What Is the Worst Crash You Have Been In?

The short version is that I got punted off the road by someone who was rear-ended getting ready to make a turn (had they not had their wheels turned, they likely wouldn't have hit me) in the middle of nowhere in the Carolinas. I was with both my parents during a family vacation.

I just filled up the gas tank, too.

The worst injury out of all three of us was my dad, who sustained some broken ribs. He was in the back seat behind me. Glad to say we all walked away from the incident.

The weirdest thing, though, is that I don't remember the accident. One minute I'm driving down the road, the next were crashed at the tree line.

You'd think it would be putting a car on it's roof, but that was a race-car and had a cage and I was secured, so it was uneventful for me. (not so much for the car) 

I have avoided crashes for the most part, other than a few fender-benders, my only other big one was as a passenger in a friends 1985 Mustang. He spun it through a split-rail fence and took out every body panel on the car. No injuries, except the Mustang. 

Colin Wood said:

The weirdest thing, though, is that I don't remember the accident. One minute I'm driving down the road, the next were crashed at the tree line.

I actually don't find that weird; traversing a choppy uphill at the local MX track with the front end about a foot off the ground the backend stepped out, so I applied power to straighten it out................in an instant the dirt bank at the side of the track jumped out and hit me.

On PCH, squinting into the setting sun, I u-turned in front of a BMW going highway speeds. Never saw him coming. It pushed my Integra back into the lane I just turned from, facing oncoming traffic. Guardrail caught the BMW and prevented him from plummeting off a cliff into the Pacific. 100% my fault. Both cars were totalled, we both walked away with severe whiplash, but just cuts and bruises. 

I've been pretty lucky to not have been badly hurt but I have plenty of snowmobile, wheeler, bike crashes in my history. Worst auto one was when I was 17 on the way home from work.  Semi was at the red light so I slowed down about a block early and just let the my truck (lifted 87 F-150) idle in 2nd gear and creep towards the light. Light changes and I glance in the rear view and see headlights a block back. I just start to touch the throttle as the semi gets moving a few car lengths ahead. Look in the rear view again just in time to see the headlights disappear beneath the tailgate. The rear window shattered when my head hit it and it was odd that in the moment everything went slow-mo. To this day I'm confident I could draw a perfect picture of the dash based on the sound of the glass bouncing off of it... I got hit by a brand new Chevy 3500 work van that was fully loaded with tools and still had temp tags in the window. Our bumpers just missed height wise and the guy tried to go around at the last second to he hit me pass side. Rear of my truck went air born and became a short box on that side, the rear axle shifted over 3" to the left (frame bent big time). The van didn't fare as well... front end crushed in (everything forward of the passenger compartment was toast) and it shorted the the starter engaged while the cracked oil pan drained on the road. It cranked over until it either seized or ran out of battery. Turns out the guy was reading a map doing 40 threw town, I was rolling around 5mph. Luckily I wasn't bleeding or got a concussion, he had busies and air bag burns but otherwise ok. His work van wasn't going anywhere but I drove my truck home.

One that was shocking to me...also around the age of 17...was showing up for work Sunday morning to a squad car in the bay with the roof caved in. Sheriff was responding to a call around 4am and hit a Moose at 80mph. The brush guard had some scratches, hood was undamaged, the roof on the passenger side was caved in so far and hard that it broke the seat back flat into the back seat. The drivers side was dented around the steering wheel and in far enough that if I'd have tried to sit in the seat with my head pressed against the rest my nose would have touched.....The sheriff had minor cuts and bruises. I talked to him later in the day and he was very aware of how close to death he'd been.

Last session, day 2 of my 3-day SCCA Competition school, went straight-ish off of the the end of turn 10 at NHMS into the guardrail in my '71 BMW 2002 ITB car. Hit left-front corner hard enough to put a crease in the roof, and I moved a 4-ft high section of guardrail back a few feet. Memorized all of the ceiling tiles in the ER of Lakes Region General Hospital while waiting for an X-ray, with my head taped to a backboard (the back of my head hurt worse than my neck did at that point). Doctor said I have arthritic build-up between the 2nd and 3rd vertebrae, likely caused by my previous worst accident a year, or so prior - putting my street GTI head-on into a guardrail exiting the highway (classic turn in too early, spin to the inside affair, but I think I also lost a chunk of the LR wheel as it grazed the curb on corner exit which was a contributing factor). Doctor asked if I played football, as he sees necks like mine typically in people who hit their heads against things for a living. Given that my physique is such that I don't worry about affecting car balance, or legality, with my presence, I found the question amusing.

Following the BMW crash, I went back to the track and was able to secure a rental (ITC VW Scirocco) for the next day so I could finish the school and get signed-off for my competition license...