poipu2000

After I saw Mario Andretti's accident on the speedway last night, I told myself that he's very lucky to walk away from that. He was fortunate to have landed right-side up after being airborne for a few seconds. I mean, I haven't had anything close to that happen to me while I'm driving so I really couldn't imagine what he went through. Just a couple of fender-benders here & there. How about you guys! Any horrific road mishaps you've been involved in or may have even seen up close?

Grondar

I was coming back from class one day, and at a stop sign on a road that goes uphill.

In order to get onto the road I wanted to I had to accelerate up the hill, cross traffic, and continue left.

I made this turn nearly every day I went to class, so I considered myself pretty knowledgeable in when I could and couldn't make the turn.

On this particular morning the roads were wet from an earlier rainstorm. I was at the stop sign, and looked left. Saw the cab of an 18 wheeler approaching, but it was far enough away so that I could easily make the turn.

So I went. My tires skidded on the wet pavement, and the truck slammed into the front left portion of my car.. Rolling up the hood, knocking the fender to the ground, and ultimately totalling my car.

It was a 1996 Pontiac Grand-Am, and since losing it I am now carless until I save up for another one.

Prior to that I had been involved in a few fender benders that required one or two visits to the dealer's paint shop, but the one big accident I was involved in was the one that ended up totalling my car.

It was also ruled my fault, as I was crossing traffic (as it should be). The truck's fender was pushed in partly, but no big damage that I was aware of. That drive in the tow truck to the station, with my car looking like a piece of shit dragging behind, is an image I will probably never forget.

Nobody was hurt in the incident, which is good, but it still really sucked pretty hard.

The real kicker? Despite me having no car, I still have to pay insurance every half year. Because, despite the fact that I have no car to drive, there is still a risk I will drive someone elses, or my parents (even though I have no desire/am not allowed to do either).

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"Yes, I rather like this God fellow. He's very theatrical, you know, a pestilence here, a plague there. Omnipotence. Gotta get me some of that." -Stewie

Serpent

There is this road i drive on that is know to be one of the worst in the states and i've been in 2 accidents both on the road. (though the second one was where i got rear ended as the last car in a 3 car accident it wasn't my worst). The accident that was bad though was only around 45mph. It started when i noticed that 2 lanes on my right ( i was in the left lane on the 3 lane road) were not moving, i look up to see they are waving this chick across the road and i'm barreling down it, she starts moving i slam on the brakes (going about oh 70 on a 55) for about a second or 2 and we hit, i nail the front right of her car on the passanger side of my car. (how i did it i don't know because i can't remember all i remember is a slide show of a few pictures) So in short both cars were totaled, her front right wheel was laying limp still attached to the cvd but nothing else. She got out of her car because she was in shock i was fine besides the fact i had a small cut on my forhead from my glasses when my head hit the air bag.. Oh and the best part was the accident wasn't my fault.. It was a 2001 car and i got a 2002 car for a nomially more fee.

Oh yeah, pretty much everyone goes 60-70 on that road even though 55 is posted.

440sixpack

Funny, I've already got this pre-written:

Not my fault apart from poor judgement, but here goes...

I was letting a friend of mine from work drive my car at night after work on her leaner's permit to get some practice (Mistake #1). Well things went just fine the first few times we went out. So we're out on a nice early fall night cruising around town, and as we're waiting to take a left turn at a pretty major intersection, I let my attention wander (Mistake #2). Suddenly, I feel a tremendous BANG, and the car is slewing around hard. I must have blacked out briefly because the next thing I remember I'm looking around saying where the hell am I (I was disoriented as the car had been spun around about 270 degrees) and there were already people there, some dude babbling about how he was a nurse, and the cops were there. Of course the kicker was that this accident happened directly in front of city police headquarters! So response time was rather quick.

So we were carted away to the hospital where we were checked out and released - neither of us had any significant injuries, nor did the couple in the other car - so we walked away from it.

At this point I still didn't know exactly what had happened except that what I had seen of my car was pretty screwed up. So it was back to the intersection where it happened to see if someone at one of the gas stations there knew where my car had been taken. When I asked at the first station, the guy said to me "you were IN that crash and you're OK?" This was my next hint that this must have been a real doozy. My car's at the station across the street, so I take a walk over and it all becomes clear.

