Lucky to be Alive

hey guys,

well this morning i fell asleep behind the wheel and went into a guard-rail at about 80km/h.

here's what's left of my dad's car. it WAS a 2001 Honda Accord.

front right corner:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v727/Suislide1337/DSCN0788.jpg

passenger side, looking back-to-front:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v727/Suislide1337/DSCN0787.jpg

passenger side, looking front-to-back:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v727/Suislide1337/DSCN0789.jpg

passenger side:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v727/Suislide1337/DSCN0782.jpg

yes that one is blurry, my apologies. and yes, the door is missing. the guard-rail ripped it clean off of the car, and if you look to the top right of the next pic, you can see it clearly...still entangled with the guard-rail.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v727/Suislide1337/DSCN0790.jpg

somehow, by the grace of whoever is up there, the only injury i sustained was mild whiplash.

and so ladies and gentleman, with this i offer you a warning. if you are driving and feel the slightest bit tired, PULL THE FUCK OVER AND HAVE A FUCKING NAP! do NOT try any of those bullshit quick fixes, like opening your window or blasting the radio. it doesn't always work. i had my radio cranked when i blacked out this time, and i know that for a fact because when the car had stopped and the dust had settled, it was all silent except for the CD player still faintly playing.

because think about it: take 10 minutes for a nap and show up 10 minutes later, or keep driving and don't show up at all. i am EXTREMELY EXTREMELY lucky to be alive, and absolutely puts into perspective how quickly it can all be ripped away from you.

thanks for your time.

Holy shit!! Glad to see you're ok. Where did you have to be that you needed to drive tired??

Good thing you're okay man, that sucks, hope everything works out.

this is the worst part: i didn't NEED to be anywhere. i was at my friend's house watching movies, and the three of us passed out during the movie around i'd say 3am. i woke up at 6:30am after sleeping 3.5 hours on a hardwood floor, and realized i needed to work at 10am so i should probably get home so i wouldn't over-sleep or anything.

i felt fine for the entire trip, not drowsy or tired at all really. just sort of average. i wasn't even a minute away from my house when this happened. i remember waking up when the car was about a foot away from the guard-rail, and not even having time to realize what was about to happen. before i knew it, there was noise all around me, glass flying everywhere, dust, the airbags were going off, and i spun 180 degrees. when i stopped i didn't even fully realize the extent of what had happened. i got out of the car and started collecting my shit that had gone flying out the broken window and missing door (my CD book was found about 15 feet from where the car rested, and about 20 feet from the initial point of impact). then when i walked around to the passenger side of the car and realized just how close i came to death or serious injury...my knees buckled and i broke down into tears, right there in the middle of the fucking road.

to top it all off, i have a $325 careless driving ticket to deal with. i'm not griping that i don't deserve it, because i fully do. what i did WAS careless, and i'm lucky that a) i didn't kill myself, b) i didn't injure myself, c) i didn't hit another car, and d) that i was the only one in my car. i fully deserve the ticket and intend to pay it, but it's just the icing on the cake i guess.

the biggest pain now is that my family of 4 people, 3 of which are drivers and who all go seperate ways every single weekday morning and there-fore each need their own car, is now down to one vehicle between all of us. hopefully this will only be temporary however. insurance will pay for a new car for my dad, which he's almost happy about because now he gets to actually pick out a car instead of taking the hand-me-down from my mom. and this time he'll actually get something 5-speed (mom doesn't know how to drive standard). as for me, i was supposed to pick up my new '88 Mazda RX-7 yesterday, but it failed the emissions test so we have to wait to re-do it on monday. i can't imagine how angry i'd be right now if that was the car i'd wrecked after only a few hours of ownership.

80km/h or mp/h? Either way you were very lucky, and its good to see you are okay, for that kind of damage.

You're lucky to be alive. When looking at the picture, at first I though in the first picture the red stuff was blood, but now I see it's only the tow truck.

I remember last month I was driving back to Michigan from Indianapolis and I was feeling tired, but I just tried the quick fixes. I rmember driving along fine, then the next thing I remember being halfway in the other lane. That knocked all the sleepiness out of me and I was fine the rest of the way, but then I decided that if I ever feel tired again, I will take a quick nap instead of being an idiot.

