What Is the Worst Crash You Have Been In?

Not a racer, too chicken, and never been in a car wreck, but what are you real racer's worst crash?

Michael Waltrip looks back at his horrific crash at Bristol in 1990 | NASCAR on FOX

After seeing that wreck I gave up building the world's heaviest dune buggy after a semester of mechanical engineering and welding 101, no brains, and before discovering things like crush zones, and before the internet. Way later found this sight that structurally analyzesd a NASCAR frame from 1998:

Design of a Winston Cup Chassis for Torsional Stiffness

Please note the 2.5" tree growing in my yard art. ​​​​​​​

Knock wood I haven't crashed the race cars. I did have one catch fire in a 130mph corner but the car (single seater) was stopped within 3 seconds so it wasn't as scary as one would think.

I once went over the bars of my Yamaha at about 85mph; I got spit off by a huge tank slapper. I must have gone about 6 to 8 feet in the air, I came down and landed on my ankle which folded so hard I felt my boot bind up around my ankle. I did two more cartwheels before skidding across the pavement face down for about 200ft. While I was skidding along like the human hockey puck I watched the face shield on my helmet grinding away until it split in two, at that point I closed my eyes becuase loads of grit was pouring inside my helmet.

After coming to rest I looked down to see if everything was pointed in the  right direction. A few seconds later I stood up and the bottom of my feet felt like someone had slapped them with a board. It hurt so bad I had to sit down. About 30 seconds later I could walk again. I'd broken both thumbs and severely sprained both ankles.

Words cannot adequately describe the sheer violence of the incidence. 

Note the during my misspent youth I've been shot at and actually have heard bullets wiz past my head.........this was far more frightening becuase I knew it was coming, the instant before I got spit off I screamed and no sound came out......the pucker factor was that high.

My (former) marriage

Coming within 2ft if suicidal deer at 3:30am on the bike.  Close enough to smell them. Bent my thumb of my right hand completely back to my wrist. Slide about30 meters...on my face. Full gace helmet FTW. Surgery and 3 months to get it back to normal.  The lump of scar tissue is impressive.

I have been in four bad ones and each one involved at least one class 8 truck except the last, which was a big pusher motor coach.  When I was 16 I was T boned by a cabover Kenworth carrying a load of pipe after my pickup spun during a collision with a car. That one was fun. I got off without a scratch. Cannot say the same for the friend in the passenger seat. Wrote off my pickup of course. It was bent in half.  In 1998 I was hauling 140,000 pounds of lumber up a steep mountain road and I met a Peterbilt on a blind corner. I will never forget the sound of tearing metal. No Idea why I am alive but both trucks were writeoffs. I dived for the passenger seat as did the other driver and both our trucks were sheared off to the frame rails. Neither of us were hurt because we were not wearing seatbelts and were only doing maybe 40 mph each.Then about ten years ago I was driving a tandem axle dump truck at 60 mph and a truck and transfer (7 axle) pulled out directly into my path and I hit him head on. He was pulling out of a gravel pit and said he assumed I would be pulling in. I braked hard enough that the back end came around just enough to take some of the direct impact out of it and again I walked away. I pulled on the wheel hard enough to bend it pretty good. And the last one was me in my brand new Dodge Ram DRW cruising up the Fraser Canyon on a sunny afternoon. I was in a passing/climbing lane with a semi coming down and one beside me that I was passing. The big coach pulled out to pass the one going down despite the solid yellow line. He hit me head on. Once again totalling off both vehicles and walking away without a scratch. To be fair I think I have close to 2 million miles under my belt so stuff happens, but I fear the next one will be the last. I have never really had any minor accidents. Just bad ones. 

Drunk driver who hit me side on at over 80mph and knocked me cold out. This was on the 55 freeway, she did not turn onto the freeway just drove on it at a t angle and drove me into the center barrier. She blew 4x over the legal limit. Engine ended up inside the cabin, all four wheels were folded under the car. Brother was in the passanger seat and climbed out of the car through the sunroof and got them out of there upside down and starting to burn car when he was 14. I was out like a light. 

My friend's dad sent his project car to a shop to have them to install a swap kit, his car being the alpha. They were paid to get the car running and driving while my friend's dad would then do all the finish work. My friend and I took a trailer down to pick up the car. The shop asked if we wanted to take it on a quick run up the road before putting it on the trailer. No interior, seats not bolted down, no windshield, battery at my feet with jumper cables running up to the engine. As my friend grabbed second gear he leaned back a bit and the steering column came back with him, disconnecting from the rack. We had no time to react as the car went off the road, skipped off one tree, down a 15' embankment and landed in blackberry bramble. My neck now makes fun clicking sounds when I turn to the right and the car hasn't moved from where we parked it after getting it home that night.

