How Many Car Accidents Have You Had?

Thus far I have not been the driver in any auto accident and I have been a passenger in two ... both were my sister driving. Neither too terrible either, basically fender benders.

I have been in three horrible ones...The third being the worst and most life changing.

My first I had just had my driver's license for a little over a year. this Little old Lady pulled out in front of me and I had no time to stop. My car was totaled and I had minor injuries.

In 2008 while driving home from a girls night out with my best Friend. We had stopped at a red light. Upon pulling out from the stop, once the light turned green the car to the right of me veered in front of me. I t-boned him. At the time there was a lot of confusion about what had happened.

It was not until the next day we realized there had been a third car. This was the car the caused the accident. He had ran the red light and t-boned the car next to me...Which sent that car spinning in front of me. The car ran the red light going 50 mph. So to say things looked bad upon Emergency crew arrival is an understatement.

I was 5 months Pregnant with my third. My knee went through the bash board. Which led to fluid build up. I was on crutches for 6 months.

I had received a Cortisone shot in my knee a year after the accident. Which crystallized due to an allergic reaction. to this day my knee is still messed up and I have to be mindful how much walking I do.

My best friend was in the car with me when this happened. The fact we lived through something so traumatic together pretty much makes our sister hood concrete,

My next accident was the accident that changed my life for ever.

I hit an 8 year old on his bike. I was making a right turn, on my way home from Errand Friday. I was two blocks from my house when I hit him.

He was severely injured and was rush to Harbor-View(our biggest Trauma hospital in Washington).

My injuries were just as bad, but on the inside.

I think what drove me the most crazy right after hitting him and there after, NOT knowing if he was ok, going to make it. And the fact I never knew if his Parents understood there was nothing I could do. I was not a crazy teen age driver speeding around the corner. I was told via my insurance company, that for legal purpose's I was not allowed to contact his family.

Being a mom of three, that had her kids in the car when the accident happened....I slowly went insane.

I was not found at fault for the accident. There was nothing I could do.

In Jan of 2011 my insurance co had started jerking me around. Refusing to pay for treatment I had received, thus making it impossible to continue on with my mental health treatment. I was forced to quit an Anti-Psychotic and two other Anti-depressants cold turkey. Which friend my nervous system and brain. I then was not being treated for a MANY different issues...all brought on because of the accident.

The end of March of 2011 my best friend set up an intervention. She saved my life.

I had developed an eating disorder that was slowly killing me(98 lbs at my smallest). I was using it as a means to cope with all the stuff my insurance company had done...and continued to do. the PTSD I suffered from was literally killing me as well. I was taking ALL Of this out of myself by only eating 150-200 calories a day..for almost three months straight. I was not doing it to be skinny. I was doing it because of the mental anguish I was in. I t took the pain my heart had, away.

I saw my Nutritionist on April 1st. She assessed me. I was in alot worst shape then we had thought. I was close to possible Organ failure she said. I was put on a baby food diet to get some calories into while my stomach fixed itself, so I could eat again...this appt was on a Monday.

That next Tuesday I was in the ER. Organ failure had set in. I was lucky it was not a vital organ. My Gallbladder had ceased to function and was blocking the rest of my system up. It was on the verge of becoming infected.

Surgery was my only option, in order to be able to make a full recovery from the eating disorder. My other option was slowly starving to death.

A week after sending almost ever day in the ER trying to get opinions on what we should do....I was awaiting surgery. Surgery I was told I may not come out of ok. I was very malnourished. This was a possibility he was not going to be able to get it out the high-tech way. I was scared shitless to say the least.

Having to say good bye to my family was literally the hardest thing I have done to date.

I survived. I fight back now against what happened to me and the fact that it should not have.

I told myself I was not going to be sick forever. Damn it I mean it.

I told myself when I was healthy I would go back to school...doing so this winter.

I told myself this would not define me as a person but I would build from it. Making it the reason I am here.

I am starting a Not for Profit as soon as I am done with school, that gets bike helmets on EVERY school age child in my area. We live in a VERY low income area...so parents do not have the money for helmets. That is just unacceptable. It is not the Parents fault. This is where I come in.

I am also going to have school assemblies aimed to teach kids the rules of the road. My new buddy Cameron(the little boy I hit)has agreed to come and speak on behalf of a little boy was only made it because of a helmet. this wil be our thing.

I will have Cameron in my life forever. I choose to turn how I know him in to a Positive instead of a negative.

Do I check my blind spot now. Better believe it. I still drive through the same intersection I hit him in DAILY. I not only check, but I will make a FULL stop before turning up that hill...His house is literally across the street so when I pass through I say a little prayer thank god we are both alive.

To say this accident changed my life is yet another Understatement.

