[indes]

Having some drinks after getting into a car accident today. I was driving down the Anthony Henday and as I came around a bend I was shoulder checking hop back into the right lane. When I looked back in front of me there was an SUV slamming on his brakes. I tried to avoid him after checking the right lane was clear but ended up piling right into him at I think 80 km/h (was going 105 but slammed the brakes). I absolutely destroyed the rear of that vehicle.

The rear end was pushed from the hatch all the way to the back of the passenger seat. The SUV skidded about 150' before going into the ditch, thank goodness it didn't roll over.

Since I was swerving I clipped him with just the driver side front quarter panel of my truck, I ended up sliding down the highway sideways about 100' before coming to a stop. At this moment I was absolutely convinced I had just killed someone. I thought seeing the brake lights was scary, seeing the glass fly was scary, I thought the sound of screeching tires and horns was scary. But all those sensations were nothing compared to the bottom of my heart dropping out when I saw the back of that car.

I immediately started my truck back up and drove it into the ditch to get off the road and to the other car. I was beat there by a couple of people who had seen the whole thing in their rear views and came out to help. We got the car door open and a man stepped out, in decent shape! We asked if he was the only one and he was.

I couldn't possibly describe the amount of weight that came off of me in that second, to know there was no one in that back seat, exactly where I keep my son's car seat.

I'm drinking off the adrenaline now and just wanted to tell everyone to pay attention out there. It only takes a second for things to go bad on the highway.

Ironically the reason the driver in front of me stopped was because there was another accident in front of us. Did he need to slam on his breaks 1000' away from the stopped cars? Probably not. Did I need to change lanes to get through traffic to make it home 5 minutes quicker? Definitely not.

One last note, I just spent 7000$ on my truck for tires and maintenance. So far the only mechanical issues with my truck from the accident I saw are the ones I just got fixed! (Intercooler, front end, tires).

Hey just wanted to add another thought/interaction. I relayed this story to my dad, pretty much verbatim as it's laid out here and he said
"well thats pretty good!" I was confused and said "whats pretty good?" To quote my dad "You always think you're going to be the person who runs out to help someone or the person who puts others first, but you never really know until you need to. Everyone walked away and you learned something goood about yourself, #### happens."