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Posted: 10 months ago by sykeo56:
This is lengthy. Skip to the pretty pictures if it bores you.
About seven years ago, my sister was scheduled to start college at Florida State University. So me, my mom, my dad, and my sister packed up the brand new station wagon and got ready to bring my sister down to Florida from New York.
After driving for two days it happened. We were only one hour from our destination. My mom was driving at the time. We were in the right lane and there was a car driving slowly in the lane up ahead of us. My mom signaled left and tried to move over. There was a car in the left lane who saw us trying to move over and sped up. I guess they didn't want to be behind the slow station wagon with the car carrier on top. So they sped up and honked their horn. My mom tried to jump back into the right lane.
It was a dangerous situation. It was a brand new car. My mom was not used to driving it. It was filled to capacity and riding heavy. It had a car carrier on top, filled with heavy bags of vacuum packed clothing (these bags added further weight and raised the center of gravity). All things considered, we were not exactly in a situation where we could perform evasive maneuvers.
So the back of the car skids out to the left. My mom jerks the wheel to the left. The back end slides the other way. She jerks the wheel back to the right. This time the back of the car swings around entirely. We're now sliding backwards and sideways off of the highway. We slide down the grassy embankment and I remember looking out my sisters window and thinking to myself, "I wonder if we're gonna reach that tree."
There was a crunching sound that I could never forget. I had no idea which way was up or where we were. I looked around and saw that my discman, which I had been listening to was now on the ground outside of the car, outside of the drivers side window. "How did it get there?" I wondered.
I realized what had happened and asked if everybody was okay. I could see my sister next to me. She looked scared, but she was fine. My mom started freaking out so I knew she was okay, but my dad didn't answer. I feared the worst. I just kept repeating my question over and over. Finally he said something, or made some kind of noise indicating he was alive. Best feeling of my entire life.
So then my mom somehow slid out of her crushed window and proceeded to run around like a chicken with its head cut off (only difference was that she was screaming, while the chicken has no head with which to scream). I unbuckled my seatbelt and fell onto the roof of the car. That was a weird feeling. Hit my head pretty hard. Wished I had thought it through a bit more. My sister followed suit. She too hit her head on the roof, but her belt was tangled. She couldn't get out of it.
I tried to open my door, but the frame had bent and it was stuck shut (we actually managed to pry it open later). The window wouldn't open either. I had my face pressed up against the window when a man ran up and slammed a hammer against the glass. I jumped backward and yelled at him. What the hell was he doing? If the window had broken, as he planned, he would've hit me in the face with a f**kin' hammer. Hard. So he reached in the shattered drivers window and broke my window outwards.
He tried to pull me out. I didn't move. No way I was going anywhere without my sister. He kept telling me to get out, and he would take care of her. f**k that s**t. Get me a knife and I'll cut her out. Until then, I'm staying in this busted car. If that car caught fire and she was trapped, I was gonna burn with her. Suddenly my dad reached back from the front seat and gave me a knife. I cut her out and crawled out of the car with her. Then we waited for my dad to get out. Somehow, he ended up crawling out the back of the trunk instead of exiting a door like on might expect.
We were all alive and well. The tow truck driver said we should all be dead. I thank God for all of the good people that helped us that day. It was the happiest day of my life. And when I say that I mean it. Literally. I'm not being at all sarcastic. We were given a second chance. Somebody was watching over us.
P.S. Not only did we reach the tree, we took that b***h out.
The last photo is blurry because the person who took it couldn't figure out how to work the camera and my dad was too delirious to explain it. I took the other photos.
Score: [-] 233 [+].
Posted: 10 months ago by Marz:
Oh my god. You are very lucky. You really were watched over.
Score: [-] 18 [+].
Posted: 10 months ago by imnotyoo:
I'm at my mom's house visiting so I'm not going to read the post right now but the pictures look crazy! I love the family photo with the up-side-down car in the background. Wish it wasn't blurry though. It'd be great picture for the fridge.
My car accident story, er, my best car accident story (none have been my fault, btw):
For years, I've had this weird feeling that I would be the passenger in my own car when it got hit by a white semi truck. And then it happened. And then instead of "s**t!" I said "Ha! I told you!". So I was on the way back from somewhere and this guy was driving my little Dodge Neon because we were taking turns driving. It was raining and we were on the interstate. All I know is that I woke up to a semi trailer two feet from my face. Pretty freaking scary. The car was all banged up but I got out without a scratch, as did the driver but he's an ass so who cares about him.
Score: [-] 152 [+].
Posted: 10 months ago by davbob:
Ouch!!!
I don't have pictures to go with mine, but I do have the stories.