The old me died when I took that right turn. I was given the gift of a fresh start. I am making the most out of everyday I can.

I am still recovering from many health issues that were brought on from the eating disorder. But I use them as a constant reminder not to give up. That I am on the other side of things now, working towards a better future.

I have only gained 25 pounds back since April....So I am still trying hard to get weight back on me as well:)

One. I was 17.

It was my fault. I was fiddling with my shoe, looked away from the road, and rear ended the car in front of me. Our cars were a bit mushed but, thankfully(!), no one was hurt.

Scared the bejesus out of me and I'm a VERY careful driver now.

Gawd, I was a terrible driver when I was a teenager. I think Australia has the right idea about introducing drivers to the road (hello "P plate" and older age requirements).

I can think of three...

1. Before seatbelts were illegal, lady ran a stop sign and my dad broadsided her, I flew into the windshield and and almost threw it. Have worn my sea belt since.

2. Turning left into the dentist office, lady came around the corner and I hit her. My fault, I guess I should have seen she was coming.

3. Car in front of me making a right turn, I slowed down, guy behind me was changing the radio station and slammed right into me.

Always check my blind spot...used to ride a motorcycle...nothing like almost getting taken out by someone who doesn't to make you learn to check constantly.

I've caused one accident and I did check my blind spots however when you're not expecting someone to drive through a parking lot you can't always prepare. It was a very minor car accident and everyone was fine.

I've been in another where I was hit head-on. I was injured very badly. For instance: in a coma, was 5 weeks pregnant w/my now 8 year old, broken wrist, femur, multiple blood transfusions, tons of rehab afterward had to learn how to walk, eat, and so on. It was not my fault, a drunk driver hit me. No one died.

Only one so far, thank god. I was about 8 months pregnant, and was meeting my boyfriend for dinner before we went to "birthing class" (Or whatever you want to call it). I thought that I could fit in a parking spot between a car and a truck. I was so concentrated on not hitting the really nice (looked brand new) truck, that I scratched the side of the car as I was turning into the spot. I felt so bad! The car belonged to one of the workers at the restaurant. She looked at the damage and said that if I paid her 20 bucks for paint to cover the scratch, we'd just call it even (I think she felt bad for me... The very pregnant lady who couldn't stop crying). Lol. I gave her 20 bucks and got out of there before she could change her mind!

I always check my blind spot! I'm one of the unfortunate people who seems to have a target on their car. I had one accident that was my fault when I was 17, but the lady literally pulled out in front of me and slammed on her brakes in the middle of an arterial street (not at a corner, crosswalk, etc). I still think she did it on purpose.

Then I had: t bone, rear ended, major tbone at 60 mph through a stop light, rear end, and major tbone by a motorcycle going 80 through a stop sign which caused me to hit a tree head on. In all of them I was injured but the last two tbones were the worst. None of these accidents were my fault. And yes the motorcyclist died when he hit my suv. So add some PTSD in with those disc, eye, back, neck, hip, knee, face, and arm injuries. :(

Thank goodness I work for a chiropractor!

3.5... 2 of them involving drunks

AND

"ish"

1- Black ice on the freeway
(along w 11 other cars over 30min & 1 deicing truck)
Crazy accident, cars were flipping and rolling, going across 3 lanes of traffic. I was flung back and forth across 3 lanes. Ice to guard rail to OTHER guard rail to perpendicular to oncoming traffic. My van was bent into a C shape, but the warhorse STARTED when I turned it on, and managed to gimp to the side of the road. We were the first car to hit it. Half of the other cars that hit it wrecked. The other half spun into a grassy area and drove off. It all depended whether the ice sent us spinning right or left. None of us were hurt (not even the guy who flipped and rolled)... all our cars that went right, (and the deicing truck), were totaled.

2- Tboned turning left on a green arrow, woman ran her red light going mach-2 (double the speed limit).
My passenger had broken ribs, I had bruises, the drunk had serious back injuries.
I was given a "ticket" for that accident. "Non-negligent Driving." There were hundreds of witnesses, including a cop, and the police wanted to make sure that I wasn't found at fault in court.

2.5 - Dodged a drunk screaming up on the wrong side of the street (I hit an island, the car on my right hit a pole... the cars behind us all poured left and right as well). No idea what happened to the drunk after parting the red seas. My car was totaled. Going up on that island shot a tie rod through my transmission and bent the frame so my front wheels were apx 18 inches to the left of my rear wheels. I didn't realize how bad my car was until about 3 miles later (my mechanic was super impressed it drove at all). I had a concussion from hitting my head on the roof.

