I was driving late one night up an old mountain road 20+ years ago with a buddy that was bragging about how well his car handled, I told him that I knew this road like the back of my hand and would like to drive his car to see just how good it was. The long story short is that both the car and I where not as good as we thought and I missed a turn, went over a cliff and down about 60 feet flipping end over end on the way down. When the car stopped we looked at each other and got out with no more than a few scratches and bruises, the car was destroyed with a trail of parts all the way to the wreck. we both walked back to town, I guess The Good Lord wasn't ready to take me home yet.

Now what happened to you?

I'm not a bad driver... I just try too hard

ok here it is, my best friend (now my bro inlaw) lived on a farm about 15km north west of geelong at a place called gheringhap  my brother & i decided to ride our bikes to the farm dad usually took us but was at work that day about 5km from the farm we had to cross a busy highway the crossing point is just past a slight bend with a junction just before the bend, my brother was in front  i checked to see if anything was coming & started to  cross the road i had just gone over the white line when i saw  a vw beetle the woman driving (a friend of my mothers) was doing about 70mph as she came round the bend she crossed over the line & didnt see me she hit me at full speed no brakes i hit the windscreen then stayed on the car against the screen she then headed off the road saw she was going to hit a tree & slammed on the brakes which catapulted me into the tree & dropped me face first into a large pool of water. unfortunatly i didnt walk away.

After attending a street race on a section of "closed" - unopened interstate highway (circa 1970) my buddy and I were following another guy in a Studebaker Hawk and we took the same "cloverleaf" style tight downhill exit - at speed. Kevin's tie rod broke (Studebaker trademark?) and the car took a sudden violent left turn over the edge and - flipped out of sight in my headlights.

Slid to a stop and went hauling ass over to see what we figured would be a very messed up Kevin and car..... almost stepped on him in the dark. Apparently on the first revolution the door flung open and he flopped right out on the ground and was left behind as it went flipping on down the embankment. The remains of the Hawk hardly needed any extra crushing at the scrap yard - but Kevin escaped with a back strain.

Even after over 6 million miles ,except on dirt ovals,I've not scratched any thing since.

The weirdest part of the whole story is that we didn't try to get him to stop drinking.

frank i just thought you were pegleg cause of the submarines

john you said the one thing that has stuck with me for 30 years what does god wish me to do my accident was actually brush with death #4 at 8 i got encephillitus at 10 i sliced open a finger & nearly bled to death i just got over that when i had a tooth pulled at the dentist & he tore a vein & i nearly bled to death again oh yeah the finger i cut 28 years later i crushed it i stiil have it it just looks funny.

When I was a little boy, about two or three, I was riding on the fender of a hose cart (a little tractor of sorts used to pull sprinkler hoses in the orange orchards)  my Dad was driving about a walking pace. I decided to jump off and go for a run but I tripped on the dismount and my Dad ran right over my head. He told me later in life that he thought for sure he had crushed my noggin when he felt the thump but when he looked back he said I just got up and shook it off. It wasn't till I got home and saw my bloody face in the mirror that I started crying my eyes out. This would not be the last of my head injuries, could be why I'm a little goofy though. 

It was one of those accidents that took time and all we could do was go for the ride and hoped we survived. I remember when we came onto the overpass, the truck seemed to have corrected itself. This false feeling of course was because the trailer was completely sideways at this point. When it came back around again, it basically took the truck and threw it into the guard rail of the overpass and all I thought was we were going to go over, and into the drink with the trailer coming on top of us. We slid across the entire overpass and in the process, my Wife's side got T-boned by the 3 ton truck. We came to a stop, got out and were thankful to be alive. Wy wife suffered 3 broked ribs. All I had was a sore neck and a bruised shoulder. Our Dog seemed fine, He was between us on the seat and ended up on the floor under the dash.

 I realised later that if we crashed any place other than that guardrail, we would have hit the ditch and rolled, no doubt being killed. I'm so glad that a higher source is in total control of our lives and only He can decide when our time is up.