Number 1: My lovely lady was in hospital with severe tonsilitis, she was slipping in and out of consiousness (sp?) and things werent too good. I was on my way to see her and I pulled out of a junction. Suddenly as if by magic a bloke on a bicycle decided to do a cartwheel over the front of my car. He broke some arms and legs and things and sued me for everything I had. It was totally my fault and noone else was to blame but still I had the decency to go to hospital with him and make sure his family were told etc. Still where theres a blame theres a claim :0/
Number 2: Driving to work a couple of weeks ago a young girl (about 12) decided to run out in front of my car, throw herself across the bonnet, up the front of the car over the roof and land behind me. She left her shoes in front of the car. Said girl then got up and ran away. I abandoned my car where it lay and chased her down the road to see if she was OK. Upon catching up with her she I found her very shaken but apparently unhurt, I walked her back to her house, which was just round the corner and knocked on her door to explain to her parents that I had just hit her with my car. Her parents were obviously very angry until they had heard the story from both my point of view and hers, where it was obvious that it was her fault. Her parents invited me into their house, her father asked if my car was Ok, at which point I realised that it was abandoned in the street half a block away, with the keys still in it and the engine running. He asked what type of car it was and set off to park it up and bring the keys back. Her mother made me a cup of tea and offered to call my work for me to explain what had happened and why I wasn't there. The girl herself recovered from her shock and was txting her friends to tell them what had happened. It was just round about this point that it hit me; I could have killed her, and here she was sitting beside me txting her friends.I totally turned to jelly. Delayed shock isn't a nice thing to have. Her parents took me to hospital where I was checked over and given the all clear but advised not to drive for a few hours . They then brought me back to their house and looked after me until i felt ready to head off home.
Moral of the story: accidents happen it's how you deal with them that makes the difference.
(PS. The girls parents offered to pay for the damage that their daughter had done to my car but I refused, the bloke on the bike claimed £200 for damage to his mobile phone that was in his backpack. I hate the word compensation, I was punished by the police and punished by the bloke I ran over, it would have been easy to claim post traumatic stress and damages to the car from the girl I hit but NO! I'm no angel but i know right from wrong)
Score: [-] 132 [+].
Posted: 10 months ago by gnikgnok:
My latest accident happened this summer. It was definitely the scariest I've been in because the kids were in the car too.
Isn't it amazing how bad a vehicle can take a hit, yet we walk away from the wreckage?
God is good. So are airbags. And seatbelts. And crumple zones. And...
Score: [-] 131 [+].
Posted: 10 months ago by sparklyeyedgal181:
Never been in a major accident. Was in a hit-and-run this summer though.
Pretty crappy situation: The guy hits me in his ugly Hummer, drives around me so I can very clearly see his license plate. The police tell me they can't issue a ticket because I can't identify the driver. They go by his residence once or twice to find no one home, so they drop it. To this day, the driver is off scott free. Furthermore, I lost $750 in my deductible and the police refuse to give me the owner of the vehicle's information so that I can get my money back.
Is that not the biggest piece of bullsh*t?
Score: [-] 123 [+].
Posted: 10 months ago by Marz:
« sparklyeyedgal181 : Never been in a major accident. Was in a hit-and-run this summer though.
Pretty crappy situation: The guy hits me in his ugly Hummer, drives around me so I can very clearly see his license plate. The police tell me they can't issue a ticket because I can't identify the driver. They go by his residence once or twice to find no one home, so they drop it. To this day, the driver is off scott free. Furthermore, I lost $750 in my deductible and the police refuse to give me the owner of the vehicle's information so that I can get my money back.
Is that not the biggest piece of bullsh*t? That's digusting. I can't believe the police won't do more
Score: [-] 18 [+].
Posted: 10 months ago by gnikgnok:
« sparklyeyedgal181 : Never been in a major accident. Was in a hit-and-run this summer though.
Pretty crappy situation: The guy hits me in his ugly Hummer, drives around me so I can very clearly see his license plate. The police tell me they can't issue a ticket because I can't identify the driver. They go by his residence once or twice to find no one home, so they drop it. To this day, the driver is off scott free. Furthermore, I lost $750 in my deductible and the police refuse to give me the owner of the vehicle's information so that I can get my money back.
Is that not the biggest piece of bullsh*t? You need a friend in law enforcement to run that plate for you... hmmm. Any Plimates come to mind? Maybe someone that could help you over your Trauma??
(just kidding - I don't really know how that whole "run the plates thing" works)
Score: [-] 31 [+].
Posted: 10 months ago by sparklyeyedgal181:
« gnikgnok : You need a friend in law enforcement to run that plate for you... hmmm. Any Plimates come to mind? Maybe someone that could help you over your Trauma??
(just kidding - I don't really know how that whole "run the plates thing" works) There's a national database that all officers have access to. So really, the officer that responded could do me a huge favor and look it up, but he won't. It's not his case anymore. It happened in Thorton Colorado and the driver lives in Denver, so it's technically out of his jusidiciton. But still, help a single mother out.
