FA+
Shop
Car Accident
14 years ago
As some already know, last night I was in a car accident. I figure I'd save time and just tell those of you that wanted to know the details of the accident, on here instead of repeating myself over and over. (I HATE having to repeat myself. x3 )
I was coming home from a friends house pretty late, I live in the middle of nowhere so there are forests on either side of the road. We have a very high deer population in the area and about 2 or 3 of them ran out into the road in front of me.
Being tired and not thinking as clearly as I usually do when this sort of thing happens, I swerved to miss them on the rain slick roads, my worn tires couldn't get a grip and spun around a couple of times before slamming the driver side of the car into a bunch of trees.
I lost my glasses and the only light anywhere being from the flickering headlights.I felt around in my limited state of mobility until I found my phone. My service was terrible...I was lucky enough to get a call out to my dad, who rushed out to help me.
We called the State Trooper and an EMT. Trooper checked the scene while the EMT checked me. I filled out the paperwork and was sent on my way.
My car was totaled, I completely snapped the front axle and who knows what it looked like under the hood. Had the point of impact been 2 feet further back I wouldn't be here right now, but luckily I escaped with only bump to the head, some very slight bruising and being sore.
I got so many calls, Twitter mentions, and texts that I teared up. You guys mean a lot to me and I love you all so much thank you!
http://twitpic.com/4e24rx :That's the only picture of the car that I have, my dad took it with the aid of a flashlight.
I was coming home from a friends house pretty late, I live in the middle of nowhere so there are forests on either side of the road. We have a very high deer population in the area and about 2 or 3 of them ran out into the road in front of me.
Being tired and not thinking as clearly as I usually do when this sort of thing happens, I swerved to miss them on the rain slick roads, my worn tires couldn't get a grip and spun around a couple of times before slamming the driver side of the car into a bunch of trees.
I lost my glasses and the only light anywhere being from the flickering headlights.I felt around in my limited state of mobility until I found my phone. My service was terrible...I was lucky enough to get a call out to my dad, who rushed out to help me.
We called the State Trooper and an EMT. Trooper checked the scene while the EMT checked me. I filled out the paperwork and was sent on my way.
My car was totaled, I completely snapped the front axle and who knows what it looked like under the hood. Had the point of impact been 2 feet further back I wouldn't be here right now, but luckily I escaped with only bump to the head, some very slight bruising and being sore.
I got so many calls, Twitter mentions, and texts that I teared up. You guys mean a lot to me and I love you all so much thank you!
http://twitpic.com/4e24rx :That's the only picture of the car that I have, my dad took it with the aid of a flashlight.
*Kisses and hugs.* <3
But i'm glad you are ok man.
I wish you the best in finding a new car and hope you have not obtained any mental trauma.
-Shadow
As a professional driver, i've had millions of miles driving experience and professional driver training. It's important to look at these incidents as a learning experience and asses what went wrong:
- You were tired but you still chose to drive in adverse weather conditions. You should probably have called your father to pick you up, gotten a lift with someone else, or asked to stay the night.
- Proper tire and vehicle maintenance is important. Don't let the tread wear become excessive. my brother also learnt the hard way and had an accident due to excessive tire tread wear, with his family in the car. Luckily nobody was seriously hurt (just bruises), but it opened his eyes to keeping up with preventative maintenance.
- You identified the area as a forested road with a high deer population. Deer are very active at night. You should have anticipated the possibility of a deer impact and slowed down, especially since you were fatigued.
- Weather (rain), poor visibility (night), road conditions (wet), vehicle condition (worn tires), driver condition (tired and slow response time), are all indicators that you should have been driving slower than you were or not driven at all.
- When given the choice of a deer impact or swerving to miss, sometimes it's better to hit the animal in the road rather than swerve. Keep emotion out of it. It could save your life. This link has some helpful tips: http://www.wikihow.com/Avoid-a-Moos.....Deer-Collision
Please nobody take anything i've said out of context and my comments above are not a criticism. i look at things analytically and as a learning/training exercise. Having participated in many fact-finding investigations, this kind of incident is not uncommon.
The main thing to remember, and the most important, is that you're okay.
I should look at my tire treads before I drive down to DooDah. I always have to stop for deer on that route down to southern Jersey, last year at least 50 to 75 deer spotted on the side of the road.