Surviving a car crash

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Posted: Thu Jul 12, 2007 4:04 pm

Have to get this off my chest...I survived my first car crash, and it wasn't even my fault!

What happened was, two highways merged near Utrecht (A12-A28 to the Hague for the cloggies). I ended up on the most right lane, for slow traffic. A big lorry was on the middle lane. He wanted to go to the right lane. He did not see my car. So he hit me in the left rear quarter, forcing my car in a left spin. I veered off to the left, hit another car and ended up hitting the dividing gaurd rail at about 50 kph. I was doing 100 kph before the accident.
I got out of the wreck, was taken to hospital by the ambulance, on a board and with a neck collar. Nothing was wrong, thank god, and now, two days later, I have no more stiff muscles and am feeling fine.

SO the next car will be of the same make: VOLVO!!!

This crash makes me appreciate life even more, and enjoy it to the fullest. Smile

OH yes, pictures of course:

thanks for letting me share... helps me recover, therapy... Very Happy

Posted: Thu Jul 12, 2007 4:25 pm

Yikes! Glad you're OK.

Better get started gathering up those rosebuds.

Baiting Guru Joined: 11 May 2004 Posts: 2163

I've hit a tree going 90 km/h in Enschede. Car went up in flames. I got out of the car without a scratch. Seatbelt saved me. I never ever let anyone in my car without wearing seatbelts.

The accident happened the day I had to deliver my final papers for school. I went back into a burning car to get the papers out of there. And the next day was my parents 25 year wedding anniversary.

Unfortunately i don't have the pictures of the car (renault clio) anymore

Posted: Thu Jul 12, 2007 4:30 pm

Glad to hear you made it through ok physically. Hope the emotional part heals just as fast. Took me a while to be able to drive past my accident scene without rolling my eyes around just to be sure.

Posted: Thu Jul 12, 2007 4:33 pm

I flipped a car I owned once. I was going about 75 MPH. As with Klaasvaak, a seatbelt saved my life. Just ended up with on scratch over my right eye and on my eyelid. I was knocked out twice that I can gather but no permanent harm. I don't have the pictures from mine either.

So if you walk away and it wasn't your fault, you can be happy. My wreck was my fault for driving too fast in conditions(ice on side of road not on road itself).

Posted: Thu Jul 12, 2007 4:47 pm

I'm so glad that you are able to post that. jump_4_joy

Posted: Thu Jul 12, 2007 4:56 pm

I'm glad nobody got hurt, but it still makes you extra careful in the same situation, it kinda sticks with you for a couple of years. Had two accidents here in Canada and I can't pass there without slowing down.

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 22 Jun 2006 Posts: 18

I got hit head-on by a drunk driver about 6 1/2 years ago. I banged my knee and had to go for physio for a couple weeks. A year later we went to court, the guy's blood-alcohol level was .162 (legal limit here is .08 ). He got off because I couldn't identify him and the police officer at the scene arrived after he was in the ambulance. He was there, his car was there (partially embedded in my van) but nobody could positively identify him as being behind the wheel of his car.

Posted: Thu Jul 12, 2007 6:24 pm

looks like a nasty bump. good you didn't get injured, or congratulations.

Posted: Thu Jul 12, 2007 7:32 pm

@spoilsport

I�m glad you are okay. Were there witnesses and did the Lorry (whatever that is, I�m a silly yank) stop or keep going after hitting you? The reason I ask is because based on the pictures it looks as if you merely rear ended another vehicle. (Possible a truck or SUV) I just don�t want the driver you were forced to hit to come after you. The owner of the lorry probably has deeper pockets anyway.

Yes, Volvos fare very well in traffic collisions but why didn�t the driver�s side airbag deploy Shocked

Did you have it turned off?

Posted: Thu Jul 12, 2007 8:35 pm

@ghost : lorry = truck. Very Happy

I was in luck, the accident happened just when rush hour was picking up, so there were plenty of witnesses, who wouldn't notice a Volvo smashing through all three lanes and hitting the gaurd rail dividing the two directions of traffic? Laughing

The lorry stopped when it happened, it took a while, police said there were tire marks all the 100 metres till the guy stood still. I did not include the picture of my car's rear, it has nice marks on the left where the lorry hit me first.
I guess my airbag did not deply because my left front end impacted the gaurd rail first, taking the brunt, then my car rotated around that impact point slightly, so my rear end faced the direction of travel. My side did not hit the gaurd rail that hard. My door opened easily, the passenger side scraped the front fender.

