head on collision rocked my world

“ok, ok.........bout 4 weeks ago, it was a monday, a damp cold monday...34 degrees all day...till about 4:00....it dropped to 30 and started snowling lightly....well, by 5:00 it was suddenly very slick. it took me an hour to drove what normally takes 15 minutes. trafic snarled everywhere, people in ditches, utter pandemonium. it caught us all by surprise. well, i''m like 5 miles from my exit but goind insane from the dead crawl of traffic, so i decided to bail and go through town...lots of hill but i got a 4x4. i stopped on the off ramp and kicked my beautiful shiney wonderful victory red chevy truck into 4high. i confidentantly took off......bout a mile down the road....traffic was stop and go... there was a break in the oncoming traffic. the next truck, an isusu pup, passed the car in front of me and then headed directly fo the center of my hood. i had abut 2 1/2 seconds to mull things over. it's actually amazing how many thoughts went through my head in that time....

oh *(#&^*&^%!! THAT GUY'S GONNA HIT ME! OH *(*@ ! ! MY AIRBAG'S GONNA BREAK MY NOSE!! *&#^@^% ! !! MY BEAUTIFUL NEW RED TRUCK IS GONNA GET &#^$% UP! hmmm, wonder how hard this is gonna feel.... HEY! I'LL bail INTO THE DITCH ! OH #*&@^%!!! I TURNED THE WHEEL ALL THE WAY TO THE RIGHT AND I"M STILL GOING STRAIGHT! ! OH #*#^%$% ! ! I BETTER HANG ON !!!

DAM....that was alot harder than i thought it was gonna feel.....i shoulda held on tighter.

i was goin 30, he was going 40...he apeared to have seen traffic suddenly back up in front of him and he locked up his brakes. he appeared and veered straight torward me. WHAM! it was a very violent jolt. i was actually shocked at the force of it. i checked myselfout...shins were banges up from hitting the dash, that's about it. my seatbelt held but the airbag did not go off. i disovererd later that there was no fuse for it. (my loaner replacement had no fuse either, everybody check your's). i'm like...COOL! I'm OK! i figured the other dood would be too, i jumped out and ran to his mangled truck, i could not see him and i got a bad feeling all the sudden yelled "YOU OK MAN?" . he wan laying down on this seat and he raised up and yelled NOOOOO! his whole face was covered in blood and i sow right away that his arm was badly broken. i ran to my truck and got my cell and dialed 911. the dood is sscreaming and cussing and begging for help. then the 911 ladyt starts double questioning me. like she was doupting my whole story. she went on and on.......asking all these idotic questions. i was like we need an abulance now, as such n such adress, fast.....now.....i said it over and over. finally she asked me why my phone number was from a dofferent aera code. i told her it was my work phone. this guys is screaming bloody murder the whole time, crying, scared he was gonna die, and he was going to die without fest help. he couldnt breath because his chest has completely collapsed the steering wheel. it was bad....like he didn't even see the wreck coming...and no seatbelt. well, finally, i went off on this lady, and cussed her out and held the phone up to the guy screaming and crying for help. she quickly said emergency services wiol be contacted immediately. she wasted 4 minutes. well, the dood spent 4 days in intisive care, cardiac unit. got out after 7 days and will need phisical therapy for a year or two.


my truck was wasted...the tool box that goes across the back of the bed was crushed by a drill case in the bed slamming into it. it was totaled. it was awesome too.....when i went to get my tools theday there was another SUV in the lot that was .....incredibly crushed, blood everywhere....it made me realize how lucky i was....anyways, i drove this cruddy plane jane truck for a month and now i got a new ford XLT 4x4, 2 tone, fully loaded......i love it.....and ever since then, when im on a 2 lane hioghway i subconciously got over to the right as far as i can on the shoulder. i didn't even notice i was doing it for 3 days....

wear your seatbelts...”

“Glad to hear you're okay. Come to think of it, I plowed through some construction barrells a year or two ago and my airbag didn't go off...I think I'll be checking out the fuse. On another note, did they find the other driver at fault?”

