Car Crash, July 2002, by Ben Bamberger

From MemoryArchive

Who: Ben Bamberger
What: Car Crash
When: July 2002
Where: Cornwall, Pennsylvania

It was the summer before my senior year in high school and I was 17, so of course I was invincible. I was working that summer at a car dealership trying to make some money, and really did enjoy the work. Because of my job, I considered myself a pretty competent driver. I mean, hell, if the owner trusted me with his expensive cars, I had to be something. Plus, I could back the full size four dour pickups into the garage no problem; trust me it’s a lot harder than it sounds. So one morning I had off, probably a Monday I don’t really remember, and I had a lot of errands to do. My parents asked me to take a floor sander they rented back to the rental place early in the morning so they wouldn’t be charged a late fee, and I willingly obliged. My sister was at a neighbors house and needed something, I don’t remember what, and because it wasn’t too far out of the way I headed there first. After that quick stop, I took a back road I rarely used which was up a hill to a major and busy intersection. Here is where my trouble begins. Now I was used to driving a manual car, and the van I was taking was automatic, so I already had one strike against me. I remember being unusually tired that morning, not as in fatigued, but just weak. Perhaps I didn’t drink or eat enough for breakfast because I definitely wasn’t tip top. I only have three pictures left in my memory of what happened next. One was approaching the intersection, where I had a stop sign, so far so good. The next I remember being in the middle of the intersection and a car coming right at me. I quickly hit the gas to get out of the way, but was hit anyway right behind the driver’s seat. The next thing I remember is being stationary, facing the way I came on the other side of the intersection. At the time I didn’t know it, but I was in shock. I was hit so badly that three of the tires were knocked off the rims, the car was obviously totaled, the driver’s door was stuck shut and I had to kick it open, I cracked the windshield with my head, and bruised my chest on the steering wheel so it was hard to breath. The floor sander flew out the back window and was later found a few hundred feet down the road in the woods. Oddly, my neighbor was driving the opposite way on the same road and saw me. Luckily for me, she called for help, because I was clearly not in a position to do so. Shock is a strange feeling, it’s as if there’s all this damage, everything is wrong, but it feels normal. I yelled across the street to see if the lady who hit me was all right, and she seemed to be although I don’t think I got a response. Eventually the ambulance arrived and took me away and of course I gave them a hard time. I couldn’t understand what was wrong with me, I felt fine, and I was walking and moving just normally. They thought I might have fractured my back or neck, I told them that they were full of bullshit. What to do, I gave in I guess. In the ambulance I kept making morbid jokes; I had a teacher who used to be an EMT and he always complained about boring calls, so I asked if I was a boring case and apologized for not being more injured and making their job more interesting. Turns out, nothing really was wrong for me except a bunch of bruises (I couldn’t take a deep breath for at least a week) and fortunately other lady was fine, although she didn’t even wear her seatbelt (thankfully she had an airbag). In the end, it was my fault; I apparently went through the intersection without stopping, although I remember none of this. My only explanation is that I might have passed out or lost conciseness as I remember feeling ill that morning, but really, I don’t know the actual reason why I went through the stop sign. We both made full recoveries and she even bought a new car at my place of work (yes, I felt like an idiot) so at least some salesman got to profit on my mishap. To be honest though, the worst part of the accident was the aftermath, I was in a pretty severe depression. None of my school friends really knew about the accident because it was summer, so I felt pretty isolated about the whole situation. Luckily though, one of my best friends realized how depressed I was and took the time to help me through it. If I can take any lessons away from this, it’s that as a teenager you really aren’t invincible although it feels like it; the randomness of life is a terrifying thing. I’m fairly certain I would have died or been paralyzed if I hadn’t accelerated when I saw the car coming, because it would have hit me right in the driver’s side door and my parents’ van had no airbags. Lastly, after events like this you really do need some support from friends or family. Within two days I was driving again and I was never scared, but honestly, I don’t know where I would have been without my friend’s help.