What had happened was that in the midst of taking the left turn we had been broadsided by a Jeep Wrangler. Bear in mind I was not driving, I was in the passenger seat - and the point of impact was about 2 ft. behind me. So in my opinion I lucked out big time to walk away from it. The car was a mess ('89 Sentra). The rear passenger door and quarter were bashed to hell, the back seat was buckled, the back passenger wheel had been snapped off, windows blown out, the whole nine yards. Sucker was obviously totalled.

The best part of it was that I ended up getting nearly what I paid for the car! I had bought it two and a half years earlier for $5000. A few months before this accident I was in a small fender bender which caused a small dent in the drivers quarter panel. Their fault, so I got a check for $400 and change. However, I decided not to get it fixed and just kept the cash. This is OK, but that $400 should have been deducted from the value of the car when it was totalled. I don't know if it was or not, but when the claims adjuster said they were giving me $4400 for the totalled car I was thrilled! So I paid about $200 to drive that car (only 4 years old when I got it) for 2 1/2 years. So there was a bright side.

So always be careful who you let drive your car! You can bet when my Challenger is done no one and I mean NO ONE but me gets behind the wheel! The other good accident I had I totalled the car while driving myself this time and put my friends head through the windshield, and that one was also because I wasn't paying attention to what I was doing. The moral of the story is, keep your eyes on the road! (and your mind too.)

Peetster

You mean "Road accident" like in a car? Insignificant. I'm also blessed to have had no aviation accidents, enen though I got to help bury a friend every cruise.

brad

Short but sweet. Last may got rear ended had to have a back operation still out of work might be able to go back in sept.

zfleebin

So, I was going back to college from Phoenix to Prescott and there is this hill. I was going about 85-90 when my car shuddered a bit and then bam. It felt like I had been hit in the back of my suv and I started to fishtail. I steered into the skid but my truck couldnt decide which way it wanted to go so I just kinda held onto the steering wheel pretty hard. Next thing I knew I felt the truck going over the bumps on the shoulder then I felt another bang but by this time I wasnt sure where it was or where I was for that matter. Then I felt the steering wheel coming in at me and I realized the ride wasnt gonna go on for much longer cause I was thinking i would probably be dead pretty soon. Then I looked up and saw the ground as my windshield shattered in my face. Luckily I was upside down and the glass didnt get me. Then my radio eerily came back on and I could fully tell I was upside down. I asked my two passengers if they were ok and they just cried. Then I saw a couple guys come up to my door and try and open it. sadly my door was smashed in and I had the only window left intact blocking me from gtting out . So, the guys outside pulled on the door while I got out of my seatbelt and pushed my head against the center console so I could kick the door out. It took a couple kicks but then I got out. I was so dazed and disoriented that I just walked around in circles while the guys helped my passengers out. Noone even checked on me until I tried to stop them from taking my passengers away. Then a witness told me I was lucky I had blown my right rear tire it shredded I did a 180 and went through a large sign pulling the concrete out of about 3-5 feet of dirt and flipped twice coming to rest right next to the drop off point of the hill. If anyone lives and Az and goes up the 17 to prescott you can still probably still see my marks right in front of the big "turn off your AC" sign they replaced. I totalled my 2001 Durango and they had to cover it with sand before they took it away since it was leaking gas in a couple places. I had a pretty bad case of whiplash. But the insurance agent gave me more than my truck was worth so that they could take my case against firestone tires. I will tell you though SUV's are no longer my forte.

Serpent

Navy pilot i take it?

liquid_dreams

i'm a safe driver i've never been in one except for that one time we some oddball crashed into my parked car so does that count?

MUSV

When I was 16 years old I was sitting at a red light and a hydroplaining semi trailer hit me going about 50 miles an hour. It is amazing that I did not get killed, and an utter miracle that I walked away without a scratch

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I gotta bill in my mouth like I'm Hillary Rodham...

