Maritime Q-Scout
02-05-2007, 08:53 AM
since this isn't a "hypothetical situation" and people wanted to know what happened to me last Friday, I got around to typing up the events and will copy/paste below. Remember I'm fine, walked away without a scratch from the accident itself, as did the girl in the back seat, and the passanger in the front seat litterally had one scratch.
Now, I have a tale of woe and tragedy for all, so before continuing to read this e-mail, go grab some popcorn and settle in.
I went home to visit my folks last weekend, as I try to do about once per month. I was supposed to go two weekends ago, however due to the weather I changed plans to last weekend. After checking the forecast it looked like I’d get into Sydney before the next patch of dirty weather was to hit. I also had the privilege of not driving alone, but giving a lift to my friend’s cousin (Michelle was her name) and picking up another friend of mine (Brent) at the bus station in Truro. This meant that if we did hit poor weather at least there were people to talk to making driving slowly bearable.
Fast forward to being on Cape Breton Island, and driving Route 4, we hit some black ice, thanks to studded tires, quick reflexes, and knowing how to control the car in a skid, we skidded only slightly with no harm, no foul. Due to this situation I slowed the car down, and continued going 65-70 km/h, and slower around the bends. There were two vehicles behind me at the time, one a truck that was unhappy with my reduced speed so at the passing lane in Irish Cove (I believe it is) the truck zoomed passed me. I was thinking “ok buddy go ahead if anything’s going to happen it’s going to be to you and not me.” Alas this logic was somewhat flawed.
About two minutes later, we were coming up the blind crest in Middle Cape (for those familiar with the drive from last summer they were doing construction there). As we came to see over the crest, where there’s also a sharp turn, there was a man wearing all orange standing in the middle of the road waiving his hands. His car was parked on the shoulder of my lane (down the road a bit) with his hazards on. Naturally I hit the break, but had to swerve to his him, as genius was standing on the yellow line. Due to his body being more in my line, and his car on the shoulder I swerved to the left to avoid hitting him, his car, or both. Once I was safe by him, I turned to go back into my lane, or should I say I turned the wheel to go back into my lane. The car continued on the same trajectory. Rather than keep the wheels cut in our skid and hope to magically regain control and steer into my lane, I turned the wheels into the skid, and we skidded off the road, over a six foot embankment.
Alas I figured that would be it, unfortunately the car didn’t want to stop there. As we went down the bank, the back end of the car flipped over the front, with the car landing on its roof. Then we rolled once more, over the passenger side of the car causing us to come to a stop on all four wheels facing the opposite direction in which we started.
The front end of the car is all smashed, the roof over the front passenger side is caved in, the windows in the driver’s door and front passenger door smashed, as well the side of the car on the passenger side preventing both doors from opening.
The extent of the injuries from the accident was that my friend in the front passenger seat cut his hand slightly, and required a band-aid. When reopening my door to find my cell phone to call home and explain the situation….
The conversation home went as follows:
Mom: hello?
Me: Hi mom, is dad there?
Mom: what’s wrong?
Me: is dad there?
Mom: no, don’t tell me you were in an accident?
Me: Kinda-sorta
Mom: is everyone alright?
Me: everyone is perfectly fine
Mom: is there much damage to the car?
Me: oh it’s a write-off
… anyway when opening my door to get my cell phone I cut my index finger on broken glass still in the door. It’s no worse than a paper cut. We ended up finding my cell phone in the snow next to the car (would have fallen out the window during the roll).
Fortunately the car behind us was able to stop safely (as the guy was moving out of the road so they didn’t have to swerve to miss him) and got out to make certain we were ok, and stuck around until drives from Sydney (35 minutes away) arrived.
All in all, an eventful night, I’ve been told “luck you walked away” and “lucky to be alive” and even “if it wasn’t for your driving I’d be dead right now” and “because of your quick thinking no one was hurt, people could have been killed”. Regardless, I’m ****ed I crashed the car. It sucks, but I wasn’t my fault, I was surprised when the RCMP officer said “where this clearly was no fault of your own…” but it still sucks ya know?