3 - Last week. At a dead stop, someone turned into me (fender bender). Hullo! I'm right here! No one hurt. Barely a dent in the Jeep (oohrah...steel), but her toyota's front right was squashed in. It knocked my transmission wonky, and knocked a few other things loose in my engine. I'm taking it in for full eval.

ALL of these cars had airbags... NONE of them deployed. What's the liklihood of THAT? the fenderbender I can see... but the first two? I was going 60 and bounced off 2 guard rails, the second she was going 70 in a 35 and we were completely spun around.

The "ish"?

Offensive driving course. Dozens of "accidents"/ intentional impacts. This is where you learn which part of a car in a blockade to ram (the axels, you aim for the axels to knock a car out of your way), how to drive if you're the passenger and you're driver's been shot, how to take / position your car for a hit, etc.

Who DOESN'T check their blind spot?

1. I have been in about 14 car accidents. I was a passenger for a majority of them, a third car that got hit by two coming at me, and three were my fault...as in I rear ended someone.
2. I have been to the hospital for 2 of the accidents. One, when I was pregnant with my first and totaled my car and the guy I hit. The second one I was a passenger and my son was on life support after that accident. I was in and out of the hospital for about a month.
3. I always check my blindspot NOW. As a teenager I didn't. As you can see by the amount of accidents that I have been involved in, that didn't serve me very well.
I have not been in a car accident for 9 years. I hope to keep it that way! I have been hit enough in my lifetime!
L.

I have been very very lucky so far. I hit a deer once, but that's it.

I am very lucky. My only accidents were me backing into my sisters car in the driveway, and hitting my mirror. (separate incidents) I pray that i stay lucky.

I have had two.
First one I was rear ended while at a stop light. The woman was going about 45mph and hit me so hard that the truck of my car flung ( a 95 Dodge Neon) open and slammed through the back window and it even knocked my drivers seat off the rails so that it could not be moved. Had whiplash, bruises up my arms from gripping the wheel and bruises and abbrasions on my knees from the dash. Of course she had no insurance, drivers or ID, spoke no english and even gave a vacant lot as her address. A real upstanding citizen.
Second was when I was making a left turn and a woman came speeding down the shoulder to bypass the traffic that has stopped at the light that was about a block behind me. Another driver had left an opening for me to make my turn and this woman got tired of waiting I guess to she passed the traffic. She hit my SUV (a 99 Explorer) right between the two passenger doors and flippped my over on to my drivers side. She hit me so hard that the frame bent in about 10 inches and buckled the back seat. She didn't even hit her brakes before hitting me. As my car flipped I clipped the side mirror another car wanting to make a right turn on to the road I had just turned off of. If I had been about 2 feet over I would have flipped on top of that other car. Both cars were totaled and I was given the ticket since I had made a left turn and "failed" to yeild to traffic eventhough she was driving down the shoulder. I had to be cut out of my car and taken to the hopital with whiplash, hip pain and glass in my left arm from it going through the drivers window as the car flipped. The kicker in this story is that this women claimed to be disabled not working and sued due to back and leg injuries and had been so for several years. Turns out she was the same Home Health nurse that had worked for my dad about a year later taking car of my grandfather the same time frame she claimed she was too disable to work. uh huh. I was also not the olny person she had had an "accident" with in recent months and had several lawsuits pending. Well needless to say that after all the lawyers heard she had in fact worked as a Home health nurse she was only paid out what the damages were to her car and her medical bills stemming from the wreck not the pain and suffering she was asking for so in stead fo 250K she only got about 14K. Me on the other had got an insurance settlement on my totalled SUV that was more than I paid for it after all the damage was calulated. My dad still jokes that I am the only person he knows that can cause a wreck, total two vehicles and damamge a third and come out making money on the deal. All legal stuff was paid for and handled my ins co so there was no money out of my pocket.
I still am very cautious about making left turns where I have to cross traffic.

I have had one accident. It was pouring rain at night. I was on the freeway in the right lane. A guy stopped in the freaking lane to pick up a hitch hiker. Nobody would let me over to another lane, and i slammed into his truck. My car was totalled, his truck had a scratch. It ended up being his fault bc it is illegal to pick up hitch hikers on the freeway and he made an unsafe stop.

I guess you could say 1 but I was parked and it was the dumb lady's fault.

I was sitting in car pool line a couple yrs ago and this older woman would always creep up so she didn't have to wait in the line for her kid. We would blow our horns and yell at her because she would get so close to cars. One day she hit my mirror..... boy did I come out of my car screaming. It just pushed it back, no major deal but it was the principle because it was bound to happen to someone at some point. Her insurance company called me and gave me a sob story on how she was down on her luck and I think this was her accident #3. They said she told them she hit me and I was in a little white car that it shouldn't be too bad. Then the insurance rep said what kind of little white car and when I said new Mercedes little white car she gasped... yep... expensive fix. She was fortunate that it only bent it back and did not knock out the signal and lighting system on it. I never went to car pool line again.

