Several years ago I was leaving an explosive test site in New Mexico in a rental car, following two explosive techs in their pickup truck and trying really hard to keep up. The road had had fresh gravel spread over it a couple of days earlier. Going around a left turn my right front tire blew. I went off the road, and rolled down the hill, landing upright at the bottom.

Rolling is rather surreal. I was belted in, so the inside of the car looked perfectly normal; i.e., the orientation was right, so I didn't really have the sensation of rolling. What looked surreal was watching everything else in the car go flying around in circles, including my soda which got all over everything.

I had to push the door open with my feet because the fender was crushed and the door was jammed shut. I walked back up the hill and waited about half-an-hour till the techs returned. They'd made it all the way to the front gate, looked back, didn't see me, and came back to find me.

All-in-all an interesting experience, but not one I'd care to repeat.

 

I have never rolled, but I have spun, which sounds like a similar experience, in that everything in close proximity has its normal orientation, but everything outside, is moving in a way which is very unusual to see....... as you say, it is quite surreal.....

 

I've had two big spins also as part of big accidents. It's very surreal yet scary as you wait until you hit something.

 

My dad once took his old man's '37 Ford for a weekend joyride and rolled it. He said all he remembers was watching the clutch and brake pedals spinning round and round. This was the same car that my dad had painted with a broom two years earlier because he didn't like the color. I think my grandpa must have been a real wuss for not just killing my dad before he got a chance to grow up and reproduce!

 

I'm glad to say that I've never rolled a car. I've been hit by a car before and the surreal experineces are probably pretty similar. In my accident, everything seemed like it was moving in slow motion.

 

1974

Kilkarney Green Chevy Stepside SWB
best friend rolled it on a closed road,

i was in the bed of the truck when it rolled.

don't rec. this ride for anyone........................

 

I rolled my Porsche 1978 911SC near my house when I was in internship in Fresno. I was taking a turn in a narrow road too hot and did a 4 wheel drift into the dirt curbing. The dirt caught the left tires and I rolled. Sick feeling seeing the windshield covered in dirt as the glass cracks. Somehow, the car was repaired, but never the same.

 

I rolled my first car, '74 Toyota Corolla Wagon. Lived in Wisconsin, and when it snows the plows come and make those big ol' snowbanks on the side of the rode. Well, if it's soft, dry snow, you can get going about 30mph and deliver a "glancing blow" to a snowbank and the snow floods over the windshield and you're driving blind for 20-30 yards. OK, I lived near power lines as a kid and ate too many paint chips. Not too bright at 16. Anyway, my best friend was very excited about learning this, but when I let him drive, he picked a snowbank with old, frozen snow under the powder. It was like hitting a 4ft ramp with just the right side wheels. Like a sceen out of the Dukes of Hazzard, we were flyin'. Landed on the side, bumped the curb and fell slightly back toward rightside up. Well, I pushed the door open (straight up), and the car rolled over onto its top. With no seatbelts I fell on my head and and was kneeling on the ceiling. Very odd position. Took five people to roll it back over and off we went.

With spinning (also age 16), I had a friend trying to fishtail his bug on ice way out in the country, doing about 65mph. His first tug of the wheel put us in a dead spin. Not a fast spin, just slowly turning in circles without slowing down much. We hit the ditch A$$ first and the car cartwheeled into the deep snow, but perfectly forward and upright. Had to crawl out the windows to get out. Guy in a huge pickup behind us said 4 complete circles. He pulled us out with a tow rope.

sorry so long...

 

I had a Ford Econoline van that I fixed up as a camper. It had a platform on top for watching auto races. I rolled it in Big Bear, trying to keep up with my ex roommate, who lived up there, on the mountain roads. It teetered on two wheels for what seemed like forever, then rolled over on its side and down a sloped hill. The platform flew off and landed in a tree. A half gallon carton of milk flew out of the refrigerator and nailed me in the side of the head. I fell on top of my wife like a sack of potatoes. Like the magician, everything was in slow motion. Our friends following us knew we were OK when they heard my wife yell "you assh*le." The CHP came and gave me a sobriety test, which I must have passed because they went away. A towtruck came, righted it, and pulled it up the hill. Then I drove it away.

 

I was riding with a guy in an old Chevy PU when he decided to play rally driver. He was about to try to jump a 10 ft deep gulley when he chickened out. Instead he tried to turn and drive beside it. If he'd turned two feet sooner we might have made it. As it was we went a LONG way with the drivers side down and all four wheels up in the air.