I managed to roll my ITB VW twice in the same season. First time just mooshed the roof down on the cage a bit and I repaired it. The second time I got airborne and it landed on the passenger drip rail. Moved the cage about 4 inches to the left, but it held. Car was junk and my neck was sore for a week, but otherwise I survived it well. Safety gear does work. It's also the reason I haven't bothered doing track days with a few of my friends. I'll give that a try only if I put a cage (not a roll bar) in my Miata.

I had a mechanical failure on one of the race cars when going at 100-110 mph into a hairpin corner - upon releasing the brake having slowed down as much as I needed to, one rear brake stayed locked on, which spun me backwards into the Armco off the track, putting a slice in the fabric and dent in the tubing framework of the seat about 1 " from my arm.  The body damage was much less that it could have been.

I'll add the reason for the crash if only for Frenchy, whose cars use the same brakes as I had - others may stop reading now.  This was in an MGA Twin Cam with Dunlop brakes (also used on the older Jags). The caliper seal is held in the piston instead of in a groove in the cylinder wall, which is the usual way. It is sandwiched between the brass piston and a steel plate that is held on by two screws with countersunk star washers.  One of those washers cracked and when I went hard on the brakes, the screw had just enough room to fall out so that when I got off the brakes it jammed between the piston and cylinder, that corner stayed locked on, hence the spin.

Quickly went to the simpler parts out of later (post 1959) Mk 2 Jags which had the parts swaged together (Frenchy - when did the switch to those?)

In reply to VolvoHeretic :

The only serious crash I was in I was a passenger of a car the driver was showing off in.  He lost control around. 70 mph and the car slid off the road and went 3/4 of the way to the top of a support wire where it hit on my door.  Then fell off and landed on my door.   I was knocked out right away and didn't come to until at the hospital.  They were doing a Trace lavage  to see how much damage was done internally.  Turns out none.  

wspohn said:

I had a mechanical failure on one of the race cars when going at 100-110 mph into a hairpin corner - upon releasing the brake having slowed down as much as I needed to, one rear brake stayed locked on, which spun me backwards into the Armco off the track, putting a slice in the fabric and dent in the tubing framework of the seat about 1 " from my arm.  The body damage was much less that it could have been.

I'll add the reason for the crash if only for Frenchy, whose cars use the same brakes as I had - others may stop reading now.  This was in an MGA Twin Cam with Dunlop brakes (also used on the older Jags). The caliper seal is held in the piston instead of in a groove in the cylinder wall, which is the usual way. It is sandwiched between the brass piston and a steel plate that is held on by two screws with countersunk star washers.  One of those washers cracked and when I went hard on the brakes, the screw had just enough room to fall out so that when I got off the brakes it jammed between the piston and cylinder, that corner stayed locked on, hence the spin.

Quickly went to the simpler parts out of later (post 1959) Mk 2 Jags which had the parts swaged together (Frenchy - when did the switch to those?)

With the later calipers. I'm guessing around 1963-4?   The early (1958)calipers had a round pad while the later ones had the square pad. 

Labor Day weekend 1984, Riverside Int’l Raceway, ITB Pinto, practice session (so not even when anything counted). I came up on a guy in an ITC Datsun going into the esses – for the 2nd time. Got annoyed he held me up so I figured to pass with real hard braking during the usual downshift into T5. Set it up as planned, got where I needed to be, on brakes hard / not locked up but . . . over inflated gonads led to brain-fade and oooppps no downshift. Before I could say ‘Oh shift’ the Pinto was firmly planted into the inside wall.

I was OK until I was in the ‘impound’ area and got down on my knee to look at something under the car. When I went to stand up I didn’t. I most likely had a mild concussion, definitely sore the next few days. After that it took several races to go into T5 without lifting.

Had a head-on wreck on the freeway once. That sucked.

Props to the Mercury Mystique for safety, though. I walked away.

Hit a utility pole at around 50 mph and totaled my '71 BMW 2002. Hit it just to passenger's side of engine. In addition to the front end damage, both rear fenders & C pillars had vertical dents.  Walked away with a sprained wrist & cracked rib. Cockpit remained impressively intact. Both doors opened and shut normally as did windows after the crash.

As retired motorcycle riders say - with age comes the cage. This happened on a motocross track wearing full safety gear. A helicopter ride and a few surgeries later, I'm still around. Minus a kidney and a spleen of course. And a lifetime of back problems. These days I stick to 4 wheels.