Score: [-] 18 [+].
Posted: 10 months ago by Maven:
I'm on my 8th car in 18 years.
First car, 4 accidents. First one, I backed out of the garage, and put the car in park to go close the garage door. Car slipped out of gear, and rolled backwards. Straight off the driveway, through the fence, and down a steep hill into the corner of the horse bar. Damage to the car wasn't bad, but it seriously messed up the barn and scared the heck out of the horses. Third one, waiting at a stop light, van in front of me rolled backwards and bumped in to me, no damage. Third, I miscalculated the turn needed to get out of a parking spot and crunched the door of the car next to me. No damage to my car. I track down the owner of a the car, and tell her what happened, give her my insurance blah, blah, blah--all the things you're supposed to do. She starts YELLING at me about how this ALWAYS happened, how much of an inconvenience it is, etc. I just smiled politely and apologized, then left. Talk to my insuranace agent later, and apparently she thought I was just a flipping angel, didn't say enough nice things about me. Yeah? Well you could have been nicer to me, you old bat!
Third wreck, I was stupid--driving too fast, on a dirt road, on bald tires, middle of the night. Crowfoot Valley Rd, Castle Rock to Parker--before it was paved. Came around a turn going about 80, hit the washboards, fishtailed for 200 yards, hit the left hand ditch, 360 out of it into the right hand ditch, still had enough momentum to roll over one and a quarter times. Walked away with a few cuts and a bruise on my left cheek where I smacked the window during the 360. Breaking window still trigger some anxiety.
Second car just died. It was old, and an Albuquerque summer didn't help. Third car (truck, actually) survived to be traded in.
Fourth car--Albuquerque again. There are a couple of star intersections. I thought I was on one of the sides that got to turn left on green. I was wrong. Turned into a pickup truck, bent the frame. I wasn't hurt, just pissed. They made me go to the hospital anyway.
Fifth car. Two wrecks. On my way to work in Ft Collins, a guy pulling out of a parking lot didn't stop. He said it was icy roads, but he never tried to stop. Plowed into me, knocked my car into 2 parked cars, and he skidded into a third parked car. My car had minor dings. 3 years later, I was on I-25 in Denver during rush hour. Rolling forward in bumper to bumper traffic, I glanced down to check the time. Failed to see the truck in front of me hit the breaks, and rear-ended him going less then 5 mph. Car went under the bumper of the truck though, totally crumpling the hood and mashing up the radiator. Car was totalled.
Score: [-] 53 [+].
Posted: 10 months ago by suebe:
A long long time ago, in a galaxy far away, I was a passenger in a fix it again tony (FIAT) headed towards the Poconos in Pennsylvania for the weekend. We were about 3rd in a multi-car caravan headed for a weekend of fun fun fun in a friend's father's place on a lake. w00t!
We're on Route 80 west, a skunk decides to cross the road. The driver, a bowling buddy, nothing else, panics.
Steering wheel spins, car hits guard rail. All of our friends are 2 cars ahead of us with stereos blasting - no idea we just had a crash.
We're fine, despite spinning out a couple of times and taking out the guardrail. We push the car over to the right shoulder...not much traffic.
A couple sees us and stops. They give us a lift to their place. I'm actually in shock, not injured, just psychologically in shock. They wrap me in blankets, give me tea...We hang out at their place for several hours. Nice, nice people.
These kind people then drive us to our Poconos destination.
Our friends were rather surprised to see us show up with this older couple and to hear that we had a crash.
We thanked our new friends profusely, thanked God for sparing us (sorry about the skunk), and we have a great fun weekend.
The a-hole car owner later decided to declare his car stolen. In PA. Idiot.
Mercifully, I stayed out of that part of the deal.
Just happy we walked away unscathed.
Other accidents not as interesting (although reading this over, this one doesn't seem to be, but it really was at the time)....
Score: [-] 49 [+].
Posted: 10 months ago by tundramonkey:
I can thankfully say I have never been in a car accident (knock on wood). I've hit the ditch (read - hit snowbanks on a soupy grit road) a few times as a teenager, but I have never even so much as recieved a ticket. I consider myself a good (and lucky) driver.
Score: [-] 53 [+].
Posted: 10 months ago by ReBoot:
I've never been in a car accident, but I did flip a friend's go-cart when I was younger. It was a home-built monstrosity that was very wide and low to the ground, and they thought there was nothing in the world that could flip it over. I proved them wrong.
More recently, I also flipped a golf cart. Those things go really fast when you reach under the seat and adjust the throttle/governor assembly. Lol.
[Edit:] The other day, while driving back from the farm, my wife ran over the cutest little bunny rabbit and broke it's leg. The rabbit's foot wasn't so lucky that time, I guess. :(
Score: [-] 59 [+].
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