Damn man, glad to see you're ok from all that. Those quick fixes NEVER really do work. If you feel tired driving, pull over and run around, do some jumping-jacks, get your blood flowing and you will be fine for an hour.

its good you're allright, man.

that looks horrible, i can't believe you walked away from it. i'm glad ur ok

wow, major buggerage. glad you're ok. the sliding (pun intended) mod of AF will live to see another day.

http://img83.imageshack.us/img83/6393/golf5bn.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

see why golf is bad for you?

anyway good to have u alive man

haha actually that's not a golf bag. that's my backpack for school. it had my PS2 in it at the time of the accident, and was sitting in that seat which got crushed by the guard-rail, so now my PS2 is fucked up too. dammit!

thanks for the kind wishes and words everyone. i feel 100% normal again, even the minor whiplash i had before is gone completely. the whole thing sort of feels like a dream.

i can't believe i walked away either.

Damn man. Glad to hear you made it out okay. The man upstairs is watching out for you. What time did this happen?

about 7am this morning.

and i still haven't slept since then. haha!

Damn man, that's pretty fucked up. Glad to hear you made it out alive.

Fuck dude, I was wondering about your MSN name earlier. Glad to see you're okay.

I feel asleep at the wheel once when I was driving to Christchurch. Blinked and when I opened my eyes I was across the centreline. We were in a two car convoy, so I got my parents to pull over and my dad to drive while I slept.

Brian, I think it's a subconscious Honda hating thing you go going on there - you destroyed the car by ramming into the rail at just the right angle to do the minimum amount of damage to yourself.

Gutted about the 7 failing the test :(

Fuckin' shit Brian! Damn, glad you're alive though man. Someone out there is lookin' out for you. Hey, now you have an excuse to buy a PS3.

I know how that goes though, I've never fallen asleep but have been close. It's scary when you get that feeling. So a ticket...does that lead to anything else or just a ticket??? 'Cause my wreckless driving ticket could have led to jail time/probabtion/something bad, but thank goodness I was in Fla attending schoo. I think that helped.

Glad to see your ok man...

Good to see your alright. Looks like one hell of a ride.

Damn slide you are seriously lucky to be alive I've HAD friends that didn't walk away in a lesser of a wreck. I am glad to see you're OK (even though I think you're the mod who banned me a while back) A way to look at it is that I guess it wasn't your time to go, he has better plans for you!

That is really disturbing!
Glad to see you are okay.
The car itself means nothing, it can be replaced, you can't.

I have almost nodded off countless times behind the wheel, over the years, but I usually ignore it, which is bad driving on my part.
Thank you for the reminder about why I should take a break.

You may receive a bill for repairs to the highway/guardrail.

If this happen on the 407, (Brampton, Ont.) you definitely will get a bill.
Just give the bill to the insurance company. They must pay it as part of your claim, even if the bill arrives months from now.

About 5 years ago, a co -worker of mine piled a company -owned truck up on the 407, and took out a 20 ft section of concrete guardrail. He fell asleep, too.

A YEAR after the accident, the 407 sent a bill to us for $10,000, for repairs, clean up, fire truck etc. IMO the bill was bullshit because it was way too high, but the insurance looked after it.

yeah the cop said i would probably get charged for that. i don't know how much of it i took out, probably at least 10 feet. but there was no clean-up crew (tow-truck driver did it) and no fire-truck (town workers though...). oh well, we'll see.

thanks again for the kind words everyone. i was supposed to work an 8 hour shift today and was sent home after only 6 because my back and knee were in a fairly large amount of pain. all it is is general stiffness and soreness from being thrown around, but my mom is going to set me up with some massage therapy to try and get rid of it. she said it worked wonders when she got whiplash about 10 years ago.

anyways, we're going to the wrecker's tomorrow to clean out the car. i'll try and get some better pictures and post them up.

Wow...glad to hear that you're ok for the most part. I bet that got your adreneline pumpin' pretty good lol.

good to know you're ok... cheating death is fun at times, but always dangerous.

We actually had to make a brochure in driver's ed on the effects of driving while tired. You know if you haven't slept in 24 hours it's equvalent to a .10 BAC?

Damn mate, you fucked that up good!


Your bloody lucky to, could have been much worse if there was another car near you.

Have you seen a Doctor about the whiplash?
After my crash at a similar speed a few years ago I got what I thought was only "mild" whiplash and I didn't get it looked at. My neck is now permanently stuffed.


