I Survived a Head On Collision...and am lucky to live to tell about it!

[Dave]

Over the holiday weekend my wife and I were hit head on by a drunk driver on a back road late Sunday night. The driver was drunk and came around a corner too fast, went flying over the railroad tracks and hit us head on. My wife hardly had enough time to put on the brake (although we were only going 30-35 mph at the time). The accident was horrific, but the airbags in our 2002 Honda Accord did their duty and we both walked away from the accident with minor injuries. I suffered mostly bruises and a few contusions on my legs while my wife has some bruises and a fractured ankle. She'll be in an air cast for 3 months, but it could have been much worse.

The driver was wearing his seat belt, but their old Jeep Commanche truck they were riding in was not equipped with air bags. The driver lost all of his front teeth and his head hit the windshield. His passenger was not wearing a seat belt and suffered a broken back and multiple injuries to his head. The last pictures in the gallery below shows the hat of the passenger of the truck that hit us still stuck in the windshield.

I went back the day after the accident to recover all of our belongings in our car as I could not take them with us in the ambulance. Luckily all of my camera equipment (which was in my backpack in the trunk) survived and still worked flawlessly. The pictures were taken with my D50 and the kit lens.

Here is our car now:

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Here is the corner that the truck came around from our perspective. You can see the markings in the road where our car ended up with the front end being pushed to the right. The big circle right in front of the white line is the point of impact.

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Here is the truck that hit us:

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The rest of the pictures can be seen at http://imageevent.com/tsx_wiz/family/caraccident

We are all very happy and lucky to be here today with the minimal injuries we suffered. This is my friendly reminder to all, if you do drink (and I drink as well) please do not drive for the sake of everyone else out on the road!!!

Thank you for looking and reading (if you made it this far).

 

[Schnauzermom]

Holy spit! I'm glad you're both OK!!!!

 

[JohnR]

Wow! Thankfully you all are alright. I have 0 sympathy for drunk drivers.

 

[Julien]

I'm really glad you and your wife only had minor injuries ( and that the other driver wasn't too badly injured as well ) !!!

I can't understand how people can be so irresponsible. I couldn't care less if they harm themselves but when they risk injuring others it's just plain stupid and unforgivable !!!

 

[Dave]

Lisa, John, and Julien, I agree with you regarding drunk drivers. There's no excuse for putting yourself or others in harms way. Thanks for looking and reading.

 

[TonyC]

Jese oh, close shave and no mistake.

 

[greyflash]

How scary, glad that you and your wife are OK, An advertisement for seatbelts for sure.

 

[Jarrell]

If there is one thing I have absolutely no sympathy for it's a drunk driver. I've seen too many people killed because of them.
I'm glad that you and your wife sustained 'relatively minor' injuries, that is you were not killed. I'm sure she doesn't count that fractured ankle as minor and I certainly don't blame her.
Jarrell

 

[PEPPER PETE]

Glad you and your wife are OK.
Pete

 

[Dave]

If there is one thing I have absolutely no sympathy for it's a drunk driver. I've seen too many people killed because of them.
I'm glad that you and your wife sustained 'relatively minor' injuries, that is you were not killed. I'm sure she doesn't count that fractured ankle as minor and I certainly don't blame her.
Jarrell

No she doesn't see it as minor as it is putting a huge inconvenience into our lives...but at least we are able to experience the inconvenience! Thanks for looking.

 

[Candidcameraman]

Glad you...

Glad you both made it out alive and okay.

 

[Doug]

Glad to hear you and your wife made it through with relatlively non endangering injuries at least. The car of course, is toast. Drinking and being out at events is not a good combination. I recommend all drinking take place at home myself.

While I have no sympathy for drunk drivers, I do feel compassion for anyone injured in that manner. The passenger in his car, may or may not have been drunk, wasn't established that I saw, so for them I have some compassion as well, a broke back is way way serious, and maybe he was drunk too, but the fact is, he wasn't driving.

 

[Dave]

Glad to hear you and your wife made it through with relatlively non endangering injuries at least. The car of course, is toast. Drinking and being out at events is not a good combination. I recommend all drinking take place at home myself.

While I have no sympathy for drunk drivers, I do feel compassion for anyone injured in that manner. The passenger in his car, may or may not have been drunk, wasn't established that I saw, so for them I have some compassion as well, a broke back is way way serious, and maybe he was drunk too, but the fact is, he wasn't driving.

I agree with you Doug. I do believe the passenger was drunk as well, but I have not seen the completed police report yet so I do not know for sure. However, it was his own fault for not buckling up his seat belt and for getting in the car with the drunk driver in the first place.

Thanks for looking.

 

[Doug]

Yeah, it's true, if he was drunk, he's as guilty as the drunk driver really, as he could have even distracted the driver and caused it himself, at least partly.

to much to speculate on, but not putting on a seat belt, definitely his fault, and getting in a car with a drinker to begin with, also his bad judgement it seems...

My daughter got hit by a hit and run driver last year (likely drunk) and did 6000 damage to her car. I was just thankful he didn't hit her head on and it was oh so close to head on!, or the results could have as you know been devistating. As it was, my daughter was shaken up, minor cut, and she was just fine, her car wasn't. We traded it.

 

[ShaunK]

Dave, glad to hear you are OK... like you said, not good, but could have been much worse. I'll throw my voice in with those who have 0 sympathy for drunk drivers... if the passenger was drunk, 0 sympathy, if he/she wasn't, then why the *^&$ weren't they driving instead????? Either way, not good.

 

[gadgetguy11]

Dave,

Glad you are O.K.

I spent a week in Suwanee, GA at WEG for training last fall. That place is beautiful, and is really growing fast. A good friend lost his life near Suwanee in January, in a head on collision with a heavy equipment truck who swerved to avoid a police car.

No sympathy for drunk drivers here. I live in a college town. It is a huge problem here.

 

[Dave]

Dave,

Glad you are O.K.

I spent a week in Suwanee, GA at WEG for training last fall. That place is beautiful, and is really growing fast. A good friend lost his life near Suwanee in January, in a head on collision with a heavy equipment truck who swerved to avoid a police car.

No sympathy for drunk drivers here. I live in a college town. It is a huge problem here.

Thanks for looking Gadget Guy. Yeah Suwanee is growing really fast, sometimes faster than I think the city realizes. Sorry to hear about your friend. It just goes to show you that LITS (life is too short).

 

[goodquest]

I’m sorry to hear of your misfortune, but I’m glad you and your wife are ok.

 

[Rich Gibson]

It's great that you are ok. Seond on my list of "they deserve what they get" is mobile phone use while driving.

Rich

 

[Zensu]

Glad you are both okay!

I had a run in with a drunk driver years ago. I was designated driver for some friends and was driving them home late one night when a drunk driver hit us. My friends had their drinks in to-go cups which flew all over upon impact. As soon as I was sure we were all okay I got out to look at my totaled out car. The *&%#@ drunk who hit us kept on going! So I am standing in the road at 2am looking at my wrecked car and smelling like a brewery when a Deputy Sheriff pulls up. As soon as he got out I started to explain that I was not drunk but was hit by a drunk. The Deputy said "Calm down, are you all okay?". I'm thinking he's going to lower the boom after I tell him we are all fine. He says "Yes, one of our Deputy's was a mile down the road and saw the whole thing! The drunk kept on going and hit our Deputy's car but everyone's okay there too". The Deputy understood why I was happy the Deputy's car stopped my drunken attacker. That was a close one! I guess the Lord looks after designated drivers too!