My worst is pretty tame in comparison to what's already been posted. Stopped at a traffic light on a six-lane highway. Light turns green, we all start going. Then I realize the minivan ahead of me is coming to a stop for some reason. I brake hard and start waving to warn the car behind me, but that was to no avail as she plowed into my right rear. That forced me into the back of the minivan and blew the airbags in my first Miata. I came out OK other than a broken finger on my left hand when it got blown off the steering wheel by the airbag. Girl gets out of the Grand Prix that's now stuffed in my trunk and the first thing she says is not "are you OK" but rather "if I hit you and you hit the minivan, is you hitting the minivan my fault too?"

In reply to WillG80 :

EEeeeeeeeee!

Worst crash on a track was at Summit Point main with FRCCA about 10 years ago in a 1983 Reynard FF.  Like my second or third event on track.  Lifted going down the chute in Turn 4, and got enough throttle off over steer to bring the back end around.  Tore up the right front when I hit the first time, spun around then hit the right rear and ended up nose in when it finally stopped spinning.  I started to get out after a time and the corner worker who came down  to talk to me through fence yelled at me to stay in the car until the ambulance cleared me.  Apparently, it was dramatic to watch.  Got my first and only ride in an ambulance so they could do concussion protocol.  They were good with the tow truck though, stuffed it most of the way into the trailer.

Of course, my wife was up in start / finish tower with our toddler.  They blacked flag the race, all the cars came back but mine, and then the ambulance left out of the pits.  She was not impressed.

Lesson Learned:  I never set foot on a track again without a HANS device even when I paused for a 6 or 7 years and restarted with HPDE.  They were really expensive back then, and not that common.  It's shocking how much your neck will extend.  I was sore for a couple of weeks.

easy, lowside at  turn 6 at NHIS on a motorcyle....sliding across the pavement for what felt like forever into the tire at 100mph?  that sucked

I've been hit coming through the kink at CMP and gone spinning through the grass. That's the worst on track. 

Off-track, I had a box truck run a stop sign and I broadsided it at about 35 mph. That was a hard stop. Totaled the E250 I was driving. No injuries other than airbag burns on both arms. 

Race cars are safer than street cars at the level I race at. 

I was seated center of the back seat in a four door ?1987 Jeep Cherokee. Driving north on I-77 just past Montrose, Ohio heading to Boston Mills (ski hill) with skis on the roof rack.

Buddy had just turned sixteen and was driving on a learner's permit and his mom was in passenger seat. Two other friends sitting to my left and right. XJs aren't very roomy - we were packed in tight.

3 lanes northbound and we pass a car using the left land and the driver of the Jeep I'm in returns to the middle lane. Unbeknownst to any of us, another car was passing on the right at a much higher speed. That driver wanted to be in the center lane at the same place and a "cospatial event" followed. 

We got hit in the right rear and proceeded to be turned sideways doing about 70 mph and then barrel rolled 2 3/4 times on the interstate, then slid to a stop against the median barrier with the driver's side on the asphalt. 

The Jeep's tailgate and all the skis flew away but that tin box was near completely intact and we unbuckled and scampered out through the open back end. Remarkably the only injury aside from a major scare was one friend cut his thumb on broken glass while climbing out. 

We all got a ride to the hospital in an ambulance anyway. Later I was contacted by my buddy's parents insurance company and they asked me what I needed to be reimbursed. I said my skis were ruined and those cost about $175. I got a check for $200 very quickly. I was thrilled.

Thankfully that was my one and only besides one low speed meeting with a ditch a few months later, shortly after I turned sixteen. 

I didn't get hurt when I put the E36 M3 on it's roof at 60+ mph the first day I had it on the track.

Did a low side on a motorcycle at 25 mph after hitting some fluid on the road and a fractured my thumb.

frenchyd said:

With the later calipers. I'm guessing around 1963-4?   The early (1958)calipers had a round pad while the later ones had the square pad. 

No, the early XK 150 had round pads and later ones went to the square by 1958, and they were the same set up with screws holding the plate to the piston.  

At some point they changed the spec - maybe early 1960s?  That was the period for the Mk 2 that I sourced caliper halves with swaged plates from.

Edit...

Quite a few thumb injuries in this thread. My worst crash, but in a helicopter, not a car. I split the bone in my thumb. It's good as new now with the old scar from when they put some titanium in.

This one for sure:

The CRV pulled out from that side road too close in front of me in a downhill off-camber turn and I couldn't avoid an impact, the CRV driver admitted fault. I ended up with a bruised knee, a fractured sternum, and some muscle injuries in my back that I probably could've avoided if I'd crossed my arms over my chest instead of keeping them on the wheel the whole time. I thought about doing it but I kept on trying to avoid the CRV until it was too late. I eventually got the Samurai back into this condition, but the passenger door is a bit drafty and the trans tunnel needed some modification: