The old wagon saved my life

I started a thread here about 4 years ago when I was getting the spaceship up to speed. I put 50k miles on it and it NEVER let me down!

I run under a truck at 5am, no lights, never saw him. I was running 60mph and never hit the brakes. Spent christmas in a coma and celebrated 2 of my 4 kids birthdays in the hospital and THANKFUL I could.

Now, I need another lt1 wagon!



Bought my wife a basset hound the night before the wreck and she became my therapy dog.. Meet mini

You were one lucky man, that's all I can say! Cute dog.

Tom

Yikes. Glad you came out of that alive. Another member here had a wagon do the same for him.

94Woody wrote:

Yikes. Glad you came out of that alive. Another member here had a wagon do the same for him.

I believe that was Pat "buickestate". I know it's hard to believe but his looked as bad.

Tom

silverfox103 wrote:

94Woody wrote:

Yikes. Glad you came out of that alive. Another member here had a wagon do the same for him.

I believe that was Pat "buickestate".  I know it's hard to believe but his looked as bad.

Tom

Correct. One of the threads about his current wagon has some pictures of the wrecked one in it.

DAMN!!!!

Glad to hear you are now doing OK!

Amazing survival. Hope you are getting around fine now. There are still a few good wagons around, so happy hunting. I hope the insurance company took care of you financially.

I T-boned a car in the mid 80s. I was going about 55 when it pulled out from in front of a stopped dumpster truck. I had about the length of the dumpster truck to apply my brakes. I think I left about 10 feet of skid marks before I hit the car. The only real injury was a chipped ankle bone, and bruised chest from the seatbelt. The seatbelt stopped me from hitting the steering wheel by about an inch (before airbags).

I am not surprised at the injuries. You are fortunate that the dash did not decapitate you. It appears that you were sharing the passenger compartment with the engine.

The decisions we make in those circumstances are not necessarily logical. I had a brick cell phone, called my mom, and then turned the phone off???. I did get knocked out for a moment. Had a similar neck stretch that killed Dale Earnhardt, but not to that degree. I pushed the door of the Monte Carlo that I hit  in a foot+ and the car was not driveable. The woman in the car must not have had her seat belt on, because I remember seeing her flying around in the car before I got an intimate view of the steering wheel, and passed out. Woke up with a start in the seat, and hurt a lot of places.

Fred Kiehl wrote:

I am not surprised at the injuries. You are fortunate that the dash did not decapitate you. It appears that you were sharing the passenger compartment with the engine.

The decisions we make in those circumstances are not necessarily logical. I had a brick cell phone, called my mom, and then turned the phone off???. I did get knocked out for a moment. Had a similar neck stretch that killed Dale Earnhardt, but not to that degree. I pushed the door of the Monte Carlo that I hit  in a foot+ and the car was not driveable. The woman in the car must not have had her seat belt on, because I remember seeing her flying around in the car before I got an intimate view of the steering wheel, and passed out. Woke up with a start in the seat, and hurt a lot of places.

I was sharing it with cylinders 345678 and a 4l60e lol.. For some odd reason I was able to recall my fathers house phone and my wife's new cell number.. I had never been able to remember her number before that morning.  I never saw the truck until I saw pictures a few weeks later when I woke up. The first thing I did when the glass stopped flying was opened the door(still cant believe it opened), looked at my legs, the condition of the steering wheel then realized I couldn't find my phone.

I'll bet she thinks about that seat belt after that incident! I'm not poking fun but sometimes it takes something like that to engrain safety.

Holy cow! I am glad to see that you are OK. A smaller car would have not done so well. Wishing you a full recovery. I am sure you should be able to find another wagon. Still quite a few of these still around if you look in the right places.

Quote :

I was mad for the first month I was awake because of my car    

that made me laugh!

Even though these cars are big heavy brutes, they're still older tech regarding crash safety/survivability.

 I always wonder why the official crash rating for front passenger is worse than driver on these.

My biggest concern has always been neck trauma because even with the headrest all the way up it is terribly inadequate (6' frame)...

however, just as comfortable if not more so as my old 68 250se seats were.

I almost had a wreck like that in 2000 - was in soCal at night heading towards hemet from long beach in a 91 cressida with 5 people and a cat - which can be distracting.
going about 75+ and at the last second i spot a box truck in my lane stopped on the freeway with no lights. - quick reaction time saved us all from a likely end.

Reading your story gave me a brief moment of PTSD. I totaled a vehicle in December of last year with little to no braking. Shudder...I am glad the ol' girl protected you. Wagon hunting for your next one should have has health benefits to aid in your recovery.

Danr63 wrote:

Holy cow! I am glad to see that you are OK. A smaller car would have not done so well. Wishing you a full recovery. I am sure you should be able to find another wagon. Still quite a few of these still around if you look in the right places.  

Thank you sir! I'm back to chasing and whooping kids again lol.. I had one come to me in the last expected place!

My friend bought both of these cars from his aunt in law and only paid 3 or 500 bucks or so for the pair (I don't really recall the exact price). He kept the solid black one and gave me the one I unfortunately wrecked.. last Christmas he gave me the black one too!!

He was with me almost every other day in the hospital

He

Serendipity96 wrote:

Quote :

I was mad for the first month I was awake because of my car    

that made me laugh!

Even though these cars are big heavy brutes, they're still older tech regarding crash safety/survivability.

 I always wonder why the official crash rating for front passenger is worse than driver on these.

My biggest concern has always been neck trauma because even with the headrest all the way up it is terribly inadequate (6' frame)...

however, just as comfortable if not more so as my old 68 250se seats were.

I almost had a wreck like that in 2000 - was in soCal at night heading towards hemet from long beach in a 91 cressida with 5 people and a cat - which can be distracting.
going about 75+ and at the last second i spot a box truck in my lane stopped on the freeway with no lights. - quick reaction time saved us all from a likely end.

I'm STILL mad man. That one winded me bad!

I don't think I would have survived in any other car. I'm 6'10" and this is the only car I've ever owned I could get my knees under the dash in. My tahoe would have likely broken my femur bones and those are harder to recover from

My man, if you'd gone under that truck that would have been HORRIBLE! Lots of decapitations here in southern Alabama from going under loaded log trucks in the early morning

Andebe wrote:

Reading your story gave me a brief moment of PTSD. I totaled a vehicle in December of last year with little to no braking. Shudder...I am glad the ol' girl protected you. Wagon hunting for your next one should have has health benefits to aid in your recovery.

I think what saved me was never seeing the truck. If I had had time to tense up it may have been worse!

Glad you pulled through yours and thank you very much for the kind words!

That is so awesome of your friend!

Back in my yard in nearly 3 years






What it looked like the morning I left for work