty big loss on that one.

hmmm involved in about 5 crashes, 3 when I was behind the wheel. None my fault and I luckily have a perfect driving record. I just spend too much time in suburban DC traffic

Two here.

- There were two main exits leaving the mall - a long drive with a stop sign at the road, and the other with a stop sign in the middle of said drive. I thought I was on the former but was on the latter. Once I realized my mistake I hit the brakes, but it was icy and I slid into the intersection and hit the back end of a lady. Everyone was fine and there was denting on everyone's car but she came, literally screaming at me out of her car. I tried to get her to calm down, asking if she was hurt and she yelled at me "You don't understand! My husband's an ASSHOLE! He's going to KILL ME!" One thing that really annoyed me is that despite it being icy and fender benders are expected to happen on a day like that I had gotten the feeling that everyone who stuck around thought I was the lowest form of vermin; like I had done something horrendous. It was weird.

- Second one: we were out looking for an apartment in a different city and were getting really frustrated that NO ONE would take a small dog. We had one more place to check out and I was getting annoyed and we were both fatigued. We came to a stop sign, my wife told me to turn right so I pulled over, then she said she'd made a mistake and it was the next right and, without thinking, I stepped on the gas to continue on and WHAM! Totaled the rental car, everyone was fine and I wasn't ostracized this time.

-paul

That's certainly true. I remember my mother throwing a fit when she heard we had wrecked the car but after she saw the damage, she realized that we should have been dead.

The funny thing is that we could have been hurt and just didn't know it. After the wreck the first thought that went into my mind is if my friends or I were dead so I wanted to jump up as quickly as possible to make sure (yep, I was dazed not even knowing if I had lived). My friends did the same so I think our state of shock might have overtook some of the pains. I couldn't even really remember the wreck but, after nearly missing another wreck a few months later, it all came back to me. The strange thing was that the radio still worked after the wreck, the only part of the car that wasn't damaged (all tires flat, trunk wouldn't open, blah blah).

The only other wrecks I've been in had deers involved. I think I've hit three but never while I was driving. I was always in the passenger seat and all three times left me in some pain for a few days. I once read where deers have been around for thousands and thousands of years so it looks like, in that time, they would have learned not to go running across roads.

Where do I start? I have a "checkered" driving history to say the least though I've never been injured.

1. I've been hit twice from behind and rear-ended someone once with no damage to either car

2. I fell asleep at the wheel driving home from college and woke up just as I had drifted off the road and was about to hit a rail guard, I touched the guard but jerked the car back onto the road just in time. Dented a hubcap.

3. At one point my high school junker, a drab blue Plymouth TC3 had dents in all 4 quarterpanels from me hitting poles and such while parking.

4. In college I rear-ended a woman who was stopped in a right turn lane. Totally my fault. Her dad was a car dealer and she was driving a new car from the lot. Had to replace a fender and she milked an emergency room visit out of it so my insurance went through the roof.

5. The death knell of my TC3 - I was driving home from high school and got T-boned by a little old lady who ran a stop sign - crushed the rear quarter panel and bent the axle, though after talking to the cops and replacing the tire I drove away. Insurance company totaled the car eventually.

Now for the serious stuff (though not as bad as Michael's)

6. My 1st highschool job was bussing at a Mexican restaurant in south St. Louis. An older friend worked there too. We lived in a small town about 20 miles or so away. Long story short he got me to race him home. 2-lane interstate I-55, he pulled up beside me, I looked over at him and the next thing I know I've got 2 wheels off the road. I jerked the wheel and swerved into the other lane, almost hitting him, which caused me to jerk the wheel back the other way and I lost control - did a 720 through the grass median (Yes your life really does flash before your eyes) and came out on the other side of the highway pointed in the wrong direction. Luckily there was no damage to the car and it was very late at night so there was no traffic coming my way. I was able to get turned around but about 30 seconds after I turned around and started up again a cop came over the hill so I was doubly lucky.

7. After the death of my TC3 my Mom let me have her Pontiac Bonneville after she got a new car. Well, the bell tolled for the Bonneville as well - College, Thanksgiving break, I had to work Wednesday and planned to drive the 2 1/2 hours back to my parents after I got off work. It started snowing, but not thinking I decided to drive home anyway instead of wait for the next day because I didn't want to drive back on Thanksgiving day and possibly miss dinner. On a downhill curve I lost control, the car spun went off the highway and slammed into a rock wall. I was stranded, but there was a rest stop near. Someone stopped and gave me a ride there, I called the highway patrol, who then called a tow truck. The freakin' tow driver pulled me back on to the road and then abandoned me! I got in and tried driving, and was able to limp along at 20mph or so, drove for a couple more hours until I finally gave up and got a hotel. Not a fun phone call to the parents. Another totalled car.