-Nelly in Grillz

BigTruck1956

well, when i was about 8 years old or so, i was going on a drive with my dad and little brother (about 4 years old at the time) out in the country. Well, all the windows were open and this huge bee flies in the car and lands on the seat directly beind my brother's head. Needless to say, my brother getting stung would have been really bad, so my dad reaches over trying to swat the bee away while pulling over to the side of the road. But, there was only about three or four feet of shoulder, so the car was partially on the road. Well, my dad looks back towards the front and there is a telephone pole dead ahead in the shoulder. He looks in the rear mirror and there is a UPS truck right behind us, so stopping in time for the pole would be impossibe without causing an accident. My dad swerves out to miss the pole, but veers too far and crosses the opposite lane, drives into an irrigation ditch and out again into the field. Luckily, the only damage was my dad's bloody nose, a flat tire, and a few minor dents. But at 8 years old, that was pretty freakin scary!

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so much to do, so little time.....at least i aint bored.

gump

well.... i was coming home from church one sunday morning and theres a bad curve just below my house. comming around it about 35 [kinda been raining] i had something break loose in my front end which sent me into a ditch then flipped over. broke my neck on impact [i was wearing a seatbelt] and choking on blood and everything. my sister [who was not wearing one] climbed out and cut my seatbelt from around my neck to keep from choking. called 911 [i've had to use that a few times] and i stopped breathing just after they arrived. well i was brought back and had emergency kneck surgery. i had spinal damage and c6 & c7 were fused back together. 6 months of rehab and 4 years later here i am. the wreck left me a quadriplegic and paralyzed from the chest down.

even though i'm wheelchair bound there are a couple good notes... i get into all movies and most strip clubs for free and i get the best parking at wal-mart.

kipperoo3

I was coming home from skiing at a local hill with my friends, when I got on the entrance ramp to the 12/18 madison beltline. A nissan maxima was accelerating behind me pretty fast and hit my bumper on the passenger side. That pushed me directly in the middle of 3 lanes of busy Christmas traffic - sideways! I was hit by a ford tempo, a chevy 2500 and the maxima again. Needless to say, my brand new Rodeo was totalled. Amazingly nobody was hurt!

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-Later, you realize that you didn't have to reposition the possum to make it look like an accident.

poipu2000

Sure glad that all of you are still around to tell us all of these experiences. Be safe out there guys & gals.

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What the %@#*?

cair0

i hit a curb my first time driving in snow

Rippley

tooling along at about 90, start braking down to make a right, off the main road, onto a side road(both fully paved, with soft shoulders). There's a guy coming up the side road. He decides to make a left onto the road i'm making a right from. He decides to use my lane to make the angle of the turn less acute. I realize this after I've started my turn-in. so I swerve, big-time, he clips me, only just, on the rear, right-hand, corner, with his front bumper. My swerve goes all to fuck, and I end up taking out a roadsign with the front left corner of my car. Asshat wannabe racedriver speeds off... Car is at the mechanic right now... Not in good shape.
My own damn fault for assuming another driver possessed any kind of skill!

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roadrazer - 300kgs, 300hp = pure fun.

Liquor Dealer

I left a highway patrol car scattered over quite a large area one night. It is why I am now in a different line of work and can't play golf.

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Life isn't always a bowl of cherries, sometimes it's more like a jar of Jalapenos --- what you say or do today might burn your ass tomorrow!!!

tgg7979

Dude, thats not the least bit funny.

3x0

Atomic Pinkie

my first accident ever was in Illinois (my original home), if you are from around that area, you know what winter is like. Anyways, i was going WAY under the speed limit on VERY thick ice and it decided to take my car into a snow bank...if it hadn't been there, i would've rolled into the ravine

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Where dem bitches at?

hughjarse

I was riding my 1100 Katana to work two days before christmas in 1985 when this dumb ethnic fisherman runs across the road. I blew my horn, braked and tried to avoid him but he just kept coming. His head hit my right forearm which caused a compound fracture of the radius. Naturally my left hand pulled the bike over to the kerb which I hit and sent me into a traffic sign and street light. I dislocated my right knee and severed the nerve and everthing else in side my knee. I suffer from foot drop and have had many surgeries to try and rectify to no avail. The thing that annoys me most is that there was a set off traffic lights 50m away where he could have crossed. We went to court and he no speaka the english and through an interpreter conveyed he did not remember the moring in question. He gets off and I lose the case because I should have kept a better look out, and I thought roads were made for vehicles and crossings for pedestrians. Oh and someone stole my Shoei helmet while I was writhing in pain waiting for the ambo!