Cheers,
~ Jon (aka Maritime Q-Scout)
Now, I have a tale of woe and tragedy for all, so before continuing to read this e-mail, go grab some popcorn and settle in.
I went home to visit my folks last weekend, as I try to do about once per month. I was supposed to go two weekends ago, however due to the weather I changed plans to last weekend. After checking the forecast it looked like I’d get into Sydney before the next patch of dirty weather was to hit. I also had the privilege of not driving alone, but giving a lift to my friend’s cousin (Michelle was her name) and picking up another friend of mine (Brent) at the bus station in Truro. This meant that if we did hit poor weather at least there were people to talk to making driving slowly bearable.
Fast forward to being on Cape Breton Island, and driving Route 4, we hit some black ice, thanks to studded tires, quick reflexes, and knowing how to control the car in a skid, we skidded only slightly with no harm, no foul. Due to this situation I slowed the car down, and continued going 65-70 km/h, and slower around the bends. There were two vehicles behind me at the time, one a truck that was unhappy with my reduced speed so at the passing lane in Irish Cove (I believe it is) the truck zoomed passed me. I was thinking “ok buddy go ahead if anything’s going to happen it’s going to be to you and not me.” Alas this logic was somewhat flawed.
About two minutes later, we were coming up the blind crest in Middle Cape (for those familiar with the drive from last summer they were doing construction there). As we came to see over the crest, where there’s also a sharp turn, there was a man wearing all orange standing in the middle of the road waiving his hands. His car was parked on the shoulder of my lane (down the road a bit) with his hazards on. Naturally I hit the break, but had to swerve to his him, as genius was standing on the yellow line. Due to his body being more in my line, and his car on the shoulder I swerved to the left to avoid hitting him, his car, or both. Once I was safe by him, I turned to go back into my lane, or should I say I turned the wheel to go back into my lane. The car continued on the same trajectory. Rather than keep the wheels cut in our skid and hope to magically regain control and steer into my lane, I turned the wheels into the skid, and we skidded off the road, over a six foot embankment.
Alas I figured that would be it, unfortunately the car didn’t want to stop there. As we went down the bank, the back end of the car flipped over the front, with the car landing on its roof. Then we rolled once more, over the passenger side of the car causing us to come to a stop on all four wheels facing the opposite direction in which we started.
The front end of the car is all smashed, the roof over the front passenger side is caved in, the windows in the driver’s door and front passenger door smashed, as well the side of the car on the passenger side preventing both doors from opening.
The extent of the injuries from the accident was that my friend in the front passenger seat cut his hand slightly, and required a band-aid. When reopening my door to find my cell phone to call home and explain the situation….
The conversation home went as follows:
Mom: hello?
Me: Hi mom, is dad there?
Mom: what’s wrong?
Me: is dad there?
Mom: no, don’t tell me you were in an accident?
Me: Kinda-sorta
Mom: is everyone alright?
Me: everyone is perfectly fine
Mom: is there much damage to the car?
Me: oh it’s a write-off
… anyway when opening my door to get my cell phone I cut my index finger on broken glass still in the door. It’s no worse than a paper cut. We ended up finding my cell phone in the snow next to the car (would have fallen out the window during the roll).
Fortunately the car behind us was able to stop safely (as the guy was moving out of the road so they didn’t have to swerve to miss him) and got out to make certain we were ok, and stuck around until drives from Sydney (35 minutes away) arrived.
All in all, an eventful night, I’ve been told “luck you walked away” and “lucky to be alive” and even “if it wasn’t for your driving I’d be dead right now” and “because of your quick thinking no one was hurt, people could have been killed”. Regardless, I’m ****ed I crashed the car. It sucks, but I wasn’t my fault, I was surprised when the RCMP officer said “where this clearly was no fault of your own…” but it still sucks ya know?
Cheers,
~ Jon (aka Maritime Q-Scout)