I have had some close calls, especially in the Dallas area, whew... namely from people talking/texting or just not paying attention.

I do check blind spots and I am 100% "ON" when I drive. You have to watch out for other people making stupid decisions.

hhhhmmmm...

Let's see, I have to figure this out....

1. Ran car into side of school building when I shouldn't have been driving (under age). No injury other than to the car. Panicked and pushed gas instead of brake - 1980.
2. Rolled my car the day before Senior Prom...flipped it 3 times....my fault and city's fault - I was driving about 5 miles over the speed limit and ran over VERY loose gravel on a "S" turn in the road, over-corrected my car and did a "Brody" in the middle of the road - slid on the gravel and flipped the car over the curb. Minor injuries. 1984
3. Ex-husband rear-ended a car in front of us in Belgium - we hadn't been there but 48 hours. He blamed me - but HE was driving. No injuries. No damage to the cars - he was going less than 5 MPH. 1989
4. Backed my then boy-friend's (now husband) car into a tank pipe in Germany...only scuff on the car - pride TOTALLY wounded!!! 1996
5. Single Car - driving rain and heavy winds - truck carrying boxes and boxes fell off the back of the truck - I swerved to avoid them - box got caught and swept under car....front end damage to my car. no injuries. only one person stopped. 2006 -
5. Not so much an accident as my not paying attention - side swiped a garden pole at the baseball field when we were leaving a game one day. Damage to my car - 2009.

So five.

Yes. People are rude and "me first" mentality and pay more attention to their phones than they do anything else....many people are rude and forget about common courtesy while driving - like letting someone pull out of a parking spot instead of zipping by - like waiting until the LAST MINUTE to try and get over when a sign told you 1 mile back that the right lane was closed ahead bbbbbbbbuuuuuuttttttt NNNNNNNNNOOOOOOO!!!! I can get five more cars ahead!!! and they end up stalling traffic...rude people suck.

Good reminder. I have a fairly small car (Hundai Tuscon) and it still has some blindspots. I've been in two (I'm 50).

1. I was in college, crossing a street after I stopped at a stop sign (at night) Suddenly lights flipped on right before I was hit by a drunk driver. Fortunately no one was hurt.

2. In my 20s I was backing up in a parking lot looking where I thought the cars would be coming from and bumped into someone going the wrong way. Both cases, the person lied so in college I drove around with a pretty good ding in my car, 'til my dad got it fixed for My Birthday.

I sure hope that is it! Scary thing. I saw a woman recently come oh so close to hitting bicyclist because, you guessed it, she was not only on her cel but texting and looking at stuff on the passengers sit.

My passenger side back door got crunched once when I was parked in a 7-11 parking lot.
I pulled into a parking space and was getting out of the car.
The lady next to me got into her car and began pulling out but she forgot her steering wheel was tightly turned so as she pulled back the corner of her front bumper driver's side mushed into my door.
No one was hurt and her insurance paid for repairs.

My Mom got backed into by a truck load of Christmas trees about 20 years ago - she was on the road and he backed out of a lot right into traffic.
It backed into her at a right angle on the passenger side and her knee got slammed against her door.
She ended up having knee surgery to get it fixed.
The trucking company paid for repairs and hospital/doctor costs.

2 -

1st was 2 weeks after I got my license (16 yrs old) - an oncoming car was driving at my in my lane, about to hit me, so I swerved slightly right so I wouldn't be hit head-on, and gently scraped the car next to me. Of course the guy who almost hit me didn't stick around, but the guy I hit corroborated my story.

2nd was this week one morning, when I hit & ran my hubby in our driveway. I didn't even realize I hit him until the next morning when I noticed that I had some scratches on my car, and they just happened to align with the damage on my husband's car that we THOUGHT was a hit and run at his work.

I have had like three since I started driving. (Since 1987). The first was when I was 18, I was halfway backed out of a parking spot when someone thought they could make it past me. Since my car was in reverse it was considered my fault. The other was pulling onto a highway from a stop sign, I was watching for a break in the traffic and I thought the car in front had already gone. I was 19 and it was my fault. The third was someone backed into me and smashed the driver’s side of my car, I was stopped and he didn't even look back to check. That was in the late 90's.
I have noticed that people drive so badly lately. They are so distracted by everything going on in the car. I notice that people drive faster and there are a lot more cars on the road then when I first started to drive.
I try to take my time and drive a little defensively and a little offensively. I also try to give myself plenty of time to arrive somewhere so I don’t have to rush.