8. My most embarassing and stupid (since I no longer have the "I was young" excuse) happened last year. I'm driving from Atlanta to Missouri. I worked that day so I'm driving at night somewhere in Tennessee. I nod off, slide off the highway, awaken during a 360 and skid through the median a good piece before i get the car stopped. Once again God was my copilot as I went off the road in the only stretch of median for miles that it was safe to do so. Everywhere around there were depressions, big concrete drainage abutments, bridges, fences, etc. I picked up a nail in my tire so the next morning at my parents I had a flat, but I drove 500+ miles on a deflating tire with no problems.

I was in a bad one about a year ago in Arizona. We were traveling in my Father's RV when the car in front of us (looked like a Cadillac) decided to pass the dump truck that was ahead of him in a no-passing lane. Instantly we saw that he was going to hit another car (a Chevy Blazer) in oncoming traffic but the Blazer veered right to avoid him, lost control and did a 720 into our RV so fast that we didn't have time to react.

They were going at least 60 when they hit us, we were doing around 50. The sheer force of the impact sent us, in a 42 foot RV, sailing off the road. We hit the dirt and kept on going for about 100 feet until we dug in and came to an abrupt stop. I was in the passenger seat without a seat belt so I was ejected about 20 feet from the vehicle.

Fortunately, the window on said RV was designed to drop out on impact so I didn't have to go through any glass. I also was able to do a tuck and roll (thank you Colt Seavers) and avoid any severe bodily harm. Once I landed, I shot right up to my feet and looked behind me because I thought maybe the RV was still coming at me, it wasn't.

Those few moments in the air seemed to last forever and in that time I was pretty sure I was going to die. But the only thing that went through my mind was the hope that my brother, best friend, Father and his girlfriend would be OK. When I found out everyone was alive and in one piece, I sat down on a rock and realized that the boulder I was sitting on was only a couple feet from where I landed, and only a few feet to the right was a rusty barbed wire fence. Either of those surely would have been less forgiving a landing spot than the Arizona dirt. I lost some front teeth and was bruised and sore all over for about 2 months but no broken bones (well, I think I broke a finger) but it could have been much, much worse.

Unfortunately, the two poor souls that hit us (through no fault of their own) died on impact. They hit us with such force that their steering wheel was about 100 feet farther down the road than their vehicle. So hard that it totaled the RV and the Ford Escape we were towing, their Blazer was charred and unrecognizable. I didn't even process any of this until about 15 minutes after the crash when I asked a good Samaritan witness that was helping us "how's the other car?" He just looked down at the ground and said "they didn't make it." It's one of the most horrible, gut-wrenching things I've ever had said to me.

A year later and I can still remember their faces seconds before they hit us, I remember the sound of blood pouring on the asphalt as I was escorted to an ambulance. I remember laying in the ambulance and feeling like punching a cop in the face when I heard him tell one of the EMT's that it was her "lucky day" because it was her 'first' fatal accident. And the asshole that caused the wreck drove off and was never caught. He knew what he caused; all of that to shave a few minutes off a drive. He killed a married couple and left a small child parentless. Sometimes I wish I could believe in karma because he'd get his in spades.

Really bad story Mike. Sometimes (ok, all of the time) I think that the human race would have been a lot better off if cars had never been invented.

I had two accidents in the space of 1 hour once. I backed out of my driveway into the neighbors car. No damage to my car, but his door had to be replaced. After talking to him, I went to the hardware store. It started snowing while I was in the store. I left the parking lot and pulled into the street. The street was on a hill, and I preceeded to slide 2 blocks down the hill, and head on into a telephone pole.

My insurance agent was highly amused when I called him. I wasn't so amused when I got my next insurance bill.

A long time ago I was in a F.B. with an elderly gent who cut in front of me at the last minute into a left-turn lane. Luckily a police car was almost directly behind us, because the officer brought us to the side of the road and began asking questions. The poor guy either couldn't remember where he lived, or didn't want to say (the accident was not too bad, but he seemed very old). He kept telling the officer that I hit him on the left side, then he said the right side, then the front side... it was very strange, and kind of sad. Then he got in his car without saying anything, as if he was digging out some papers, but then closed the door, started the engine, and began very slowly to drive away! The officer could hardly believe it: she just stood there and said incredulously, "Is he FLEEING the SCENE?" Needless to say, the resulting police report made the insurance investigation go very smoothly and my rates didn't go up. Still, I felt sorry for the guy, who probably shouldn't have been driving in the first place.

My co-worker recently got in a car accident, head-on at around 70-90 km/h just a few weeks ago.

From the ground up, he suffered from a shattered foot, lacerated his knee, punctured his liver, cracked three ribs(2/1), puntured a lung, suffered a concussion and got scalped. He was suppose to be airlifted to a hospital, but the medics didn't think they had enough time, so instead just relied on a police escort for the 30 min drive.

He's doing a lot better now and is joking about a lot of things. A couple hours before the accident he was a smoker, but with a punctured lung, he had to quit the habit.

Looking at him now and the pictures of the accident and him, he's lucky to be alive. The scar from being scalped started from his eye lid, so he almost lost an eye too.