ARRH

About 7 months ago I flipped over my BMW 320i Coupe. Sucks big time. I was ok though, but my car was totalled!

Then just last February my dad had a terrible accident in the Ivory Coast. He was in a Isuzu SUV in the back with no seatbelt, on the highway going about 120kmh. They think a tire burst, and that started the car flipping. First it flipped from side to side about 4 times, and then it started going from front to back. It ended up on it's wheels in the middle part of the highway, facing the direction they were coming from.
The driver was best off. He only broke his colar bone. The passenger next to the driver had major head injuries. My dad had to pull him out throught the window, not knowing that he himself had just fractured his vertebra. They stopped a car that drove by with two Libanese doctors. (very lucky).
On top of all that riots and civil war started up again. So there he was, stuck in the Ivory Coast with a fractured vertebra and no way out. First they had organised that Air France would remove some seats that he could go in on a stretcher, and fly to Paris. But then the situation got soo bad that Air France cancelled all flights to Abidjan.
So in the end they got a plane to pick him up and fly him to Zurich. Now a couple months later he is doing pretty good. Thankfully it was a stable fracture, and it didn't need any surgery. He's walking again, and doing most stuff he used to do. He can't carry anything heavy though. But they say he should be fine.

Seriously though, you could right a Hollywood movie about the whole thing, how they got him out, with riots at the airport, and no landing permission for the plane. Crazy stuff!

(oh, and coincidentally he is in the Ivory Coast at this very moment, again )

ARRH

Oh, and this is what the car looked like afterwards:



He found his laptop on the other side of the highway!!!

Zac2003

car fell on me and crushed my skull too long to type out here is a pic after surgery., this happend june 26, 02 , and now I have a corrogated(?sp) titanium plate in my head.

ARRH

how did a car fall on your head?

Zac2003

lol its a long type hehe i'll type it up tomorrow when i'm not dozing off so I don't leave stuff out but its pretty sick.

Nhanced1

Thank god I have not yet been in any sort of accident. There are quite a few amazing and incredible stories in this thread, great read.

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"Sell Crazy Somewhere Else, We're All Stocked Up Here," Jack Nicholson - As Good As It Gets

Vaultboy

Braked for a dog, doing about 80kph. Brakes seized and did not release. rear end stepped out,front end clipped the curb, car started spinning. Hit a lamppole in the spin, which saved me from hitting a tree OR flipping the car on the curb and over the traffic island onto the stepped road below. Car went onto the curb ni any case and smashed with my side into a tree planted on the island.

Wrecked the undertray and suspension. Car was a writeoff. I walked away without so much as a scratch, although I could have been dead, since it was a CORSA (useless bloody Opel/Vauxhall breadbin) and I wasnt wearing a seatbelt.

And yes, I know that at that speed you should rather turn the dog into roadkill than brake, especially on a wet road, but I think I woulda been worse off, given that a corsa is BLOODY USELESS.

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"Failing tastes of bile and dog vomit. Pity any man that gets used to that taste."

rmarshall

Okay, I was 6 and playin' with my dinky toys in the sandbox. I'd made this really neat racetrack with a big hill in it. My little racecar flew up the hill and across the driveway where it got flattened by my mom drivin' home with the groceries. Boy, I was glad I wasn't in that car!

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"Do not resent growing old. Many are denied the privilege" Irish proverb

rmarshall

Seriously, my worst was in '75. I was chasing after my friends on a 1972 Honda CB350 going as fast as I could on a country road. At about 90 MPH, the bike developed a severe front end wobble and I let go of the handlebars. I slid for ages and chewed up the T-shirt and my back really badly. I went back home and waited. My friends came back and took me to the hospital.
I don't ride without a leather jacket ever since.

