This is what happens when you hydroplane into the back of another car while going 55-60 mph.
I was driving to work in the morning, and it had been raining. I came around a curve. Traffic had stopped way sooner than I expected, and I slammed my brakes. They locked, I hydroplaned, screech, wham, fwump, shit shit shit.
Would you believe me if I told you I came out of this completely unscathed? Because I did.
I didn’t even suffer whiplash. I had no broken bones. I had soft tissue and muscle injury to my chest, which made me sore as hell for a month afterward, but that didn’t even result in visible bruising. Immediately after impact, I undid my seatbelt, shoved open the door as wide as I could, and walked away.
My aunt who works for General Motors looked at the pictures and said that, from what she could tell, it looked like every factor that could have been in play for me to survive, was in play. I was wearing my seatbelt. I hit front-on and deployed my only airbags. The car obviously absorbed, like, all of the force of impact. But she said that even with all those factors in play, my survival wasn’t a given; I still could have died that day.
I dunno, thank God and the fine engineers at Toyota, I guess. I’m fond of saying that that little Corolla gave her life for mine that day, because if it wasn’t apparent from the pictures, I totaledher.
It did leave me with a small mental scar, you could say. I’ve discovered now that when I’m driving and have to suddenly brake, the sight of the back end of the car ahead of me coming closer makes me experience, even briefly, the same intensity of panic and terror that I felt the day of the crash. So that’s fun. It’s happened just enough times that I think I can pinpoint exactly how it happens.
I know this is really glossing over, but tbh it feels kinda weird to talk about it in depth still. So there you go.
Here’s what I drive now:
And while the Corolla was in my parents’ names, this sweet little Nissan Versa is mine, mine, mine. Under my name, covered by my insurance.
(i was in a fairly serious car accident a few months ago and literally in the split second after it happened the writer part of my brain lit up with jarringly inappropriate glee like “omg this situation is totally traumatic, meaning… if i survive i will get so much mileage for angsty fics out of this!! :D”)
