Car wrecks and trauma

[Buster's Uncle]

Well... I've had a hard day. Got rear ended while sitting at a stop light on a long straight 50 mph road. We were about the 4th car in line at the light in the center lane. Didn't see him coming. Didn't hear brakes. Knocked us into the car ahead and terrorized some children in it. Lucky for them we were there to absorb the brunt of the impact. The offending driver had no insurance. We suspect texting.

I think I'm going to drink some rum or brandy, take a long hot shower, and maybe relax my aching neck and back.

Have I ever talked online about the incident of 10 August 1996, roughly 10:55pm?  I thought I was dead.

I. Thought. I. Was. Dead. when my car finished spinning.

I literally thought "This is it.  I'm dead."  My life didn't flash before my eyes, but BOY did I experience slowmo.  I'll never forget the sound of the glass from my rear window tinkling as it bounced around the interior of my (suddenly ex) car, bounced off me, while I waited to be made dead forever.

-Rusty, if you need to talk about it in the month or so to come, Jesus; I'm available.  DO NOT HESITATE.  That $#@! can be hard to walk off.

[Rusty Edge]

I appreciate it Buncle.  My wife just told me I screamed, but I don't recall that part. I was momentarily confused. Maybe I'll need to talk about it if I remember more of the crash sequence.
Car accidents can be traumatic in surprising ways.

I was in a spinning head-on corner clipper with a drunk one night circa '98-'2000.  I lost the car but I walked away with only a stiff neck and sprained wrist. The psychological trauma was lingering, because a passenger in the other car lost the use of his arms. The idea that he couldn't wipe his own butt really bothered me for months because I couldn't tolerate living like that. Survivor's guilt, of sorts.

Eventually my boss snapped me out of it by making me realize that I did the best I could, and that if an average driver ( traveling sales job, I was a "pro  driver" at the time ) encountered a wrong way driver on the highway there, it would have been lethal for more than one of us. Everybody was lucky they encountered me first.

The other driver got a five year jail sentence, and the passenger gradually improved from paralysis to mere numbness, last I heard. I changed jobs and counties after the trial.

[vonbach]

I've seen (and been in a few)  a number of accidents over the years. I actually had a car clip ours when I was a
kid. Spun the entire  car around about 3 or 4 times. No one in either car was seriously hurt.
I can recall two accidents in my childhood to early adulthood in where I saw a couple kids die.

[Unorthodox]

Been in a few accidents as well.  Two still disturb me.  A semi decided he wanted my lane on the highway.  I can still see the lug nuts just cutting into my driver side door like it was butter.  Horrible sound.  I managed to get into the emergency lane and my options were a barricade, ditch, or semi as I couldn't stop.  Fortunately the driver back off and I was able to avoid what would have been death.  That car had no AC, and I normally drove with my window down and my arm on the door.  It was an abnormally cold afternoon, or I would have lost my arm when that tire started cutting up the door.

The second was a hit and run, someone watching the jets take off from the air force base sideswiped me on the freeway causing me to lose control into a spin in heavy traffic.  In what the cop witnessing the accident called the best driving he's seen outside a movie, I managed to regain control of the spinning car...BACKWARDS down the freeway and pull into the emergency lane.  Would have made it to a safe stop there had there not been a sandbag barrier around a drain that knocked me back into traffic where I got hit a second time, but relatively minor. 

Considering 15 years, my job specifically involved driving semis and heavy equipment, my hours behind a wheel are tremendous, I probably should have more on my record.     

Get right, even minor scrapes can mess things up.  You see a doctor?

[Rusty Edge]

       Get right, even minor scrapes can mess things up.  You see a doctor?

Thanks, Uno.
The EMTs were there in a hurry, either because the hospital was close, or because it looked like there may have been another accident on the intersecting road around the corner. ( The city is laid out in grids, with a major street every mile. This was an intersection of 2 of those drives. The one we were on had been beefed up to handle traffic from the interstate, which is under a major interchange rebuild.  It was about 4:40 pm, with a light rain. ) We declined the hospital.

 Today I'm sore, but not stiff. My neck turns fine again, and while my back never feels good unless I'm on prescription drugs for something else, it's more or less normal again, soreness aside. Just as I'd choose sinus drainage over sinus blockage any day of the week, I'd choose sore muscles over stiff ones. No seatbelt bruises or scrapes.

My wife has some stretched neck muscles today. She's going to ice them when she gets home.


I don't remember much of the missing moments. I know I was looking at the ceiling revolving around at one point, the floor of the car zooming up at me at another, and hearing crunches. I don't know if I thought I was having a vertigo attack, or a flashback to one of those interstate pile-ups and infernos I got detained in once.

I guess I didn't say that my wife was driving, and that we were in her car. Probably because we were just sitting at the light, and it was more like we were parked than driving.

I can say that having been rear ended twice before in my driving career, IF YOU HAVE SOMEPLACE SAFE TO STEER, and you see in your mirror the car behind you coming too fast, pushing in the clutch or throwing it in neutral just  before impact will get you off with a bumper scuff.

[Buster's Uncle]

I think this has enough legs on it to split into a new thread.  Clearly, everybody's got stories, and we're talking about some pretty primal trauma.  I know I'd like to talk some more about it...

Any objections?

[Rusty Edge]

I think this has enough legs on it to split into a new thread.  Clearly, everybody's got stories, and we're talking about some pretty primal trauma.  I know I'd like to talk some more about it...

Any objections?

None. Go for it.

[Buster's Uncle]

Done.

I should write up my whole story, I guess.  It's far from the only contact traffic incident I was ever in, not even pretty spectacular 360+ spinout-on-an-interstate-highway ones, but none of the rest turned me into a wanting to be in a fetal-position basket case for a month.

[vonbach]

Every other year a deer decides to put its head in front of my cars bumper.
Its just par for the course here.

[Buster's Uncle]

Do you at least get some meat or jerky out of the deal?

[vonbach]

Not really. Just car damage.

[Buster's Uncle]

No luck with deer whistles, then?

[vonbach]

Yes from what i've seen and herd about them the deer get startled by them and run in front of your car more.
Its never one deer. The first deer leads and all the rest follow. Its the last two or three that are too stupid to pay
attention. They just follow the herd.

[Buster's Uncle]

Huh.  I've seen them on a few trucks, but never heard whether they worked.  You're a bit further out in the country than I am.

[gwillybj]

Do you at least get some meat or jerky out of the deal?

Around here if its edible the trooper will write up a tag and you can take it home. I got 90 pounds of good venison from one I hit. I was going downhill at about 55 when the thing just stepped right out there. Totalled the car: folded the hood like a playing card, laid the radiator back on the engine block and split the transaxle wide open. I was fine; more mad than anything.