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"Do not resent growing old. Many are denied the privilege" Irish proverb

spootyguy

Not too bad really; I was going round a blind corner on my bike (maybe a bit fast) and a car came round wide. It scared the shiat out of me so I pulled the bike back upright just in time for the corner to tighten up on me. I hit the soft verge, the bike stopped dead and I did a spectacular somersault over the bars into a bed of stinging nettles.
Luckily I was wearing full gear so I had no exposed skin at all, and only did about £40 of damage to my crappy little 125.
My fault completely though; I was very tired and distracted and so didn't react correctly in a bad situation. I think much more carefully now about whether I really need to ride if I'm tired.

FreshCoast

A couple of friends and I were in a big rush to catch our train. We were planning on taking a cab, but just as we were leaving, another friend offered us a ride. All four of us pile into the back seat of his Yukon, thinking we only had a few minutes before we got to the station. A block before the train station we slammed into the side of a cabby who ran a red light. When one of my friends shook me into conscienceness, I found my self with my head laying on the dash (I was sitting bitch in the back before the crash). I had no clue what happened, except I had a terrible headache and blood was all over everything. I was so damn lucky I didn't fly through the windshield. The cab was completely totalled, the yukon just got a little crushed, although nothing too serious happened, it was an accident I will never forget. I learned my lesson, no matter how short a trip always wear a seatbelt.

thadon

I totalled my 2000 Dodge Dakota the day after Thanksgiving 2002.

I came up to an intersection when a girl in a Jeep Wrangler traveling in the opposite direction decided to turn left in front of me. Well she realized that she could not make the turn so she froze like a deer in headlights and I hit her head on.

I hit her a little off center b/c she straightened her car up & I was just standing on my brakes & hit her. She was not wearing a seatbelt & her head smashed her windshield.

I was pissed b/c I loved that truck

goaterizer

edited by hrdwareguy

Scorps

I have only been in one fender bender, and I wasn't driving either.

Not_You

I peed in my pants in the car once. It was a long trip and I didn;t want to stop. That is my only car accident I can remember.

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Who stole the ham?

WarWagon

Got hit at a 45 degree angle by a schoolbus driver who missed a yield sign.

majik_6

The worst accident I've personally seen (never been in a really serious one myself) was last Monday, when my brother had an accident while street racing (which I don't condone, especially since he had just gotten his license May 22nd).

Story is, he was dragracing in his 1995 S10, doing 80 in a 40 zone against an older Ford (doing 90). At the end of the road, there's a 3 way interesection and a pond. My brother took the turn at 80, flew off the road and creamed a tree headon, the other driver (and her two passengers) landed 30 feet into the pond). Miraculously, all four of them walked away, with the only injuries being seatbelt burn (my brother) and a bruised head (a passenger in the other car). Thanks to some quick thinking, and a reputation as a usually levelheaded kid he escaped ALL tickets/citations/etc, which could have included dragracing, left of center, reckless op., reckless endangerment, failure to maintain control, and leaving the scene of an accident (I may have missed a few).

Right now, he's back to driving already, but much slower and more cautious. He's VERY lucky to be alive.


Oh, and on another note, the footage of his truck at the scene has been used on the news as a sort of PSA against speeding! All the EMS were very suprised to find out that he lived through the crash.

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it's all about self-indulgence

gonadman

16 yrs old in a '66 Ford Falcon. Me and a friend picked up two girls we just met to go to valley forge park to party. Flying down valley forge road, winding out the falcon, come around a turn to face a little old lady driving her car in the middle of a narrow bridge. We both veer, I escape the head-on but she catches my tail sending me into a spin. I spin across the road on the other side of the bridge and my right front wheel drops into a ditch, flipping the car end over end.

All 4 of us walked away from that one, with the only injury occurring when I rubbed my face with my hands which had glass all over them, ripping up the face a bit.

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For me there is only the traveling on paths that have heart, on any path that may have heart. There I travel, and the only worthwhile challenge is to traverse its full length. And there I travel, looking, looking, ...breathlessly.
-Carlos Castaneda

snowace56

Ive been in several accidnents none where i was driving. The worst was in the 5th grade, coming home from school (I lived in pakistan) a drunk driver hit us head on, and my seat didn't have seatbelts. Long story short...the passenger of the other car died, the driver was arrested for stealing an embassy vechicle, and I'm alive to the great invention of roo bars.