Be interesting to see if your driving changes over the next couple of months, I know mine did, and the crash I had wasn't even my fault.

yeah i haven't seen a doctor yet, but my mom is making me an appointment to get massage therapy done on my neck and back. she said it helped her whiplash when the chiropractor couldn't.

as for being lucky, i realized it even more today how lucky i am. going back to the crash site, i noticed that if i had hit the guard-rail merely one foot to the right of where i hit, i wouldn't have glanced off like i did. instead i would've stopped dead and would probably be alot worse for wear then i am now. and a foot further to the right of that, i would've missed the guard-rail completely and gone flying into a rather deep ditch at 85km/h. definitely wouldn't have walked away from that one.

i also thought about the car that i used to drive, my black '91 Pontiac. the thing was basically a rolling piece of rust, and i'm pretty sure if i had crashed that car instead, i would be in alot worse condition right now. also the van that i drove up until September. with a higher centre of gravity, who's to say i wouldn't have rolled or worse?

all of the "what if's" are pretty goddamn scary, and i think the weight of this is finally starting to sink in. i haven't been able to drive since the accident, not because of injuries but simply from a lack of access to a car. my dad got a rental but in canada you can't drive rentals until you're 21. my mom has a car but she is barely ever home for me to use it. hopefully tonight my parents will be purchasing a new car with the insurance money, and at the end of the week if everything goes right i will hopefully have my RX-7, and then things can finally start going back to the way they were.

i think my guardian angel should get a raise.

We actually had to make a brochure in driver's ed on the effects of driving while tired. You know if you haven't slept in 24 hours it's equvalent to a .10 BAC?


holy hell!!

holy shit!!!

Oh fuck...

I drive to uni and almost fall asleep at the wheel. I seriously do. Like you know when you're sitting in class and you get tired you wanna sleep? Yeah that shit.

I was over my ex's mum's for the weekend (about a 1-1.5 hour drive away) and this is how my weekend went ( sleep wise), Got to sleep about 2am friday, 6:30am start for Rhys' soccer, took brony out sat night, got to sleep about 2am, up at 6am for Brony's soccor, drove home about 5pm that night, I nearly fell asleep a few times, but I just put the stereo up.

Fuck.

I am so glad you're ok.

Thyere's signs on the mass highways that stay
"Take a break
Stay awake
for safteys sake"

Yeah. i've dozed off a couple times. its the scariest feeling in the world.

went and cleaned out the car today...holy shit. i didn't expect to get so emotional when i saw it, but when i first walked into the impound i just had to stand there for a minute and let it sink in. you almost don't believe it's your car until you read the license plate, and find all your stuff inside.

i snapped some more pictures as well.

full view:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v727/Suislide1337/DSCN0813.jpg

side:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v727/Suislide1337/DSCN0800.jpg

front corner: the fender was actually ripped, right through the metal, in quite a few spots.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v727/Suislide1337/DSCN0796.jpg

originally i said that the entire door had been ripped clean off the car. as it turns out, it was only the outer metal skin that was torn off. the inner metal skin was ripped in half.

this is looking towards the rear of the car. the unibody was pushed in so far that you can see the suspension clearly.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v727/Suislide1337/DSCN0809.jpg

and this is probably the most disturbing image of them all. when the inner metal skin of the door was ripped in half by the guard-rail, half of it (the half closer to the front of the car) stayed in it's place on the hinges. the back half, still attached to the car by the latch, was CRUSHED into the right rear passenger seat.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v727/Suislide1337/DSCN0795.jpg

if someone had been sitting in that seat....well, needless to say i don't even want to think about it. and if my friend's hadn't driven seperately and left hours earlier, someone very well might have been sitting there. this picture was taken while i was sitting in the driver's seat. note how you can clearly see the tire, even while in the driver's seat. also note the gunmetal bar sticking out of the headrest. that's one of the legs off of the tripod you can see sitting on the seat. it somehow snapped off and jammed directly into the headrest, so much so that i couldn't pull it out. also note the purple/yellow box behind the seatbelt. that's a DVD box set, that, again, was jammed in there so far that i couldn't pull it out. was one of my favourite shows too...go figure. but i'd much rather lose a DVD box set than a friend.

so yeah...pretty fucking scary stuff guys. but the "what if's" don't really matter. all that matters is i didn't get hurt, nor did anybody else, a valuable lesson was learned (the hard way unfortunatley), and life as i know it will hopefully be back to normal sometime soon.

a valuable lesson was learned (the hard way unfortunatley), and life as i know it will hopefully be back to normal sometime soon.

your car has the resemblance now that of TwoFace

its good you're alright, and better that you can share this to those who are still trigger happy.