“Scary stuff man....glad you're ok.”

“scary crash...saved by your chevy...and you replace it with a ford??? oh the shame of it.

glad your okay”

“Damn, that is scary. Glad you're okay. I always wear my seatbelt.”

“I hear ya, Strat.

If I didn't wear seatbelts, I believe I wouldn't be here today.”

“ive always wondered what it would be like to get in a head on collision like that,”

“We always wear our seatbelts. We're gonna check the fuses in the airbags.

I can't honestly understand why people don't like the airbags so much that they will take out the fuses????? Except for the following:

We have a friend who was in an accident and the airbag deployed. It jammed her glasses into her face and gave her two black eyes and broke her nose. Other than that, she came out of it alright. I only wonder what would have happened to her if her face had hit the upper part of the steering wheel, and her body had hit the lower part of the steering wheel. That is very likely what would have happened if the airbag had not deployed.

This person is a bit emotional, maybe even dramatic. She is also a bit prone to blame any one or any thing. What she is saying is that the airbag blackened her eyes and broke her nose. You would think it never occurred to her that she was in accident.

Kinda reminds of yet another person who had two black and blue lines across their body after an accident. One was across his hips, and the other started at his left shoulder and ran down to his right hip. He has the good sense not to blame the seatbelt, but is thankful that the seatbelt held him and he only received a bruising from the seatbelt. He didn't come out of it unscathed however. This was a highway speed crash (a highway dumptruck turned from the right hand lane across the left hand lane right in front of him with no warning, at one of those "authorized vehicles only" u-turns). He had a bad case of whiplash and need surgery for it. But he did walk away from the crash.”

“Glad you're OK Strat!”

“Wow Strat, we're glad you're all right. A Ford? You must like repair bills.”

“God is punishing you for supporting Bush.


I think I'll be checking my fuse too.”

“I rolled a full-size Chevy pickup on my way to a backpacking trip in January '86.
This was where I-81 south crosses Cedar Creek just south of I-66 in Virginia.
Rolling at 50-60 mph was terrific!
The banging was deafening and then we stopped upright and all I got was a lump on my head from the roof.

The belts saved three necks.”

“Glad you're all right, stratdewd. Even though I've owned my truck since it was new, I'll be checking my air bag fuse.”

“Frightening, Stratacaster-man! Glad you're here to tell us about it. Thanks for the 'fuse' tip. Wasn't even aware there was a fuse in there...”

“Speakin' of airbags....

Some people like to ride with their feet on the dashboard on the passenger side.

If the bag blows your teeth might become imbedded in your knee cap.”

“oh crap,.. glad you're okay.”

“DANG!!!!!!
Glad you are OK!!!!”

“Glad you came out of it okay. There seems to have been a lot of tragic stuff going on lately. Glad you're not part of it.”

“That seatbelt thing does tend to weed them out, doesn't it? Glad you're okay!


(and another chevrolet bites the dust)”

“Dewd glad your still with us and sucks for the other dewd though....
I Will check the airbag fuse asap....

Cons:
Fix Or Repaired Daily
Found On Road Dead
Pros
For Off Road Driving
First On Race Day

I drive a 1998 Dodge Ram 4x4.."ole Nelly" LOL”

“glad it came out all ok, strat.

once my civic got smushed by a giant suv...so bad it threw the baby seats that were anchored in the back seats out the windows. lucky that the kids weren't in the car that day or i wouldn't be able to complain about them today.”

“Let's not touch the Pontiac acronym!”

“Sorry to hear about your crash, Strat. Glad you came out OK.”

“WOW, glad to hear you're alright Strat,,, that is alittle disturbing about the fuse for the air bag.

Something that I have heard thru the years in regards to 'bracing for impact' is that though 'bracing' is probably instinctual it may not be the best thing for you to do. The reasoning behind that is that when bracing you are tightening alot of muscles ,, example,,like grabbing the steering wheel or pushing on the floor board w/your feet thus making all those extremeties more rigid and apparently easier to break then if one was to remain limp and relaxed.

Just a thought.

Sorry about the Ford.”