@coronalight: thanks, I am glad too! I am also glad that people place such nice replies, I am not a geek! Laughing

@luckey: rosebuds? Those things in the siggy's? I still have no clue what those mean, please enlighten me... Smile

Posted: Sat Jul 14, 2007 11:46 am

Spoil:

Glad you are okay! I miss my Volvo because it was so darn safe.... my new car is the Ford 500 (renamed the Taurus) which is on a Volvo Unibody and has the Volvo air bags Smile

Probably the safest car with a US "badge" on it.

Glad you made it through that. I "lost" a car to a fight with a large pick up truck. Thank God the driver's side air bag deployed. I was wearing seat belt, but would have hit the steering wheel I think. Took forever to get the smell of the air bag out of my nose. Smelled a lot like cordite to me. It smelled like I had been at the shooting range all day.

I don't know how your legal system works over in cloggie land, but here in the US my advice would be not to settle on an amount with the lorry's insurance company for your injuries until you are sure you are done healing. Most lawyers here in the US will talk to you for free for the first meeting and then you can decide if you need to hire them (or would you call them a barrister over there?) okay duh you would have some Dutch word wouldn't you?

Any way, you get the picture Smile

Sorry for rambling - glad you are okay!

Master Baiter Joined: 28 May 2007 Posts: 144

Glad to hear you're safe spoilsport.

You say you were on the right hand side of the lorry..yep, thats a common accident right there. Lorry drivers have a really bad blind spot, just to the right a bit behind the drivers cabin area. Unless he did something inexpicably wrong, I think he just didnt see you.

Posted: Sat Jul 14, 2007 3:16 pm

I am glad you are not hurt! How scary.

I was just visiting a friend in the hospital yesterday. She had a bad accident 3 months ago and is still recovering - so I am really glad you are fine.

Take it easy!!!

Posted: Sat Jul 14, 2007 7:27 pm

So glad to see you here posting about the crash. I was rear ended a while ago and when the car stops, I still clench my buttocks waiting for an impact in the rear. My accident was relatively minor, thankfully.

My thoughts and best wishes for the recovery period.

Posted: Sun Jul 15, 2007 6:55 am

I am glad to see you're still around to bait some more mugus for all of us! Smile

This past May 19th, I was driving a rental car (a 2007 Ford Taurus SEL) north on Interstate 95. The part I was driving on is in Delaware, is three lanes northbound, and less than a mile from Pennsylvania. Just before entering PA, I was in the left lane and a black Ford F150 was in center and six car lengths ahead of me when a Delaware State Police came zooming up behind us on the right lane. The driver of the F150 started to swerve until he clipped the speeding state police, effectively performing the P.I.T. on the police sending him right and then left across all lanes. I ALMOST hit him, but I found the sweet quick braking stop...fast enough for me to avoid the collision but just slow enough to avoid locking the brakes.

The driver of the F150 apparently went into diabetic shock. His truck after the P.I.T. ended up on the right of the road while the state policeman crashed into the dip in the median of the roadways. I went to check out the officer and he was cut up badly in his face by glass shards but was thankfully alive, aware, and alert. The F150 driver in the mean time was being looked out by a pair of off-duty North Carolina paramedics as well as by a passing Pennsylvania State Police officer.

And to think, I did not even drive so much as an inch from the time I earned my license in South Dakota in 1996 until this past May 17 when I picked up the car upon my arrival at the PHL airport. Shocked

Posted: Mon Jul 16, 2007 3:48 am

Glad you're ok and I understand the therapy part. Thirty years ago, when I was in my mid 20s I was hit head-on by a drunk driver whilst going to work at 7:30 in the morning! Physically, I walked away with only one bruise where my seatbelt restrained me. (Both cars were damaged more heavily than yours!). But the other driver, unfortunately, was paralyzed from his injuries. It took me several years to get over the psychological trauma. Not that it haunted me every day, but from time to time it would come back. When my daughter started driving I gave her my 6 year old volvo and got myself a new car. She hated it because volvos are so practical and not cool. When she went off to university, all her friends there said, "wow, your dad gave you a volvo?!?!?.....cool......... Wink