Darrin
11-05-2010, 08:07 PM
On the way home from picking up my son tonight we got in an accident that totalled our 04 Mustang. Personal injury wise things came out for the best and nobody really got hurt. The girls in the other vehicle were beyond hysterical and will definitely be sore tomorrow, but I think the worst injury was to my left wrist and that just pretty much feels like I punched a wall or something. Not at all serious but I can't lift much right now. With the potential for bad in this crash, we all got damn lucky. Everyone walked away.
What happened is that a 17 y/o inexperienced driver lost it on the slick roads as she made a turn. She over-corrected about 3 times and was all over the place. She freaked out and obviously never came off the gas at all. I was driving the other direction down the road and when I saw her lose it I didn't know whether to speed up, slow down or what. With what I had to work with, I went for a handily placed right turn lane and fortunately didn'teither brake or speed up until her passenger front corner hit me in the drivers side front corner. She was doing maybe 30 and we were doing about 55.
But, that was just the beginning of the ride in my end of things. When she hit me it aimed my car straight at a phone pole that was on the passenger side where my son was. I was still at speed because by the time I knew I needed to hit the brakes I had nothing there to work with. I steered left away from the phone pole which didn't do much good, but my side of the car was now heading at a row of street signs that we missed by just enough to knock the mirror off the drivers door. The phone pole would have caused a call to the coroner and the signs would have put me in the hospital at the very least according to the deputies.
For whatever reason, both Sheriff deputies came to me individually and commented on what a piece of driving it was to have gotten the car between the pole and signs without hitting either. There was literally not even a full lane width there. When I got a good look at the car it was obvious how little I could have been doing even though where I aimed is where we ended up. When she hit me it tore the drivers side front wheel almost completely off the car and I am guessing that is what dragged us away from the phone pole and toward the street signs. I have no explaination for how we veered right and missed those because that loose wheel was digging a pretty good rut as we went through. Like I said though, I was definitely steering, but I am positive there was a hand involved that didn't belong to me. Like I told my wife, that guardian angel got his/her hands dirty and worked overtime on that one.
Obviously I didn't see what happened to her vehicle immediately after we hit, but I bet that poor girl in the truck went for one hell of a spin after we hit.
Fortunately all that was lost were a couple of vehicles and I thank God for that. This could have ben a whole lot worse.
Darrin
What happened is that a 17 y/o inexperienced driver lost it on the slick roads as she made a turn. She over-corrected about 3 times and was all over the place. She freaked out and obviously never came off the gas at all. I was driving the other direction down the road and when I saw her lose it I didn't know whether to speed up, slow down or what. With what I had to work with, I went for a handily placed right turn lane and fortunately didn'teither brake or speed up until her passenger front corner hit me in the drivers side front corner. She was doing maybe 30 and we were doing about 55.
But, that was just the beginning of the ride in my end of things. When she hit me it aimed my car straight at a phone pole that was on the passenger side where my son was. I was still at speed because by the time I knew I needed to hit the brakes I had nothing there to work with. I steered left away from the phone pole which didn't do much good, but my side of the car was now heading at a row of street signs that we missed by just enough to knock the mirror off the drivers door. The phone pole would have caused a call to the coroner and the signs would have put me in the hospital at the very least according to the deputies.
For whatever reason, both Sheriff deputies came to me individually and commented on what a piece of driving it was to have gotten the car between the pole and signs without hitting either. There was literally not even a full lane width there. When I got a good look at the car it was obvious how little I could have been doing even though where I aimed is where we ended up. When she hit me it tore the drivers side front wheel almost completely off the car and I am guessing that is what dragged us away from the phone pole and toward the street signs. I have no explaination for how we veered right and missed those because that loose wheel was digging a pretty good rut as we went through. Like I said though, I was definitely steering, but I am positive there was a hand involved that didn't belong to me. Like I told my wife, that guardian angel got his/her hands dirty and worked overtime on that one.
Obviously I didn't see what happened to her vehicle immediately after we hit, but I bet that poor girl in the truck went for one hell of a spin after we hit.
Fortunately all that was lost were a couple of vehicles and I thank God for that. This could have ben a whole lot worse.
Darrin