“dayam, sounds scary!! good thing you were wearing your seat belt.”

“Seatbelts saved me about 20 years ago and then saved my son and I both almost 10 years ago.

Thanks for the tip on the fuse. I'll definitely be checking that!”

“wow...what an account of a direct experience! so glad you are still here and able to tell us about it!”

“redneck not paying attention to the conditions of the road thinking that 4X4 pickup trucks are immune to slick conditions...did you happen to have an open beer in your lap, while listening to Lynerd Skynnerd?

but seriously, I am gladdened that you were unharmed and are OK!”

“Strat, glad you're okay. That's pretty scary.

Ford, Chevy, Dodge, it doesn't matter. Just get as much steel between you and what you're gonna hit.”

“stratdewd, did your hogleg pistol fly out from under the seat and slap into you?”

“Glad you are ok.

I read something the other day about people that bought used cars and later found out that the air bags had been removed. I guess they are quite valuable in the parts market and you can't tell until someone actually checks or needs it if it's there or not. The idea behind the story was to have a mechanic check before you buy a used car.”

“Hey i glad to hear your okay.. and very thankful that you also had you belt on... since we run a recovery company we see this every day.. over and over again.. and i cannot stress enough the importance of air bags and seat belts used togeather... if you solely depend on just the air bag, dont. it will smack the living snot right out of you.. Just last week we had a teenager tear the tandum off a tractor trailer.. and the father had the balls to complain about the air bag powder, and how it burned his sons face, frankly i did not notice it on his sons face.. but really this kid would have been killed or seriouly wounded... but the father constantly complained about the powder.. its a shame that he not on the ground thanking someone above for his sons life. And like i said it happend all the time.. this kind of job really keeps you grounded to whats important. and the dangers on the road..

Many times the air bags will not deploy in accidents, because the sensor has not been affected.. so dont always count on it.. it just depends on how and where the impact is.
But i am really happy that you were not hurt and hopefully someone may be reading this and learn something from your experience.”

“im still back on that idiotic 911 operator. what a dumb bizitch”

“911 operators are instructed to question certain things like phone number VS incident report location discrepancies due to the high number of false alarms.”

“glad to hear you're ok”

“Strat, whoa, what a story! I'm so glad to hear you came out of this okay.”

“okey dokey then, i guess ill cut her some slack. but strat putting the phone up to the screaming guy was inspired. im not trying to make fun, but its one of those things if it was in a movie, that would be funny. glad everyones ok, and stratty got his shiny new twuck”

“Still, I'd be pissed if the 911 operator did that to me.”

“4wd = 4wskid (on black ice)”

“maybe she had trouble understanding him with his poor spelling”

“I hydroplaned a few years ago on I-40 in Asheville, NC and creamed the concrete barrier at about 60 - in a Ford F150. Stuff that was in the back of the truck launced over the hood into the other lanes - no one else got involved thank goodness. My airbag deployed and busted my glasses, but that was it. It was one heck of a whack, and like Statdewd I had time to see it coming and think "Oh #&%!$ this is gonna hurt!".

Airbag saved my life - I have no doubt about it.”

“Glad you're okay Strat. I hope the other guy recovers fully. My first thought was I wonder how his condition might be different if the emergency vehicles had arrived 4 minutes faster and how will that affect the lawsuit.

So can anyone tell me where to find the fuse for my airbags? I am shamedly ignorant on that.”

“Probably in the fuse block with the rest of them...that varies from vehicle to vehicle...”

“Likely under your hood with the big fuses. Check your manual.”

“Good to hear that everything is ok.

A seatbelt saved my life once already. I cannot imagine driving without one.”

“Holy shi! dude!!!!


Glad that you are ok.

8\”

“Glad your OK!

I'm going out to look at my fuses now.....”

“Great luck and thanks for the tip on the fuse, I'm sure that will help a lot of people.”

“Why would they not have the fuses in there?????


Thats crap!!@!@!


8|”

“I thought the 911 people dispatch help immediately, meanwhile, keeping the caller on the phone to determine acurate location and extent of injuries”