I was 16 and coming home from my girlfriend's in the middle of night in my 1968 Ford Ranchero. I had just put the finishing touches on the 351 Cleveland 4V swap for the 289 it came with. I was doing about 60 on a two lane road when a BEAR trotted out into the road about 30 feet in front of me. I got on the brakes and pulled the wheel to the right thinking aim for where he is now not where he will be in about 2 seconds and went right into a concrete bridge abuttment at about 45MPH. No seatbelt, but the padded wheel and dash cushioned the face-plant. NOTHING broken, but massive bruises and contusions and a huge cut from hitting the rear view mirror with the top of my head. I was about 3 miles rom "civilization" and it was about 2:00AM. I laid there for about 2 hours before a Florida Highway Patrolman drove up and called an ambulance. It was freezing!@# cold (for Florida) and the smell of the coolant from the engine made me puke. I was still in the seat, but the dashboard was in my lap and my legs were asleep. The car was a total wreck although I was able to salvage the C-4 and 9-inch rear end. The most interesting thing that came out of the investigation was that the point of impact between the car and the bridge was about 4" to the right of the left-side subframe rail. I was told that had I had directly on the frame rail it would have been bye-bye. Another foot to the left and i would have gone into the water. The bridge is still there. I have no idea where the bear went, but I'm guessing he answered the age old question very soon after he got out of the way.

 

Took a decreasing radius onramp when it was damp gunning it in 2nd gear. Lost traction then regained traction. Shot me over curb and almost down 3 stories onto freeway. 1 ft of mud on side of onramp hill stopped me in time.

 

not as bad as some of the others but I fishtailed in Angles Crest and went off a cliff backwards.

 

Before airbags, before shoulder belts....lap-only seatbelt ripped me open internally. Ah, memories.

 

My turn:

I was about 13 years old and was driving from Ohio to Florida in a January snow storm. Me and my mom were headed down I-95 South and hit a patch of black ice (no one was around) and starting spinning around and hit the right side guard-rail facing oncoming traffic in our lane. We were okay and the car was actually in driveable condition, we just needed a tow truck to pull us out of the snow. I got out of the car since my mom's door was against the rail to view the damages. I was outside calling my dad to find the phone numbers for a tow truck when all of a sudden I was hit by something and flew 20 feet into the side of the road (snow padded my fall). I blacked out for 20 seconds. My mom thought I was dead. I sat up and my glasses were thrown off my head and my cell phone was completely gone. I looked at my mom inside the car and her head is busted open and she is screaming crying. An SUV hit the same patch of ice and hit our car as it was sitting on the side of the road, ripped off the rear bumper of my car and I was hit with that bumper at around 40MPH. My mom's head is busted open, I'm 13 years old, and this stupid b**** gets out and starts taking pictures of my car. All the doors were jammed and the smell of gasoline was intense so I kicked out the driver window and was able to pull my mom out.

I walked away with a single (huge) bruise on my ribs. And 6 years later, I'm A-OK.