After trying to avoid a deer, I totaled my car into a tree doing about 30 after the rear end spun around, then grabbed the road - tossing me straight into a tree just 10 feet off the road.
Literally 30 to 0 in zero seconds. No air bags either, just one life saving seatbelt. I had sore ribs for a month, but not a scratch. My passenger bit his lip, but not bad.
Talk about being confused, I backed up the car and finished driving it the 1.5 miles to my home. The front license plate fell off as I rounded the last turn and the radiator and fan hadn't worked since it smacked the tree. I coasted to the front of the house
http://www.beemaster.com/honeybee/july2001.html look at the bottom of the page for the photos.
I called home as I drove toward it, preparing my poor sickly Mom for a real shocker and she said that the police were looking for someone who ran into a tree - ugh. I told her to call them and they met me at our house - all 6 police cars :shock:
They had dealt with shock before and it wasn't uncommon for people to react this way (that is leaving the scene of an accident - no other cars were involved) so they weren't jumping out of the car with handcuffs, but close to that.
The fellow I mentioned with me was a young man I mentored - I was worried about him more than me - I know I was gonna hurt, but he was bleeding at the mouth. My only concern (if I had any clear thoughts) was to get him home so he could be looked at, I never gave a thought about a medic coming and checking him out at the crash site. Again, as Jerry said, you wonder what you are thinking - and I was conscience - lol.
I have never operated a car without seatbelts and man am I happy with airbags and a big car that asorbs the energy of an accident well. A coworker has a son who had an earlier year model of my new car - he destroyed it into a telephone pole and I was told the car was tally destroyed, way way way beyond book value totalled and the boy was absolutely uninjured. That says a lot about the car.
I have looked at car accidents in the news, seeing vehicles mangled into crushed chunks of steel with obviously no survivors - but seen some cars some how take the energy and save the passenger's life.
That 55mph Jerry worked out in your favor ONLY because you were both traveling in the same direction - I wouldn't want to be on a bike at HALF that speed if you mom was coming at me.
I also understand about the sense of smell being gone, but mine is an infection in my skull which still lingers. Luckily, the multitude of shots I received of antibiotics has controlled the spread. But everythig I smell has a TAINT to it, an infection smell that has changed the way that everything smells and I think the worse is when I'm in bed and a fresh smelling pillow smells like the infection smell.
Well... enough about me - lol. I'm at work and it is 5am. Talk later :)