Flashback Friday - Accident in the rain.

Photo provided by RW Photobug

If you have read my previous post, you would know that I have recently bought an Eclipse and with the wet weather we are having here in So Cal, it reminded me of the time I rolled my Honda Civic 10 years ago. I mean I totaled the car out! It was the most frighting thing I have ever experience. It was a Saturday, a week before my 22nd birthday and I was on my way to work that morning.  I remember just before I left my house that I looked out the window and noticed that it had started to rain lightly. It wasn't a heavy rain or anything close to that but it was enough to make the roads wet really quick.

 Everything was going well as can be as I was driving onto the freeway. About 15 minutes into my drive, I had realize that I did not put my seat belt on. Back then I was really bad at remembering to put on my seat belt to the point where I wouldn't put it on at all. For some reason at that moment, I felt a strong sense to put on my seat belt. I don't know why I had that feeling but I can clearly remember to this day that I had that strong sense to put it on. Just about a min or less after I put my seat belt on, my car hits a small puddle. I go over the puddle with my front passenger side tire and before I know it, I am sliding down the freeway sideways! My mind goes blank as I am starring at the road through my window. Right as I think of turning the wheel to see if I can get this car to turn around to get control of it, the driver side front tire hits the cement platform of the call box.

As I hit the call box with my front tire, my car now flips to its side and now I am starring at the road through my window which is now about a foot away from my face. About five seconds later I find myself in a death roll. The car starts to roll over and over again like your wet cloths in a dryer. You know those moments that people talk about where your life flashes before yours eyes. Well that is the truth! I remember it was as if I was looking at a quick slide show of my life. I saw flashes of my family, friends, my girlfriend (at the time), and random moments of my life. It was literally like a 15 second PowerPoint presentation. When the car was finally done rolling around, I ended up upside down. After realizing that I was still alive, I slowly reached out to the ignition to turn off the car. I then unbuckled my seat belt and climbed out of the passenger door because my door was jammed from sliding on it before I rolled. Luckily there was a off duty fireman and nurse that were driving behind me and had stop to help me get out of the car. I ended up going to the hospital to get checked out and nothing was wrong with me physically. Just a cut here and there but nothing was broken or hurt. I was literally able to walk away from the accident.

To this day I still have issues driving through the rain. Just looking at the wet roads reminds me of that day. That day I ran over a small puddle that ended up causing me to get into that accident and losing my car. That event changed the way I drive a car and to this day I can not understand how some people can just drive right by you going 80 miles per hour in the rain. We all have seen the horrible accidents that are cause by the rain yet we don't do anything about it. I just get it.

Well I hope all of you drive safe out there. Just keep in mind that it can only take a second for something to go wrong while driving in the rain.