My crazy car accident
It’s been 6 months and I was waiting until I was able to internalize the events before posting on this blog. Now I feel like I’ve gone through the process and would like to share my story.
As I opened my eyes again, I was staring at the roof of my car. I felt the pain on my left side and my knees bleeding. There was glass everywhere and I was in a bit of a daze. My immediate reaction was “Damn! I knew I should have worn a helmet today…” followed by “Where the fuck is my cellphone?!”. I looked around to find my backpack and the window on the passenger side completely shattered. I had enough adrenaline in my brain to know to crawl out, but not enough time to question the danger of crawling through shattered glass. As I crawled through the window, there was one question that kept running through my mind: HOW THE HELL DID I END UP HERE?!
Let’s rewind just an hour or so before, my advisor and I were having a great dinner and waxing over business philosophy & strategy. The dinner was amazing and we were able to get through dense conversation smoothly. I could feel the excitement rush through my brain as the wheels in my head were spinning at 1000 revolutions/minute.
I got into my car and started driving away just thinking about all the new opportunities the company could pursue. I made sure I was paying attention to the road because I often run into “almost trouble” by day dreaming. On this particular night, Christmas Eve 2013, I was on my way home to meet my parents at Best Buy to replace our phones and was filled with excitement. The day had some hiccups but was ending on a solid note and I couldn’t have been happier.
I’m unsure how fast I was going, but the last thing I remember is hitting a railroad track and going off road for a split second then when landing losing control of my shocks then realizing I had no control of steering, acceleration and worst of all: braking! The next image I had was a pole approaching me that I remembered was on the other side of the road.
Close my eyes. Next thought was “I hope this doesn’t suck” THUD! Open my eyes. Now I feel movements I’ve never experienced. Open my eyes. I’ve lost orientation and I see some blood.
Within seconds as I leave the car… someone approaches me as I look for my cellphone. He’s screaming: Get away from the car. I shrug and then look up to see the entire engine on fire and a frantic yet helpful man rushed toward me to escape (in his view) a near instant explosion.
A few seconds later… the cops show up, sirens blaring. An EMT sits me down asking some questions to look for a concussion. And then out of nowhere the RWJUH ambulance arrived, tying me to a stretcher. It was a whirlwind that I never imagined.
At the end, I’m left with my life, a totaled car, and a police statement that quotes me exactly: “The car lost control after going over a railroad track, does a 180, hits a pole, and rolls over.”
This has renewed my team and my efforts pushing to get our self-driving vehicle working so no one else has to experience something similar.