As far as accidents, which one? I've had a few dents and scrapes along the years. I guess the worst one was when I was in High School. I had a 45 Dodge 1/2 ton pickup. One afternoon on the way home from school with two friends in the cab a car came over the hill in front of me on the wrong side of the road. I kept waiting for him to move over but it wasn't happening. At the last minute I swerved to the left but he cut back to his lane at the same time. We "met" in the middle of the road. General speed was about 40mph (each) so total impact was pretty hard. A witness said that one of the boards from my bed bowed and snapped out. She said it went above the phone poll on the side of the road. The passenger in the center was a contestant in the Ms Kansas City contest that year. Somehow I put my arm out in front of her to catch her (I guess). Ended up with my arm being driven into the windshield and her teeth marks on the other side. She only had a broken jaw but bad enough she couldn't compete that year. My friend on the passenger side tried to jump out and  the cab door slammed shut catching his head in the upper frame. He had some fairly major head injuries and a broken leg and arm. When I saw him in the hospital his head looked like a black and blue basketball! As for me, the dice (yup a custom truck ) on the floor shift went into my right leg behind the muscle and tore back out. I also have a unusual gait to my walk from that! My right arm was cut from the teeth and the glass. When we got to the hospital they wrapped the gash in my leg treated me for shock and prepared to move me out of emergency. They told me to stand up but when I did my left leg refused to touch the floor! This was really odd, no sensation, no pain but I couldn't force it down. Back on the table, cut up the other pants leg (on my new pants). They found a small 1" cut at my kneecap. You could see the bone through it but no blood flow. Off to Xrays to find my kneecap was now plural! Broken in 12 pieces they said. Boy did that take a long time to heal. We all recovered (I think) Ms KC only spoke to me in court when they sued me for "damaging her facial beauty" She had no visible scars or damage so the judge laughed (hid his face behind a folder) her off. Of course I did have to pay everyone's medical bills.

The other driver, a friend of mine from school that had skipped that day with his girlfriend! I suspect heavy petting was the accidents cause. I had State Farm insurance, when preparing for court they told me don't worry about anything they had it covered. Went to court and my lawyer, when asked, says "I have nothing to add"! Turns out my friends dad was a State Farm agent so they sold me down the river!

Epitath, My entire family of midwestern farmers canceled their State Farm policies and none of us has ever used them again to this day! I'm sure that hurt them. Thanks for listening, and stay safe, were getting too old for this stuff! Chuck in NH

Just a couple of weeks ago my wife and I were coming home from a car show towing the race truck with our F250.  It was dark and without warning we were both startled by a horse in the middle of the road.  He was standing on the white line and looking at us with the "deer in the headlights" look.  We couldn't have missed him by more than a few inches.  If he had made a move, I probably wouldn't be writing this and I probably would have demolished my second Y-Block powered pickup.

His car, the "Chicken Hawk" is/was a '51 Studebaker with a twin turbo 299" Studebaker engine.  Runs about 10 flat and nearly 140 in the 1/4.  They were running 1/8 mile that night at Muncie because of high winds.  He runs 112 in the 1/8.  He lost an engine, lost control because of the oil, crossed lanes (some say airborne and upside down), crashed through/over the left guard rail and backed into the scoreboard post, probably still running about 80.  The car then climbed the post and the front of the car knocked the win light off the scoreboard, did a couple of pirouettes and landed right side up.  There is no straight panel anywhere on the car.  There are pictures all over, I know of the ones on the studebakerdriversclub.com forum, HAMB, and perfectrun.com.  His name is Ted Harbit.

I have visited him several times, he has a punctured lung, broken collarbone, 2 broken lumbar bones in his back, and is beat up all over.  I didn't make it to the hospital today, and this evening I got an email from him, he's home!  Praise God!!

Glad your friend is doing better, we'll keep him in our prayers.

I visited a fella last night that was hit by a county officer's patrol car. Bryan was on his motorcycle and the officer took an unprotected left turn without looking. Bryan's ankle and kneecap were completely disintegrated. He now has mostly metal and plate in those areas, and he is obviously laid up. His bike was about stopped, but the car was going 30 and crushed Bryan's left leg as he was on his bike. He had asked for the "preacher" (that's me) through one of our church members - Bryan does not have a personal relationship with God - so he is heavily shook up.

Glad to hear Ted is home.

God's protection and blessing on you too, John.

Dan

glad to hear your friend is doing better. add one more prayer to the list.