Ouch! This was my first car. It was a great little car, too. I paid for it with my own money. I was saving for a horse - but I was never allowed to buy one, so I bought a car instead.
This was my 1989 Dodge Shadow. My 4-door, 4-cylinder, cruise-control and a tape-deck car of awesome.
This is it after I plowed it into a bank. A bank with a big rock in the middle of it.
It was winter. I was a freshman college student at East Tennessee State University and it was 1995. I was home most weekends and volunteered at a local vet clinic. Even though I was a volunteer and was not paid, they expected me to be there to help them on Saturdays.
It had snowed a few days prior and the snow melted during a warm spell on Friday. The temperature was below freezing Friday night, though, so I knew there would be icy spots on the road Saturday morning. I lived off of a very curvy, very hilly highway. Route 70. It was formed from an American Indian trail. Did I mention that it was curvy?
But I know this road. I know the sway and lilt of it. I know when to brake and when to accelerate. And I know where the icy spots usually are.
Picture, if you will, a hard right banking curve. The water flow would be coming from the left - at the top of the curve - across the road in the heart of the curve - and exiting directly in the middle of the bend on the lower right side. Gosh, I hope that made sense. That water flow was about 12-14 inches in width and on this particular Saturday morning - it was frozen solid.
I slowed down before entering the curve and my front tires went over the ice without a problem. The problem came when my back tires hit the ice - and I was already turning in the curve. The back end of my car simply shot out from under me to the left and my car was then pointed at a tree-filled bank into a creek. I remember not panicking - but I did over-correct. I turned my car hard to the left and found myself facing the bank head on. I hit it (and the big huge boulder) with considerable force. Right before the Shadow had impact, I put my right arm out to catch my poodle, Scooter who was riding shotgun with me. I missed. He hit the dash and ended up in the back seat.
I opened my car door and could hear all of this hissing and popping coming from underneath the hood. I thought the car was going to explode! I pulled my dog from the back floorboard (he was freaked out, to say the least) and walked quickly away from the car.
It was early morning - before 7am on a Saturday. Cell phones were not commonplace at that time and I did not own one. I was not quite sure what I was going to do.
Just then, another car came down the road from the same direction I had been traveling. And he did the same thing! His front tires went over straight but the back end of the car was thrown left on the ice. He did NOT over-correct and managed to straighten himself out after a bit of fish-tailing. I felt sure he would stop to lend me assistance. Here I was, a young girl holding a small dog on the side of the road on a cold winter morning and my car is in the ditch. Did he stop? NO!!!!!!!!!
Jerk.
But soon after that a lovely woman in a houserobe and slippers came running down the hill behind me. She gently took me and my dog inside. She told that she had heard the noise and just thought it was a dynamite explosion at the rock quarry they lived next to. Then she remembered it was a Saturday! They don't blast at the quarry on Saturdays! She threw on her robe and came outside to see what might have happened and she saw me. She told me later that when she first saw me, she thought I was holding a baby.
She let me use her phone to call my parents and her husband went down to put his car in front of mine with his hazards on so no one would hit it. And they called the police for me.
I sat down and put the dog on the floor. He pooped. Right there in the floor. Poor guy - he was a little stressed from the whole situation. I cleaned it up with toilet paper and flushed it down their toilet.
I had to walk down to talk with the police officer about what happened. And then my parents arrived and I had to tell my dad what happened. That's when I burst into tears. And I did not stop for a full 12 hours. :)
I remember going to a basketball game that night. And I was still crying. Ha.
The impact was so severe that I busted the engine block of my little car and it was rendered totaled. I was wearing my seat belt (and I did not have an airbag) but remarkably I was not hurt.
My knees were bruised from hitting the dash - but I somehow did not have a seat belt bruise or burn or anything.
Scooter and I sure were stiff and sore for a few days - but were otherwise no worse for the wear. I remember being hesitant to drive again for a while. I suppose that's normal.
This was my first, and only, car wreck to date. Here's hoping there will not be another!
Shew!
And no, I was not speeding. :)
It was winter. I was a freshman college student at East Tennessee State University and it was 1995. I was home most weekends and volunteered at a local vet clinic. Even though I was a volunteer and was not paid, they expected me to be there to help them on Saturdays.
It had snowed a few days prior and the snow melted during a warm spell on Friday. The temperature was below freezing Friday night, though, so I knew there would be icy spots on the road Saturday morning. I lived off of a very curvy, very hilly highway. Route 70. It was formed from an American Indian trail. Did I mention that it was curvy?
But I know this road. I know the sway and lilt of it. I know when to brake and when to accelerate. And I know where the icy spots usually are.
Picture, if you will, a hard right banking curve. The water flow would be coming from the left - at the top of the curve - across the road in the heart of the curve - and exiting directly in the middle of the bend on the lower right side. Gosh, I hope that made sense. That water flow was about 12-14 inches in width and on this particular Saturday morning - it was frozen solid.
I slowed down before entering the curve and my front tires went over the ice without a problem. The problem came when my back tires hit the ice - and I was already turning in the curve. The back end of my car simply shot out from under me to the left and my car was then pointed at a tree-filled bank into a creek. I remember not panicking - but I did over-correct. I turned my car hard to the left and found myself facing the bank head on. I hit it (and the big huge boulder) with considerable force. Right before the Shadow had impact, I put my right arm out to catch my poodle, Scooter who was riding shotgun with me. I missed. He hit the dash and ended up in the back seat.
I opened my car door and could hear all of this hissing and popping coming from underneath the hood. I thought the car was going to explode! I pulled my dog from the back floorboard (he was freaked out, to say the least) and walked quickly away from the car.
It was early morning - before 7am on a Saturday. Cell phones were not commonplace at that time and I did not own one. I was not quite sure what I was going to do.
Just then, another car came down the road from the same direction I had been traveling. And he did the same thing! His front tires went over straight but the back end of the car was thrown left on the ice. He did NOT over-correct and managed to straighten himself out after a bit of fish-tailing. I felt sure he would stop to lend me assistance. Here I was, a young girl holding a small dog on the side of the road on a cold winter morning and my car is in the ditch. Did he stop? NO!!!!!!!!!
Jerk.
But soon after that a lovely woman in a houserobe and slippers came running down the hill behind me. She gently took me and my dog inside. She told that she had heard the noise and just thought it was a dynamite explosion at the rock quarry they lived next to. Then she remembered it was a Saturday! They don't blast at the quarry on Saturdays! She threw on her robe and came outside to see what might have happened and she saw me. She told me later that when she first saw me, she thought I was holding a baby.
She let me use her phone to call my parents and her husband went down to put his car in front of mine with his hazards on so no one would hit it. And they called the police for me.
I sat down and put the dog on the floor. He pooped. Right there in the floor. Poor guy - he was a little stressed from the whole situation. I cleaned it up with toilet paper and flushed it down their toilet.
I had to walk down to talk with the police officer about what happened. And then my parents arrived and I had to tell my dad what happened. That's when I burst into tears. And I did not stop for a full 12 hours. :)
I remember going to a basketball game that night. And I was still crying. Ha.
The impact was so severe that I busted the engine block of my little car and it was rendered totaled. I was wearing my seat belt (and I did not have an airbag) but remarkably I was not hurt.
My knees were bruised from hitting the dash - but I somehow did not have a seat belt bruise or burn or anything.
Scooter and I sure were stiff and sore for a few days - but were otherwise no worse for the wear. I remember being hesitant to drive again for a while. I suppose that's normal.
This was my first, and only, car wreck to date. Here's hoping there will not be another!
Shew!
And no, I was not speeding. :)
Sorry about the horse....being a parent, we were afraid you would get hurt :-(
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