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How Far Would You Go??

My friend fell asleep about 45 minutes from where we would have switched and fueled up. Was about 4:40am Saturday morning when I woke up to pitching and tires screeching. He woke and yanked the wheel, thus causing the truck to flip at 80-85mph (was on cruise control)...Needless to say, my best friend who was an AI for the CHP reviewed it and said by the looks the truck rolled sideways 9-12 times, and flipped at least once. Pretty violent. He got a concussion and torn earlobe?? how the hell that happened I have no clue, must have been from debris inside the truck (crap in the ice chest and such)...I got off pretty lucky...Destroyed my collar bone (seat belt clean snapped a whole chunk out as wide as the strap), well, busted a nice piece anyway...And my eyes were all hemorrhaged and black inside. Kind of creepy looking. We were in Red Bluff, CA, which was about 9 hours into the drive and 45 min south of Redding.When the truck landed, she was on her roof with my door facing incoming traffic in the fast lane. Thank god it was so early, otherwise I wouldn't be here today for sure. Still unclear how I literally walked away from that one.

Lesson learned, 1) don't let your friend fall asleep, although may be a bit hard when you yourself are asleep as you are supposed to be so you can drive your leg rested, 2) if you are gonna crash (as if we plan this kind of stuff), do it in a less rural area cuz the next part is where it sucked...

He went to the hospital, I refused service. I worked in finance and credit and knew first hand what an ambulance ride would cost in the end, and I had ZERO bleeding or pain, so screw that. Now when I crawled out of the rear passenger door window and tried to get up, my arm fully gave out, so I knew something wasn't right, but still to this day, it never hurt. Hell, I was out riding my quad the next weekend after I went and replaced the truck. About an hour later, the CHP showed up, helped me round up all our stuff (don't ever ever leave ANYTHING of value in a vehicle being towed off like that if you can avoid it), and we went to the hospital...My friend was kept overnight, but me, I arranged some lovely travel accommodations to get home. First I tried to locate a rental agency...Not happening there. Next city, Redding, had them, but no one ways....Strike 1...Next option, Greyhound...Uh yeah, 13 hours and $126, strike 2...Alright I am down in the count, having a crap day, let's hope option 3 works...Greyhound to Sacramento 2.75 hours and $25, Southwest flight home to Ontario at least, $100, cab ride to a liquor store/Greyhound bus station (yeah, real lavish place lol), and I was set...TSA sucks by the way. Got to Sac and the *******s MADE me remove my shoes. Mind you I had trashed eyes, my friends blood on me still, and an arm sitting 2" lower than the other, but hey, take off your shoes...

Got home about 12 hours after the whole ordeal and was happy to be there. Went straight to Kaiser, had the doc check me out...He flipped when he saw me all trashed and I had refused service...But agreed after x rays, nothing could have been done. I had the RN at the hospital where my friend was admitted tape me up and tape an icepack to my shoulder to minimize swelling and it worked. Arm still sits funny, but works as it did prior and nobody had to carve me up to fix it....He advised against riding my quad for a month minimum, but hey, you can't stop that...was prime season and I rode anyway haha, just not hard, except at Ocotillo Wells where another friend completely obliterated his elbow that day, but that's a whole different tale.

I did get my case, and the guy was cool about it. The crap part was calling my wife at the time and having her and the kids flip out, then my friends wife to tell her, which is never fun cuz they have no idea how things really are, and then my dad...But hey, at least after this happened which was about the time Jim originally popped into the OR, I pm'd him about it and he took the time to reply to me. It was all good. Would I do it again? Probably not...But I would drive for sure, just not immediately after work and my co-pilot would damn sure get more rest...
 
Here are pix of my shoulder and although hard to see, the bloody eyes...

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Wow that is a serious tale. Very lucky of not getting s life threatening injury.
 
Wow that is a serious tale. Very lucky of not getting s life threatening injury.
pretty damn lucky indeed. Especially considering I have lost 2 cousins to fall asleep at the wheel accidents, one cousin injured pretty bad in one, and another cousin with a totaled car in the same thing. I guess you can say my family has a very very bad history with that. I try not to even go near a car when remotely drowsy let alone tired. Just sucked because literally 15 minutes prior to the accident, I woke up and my friend was babbling like a kid going to prom...I figured he was good and dozed back off. Whoops.
 
I just saw the photos if the truck....good lord you both were lucky. I hope your "bad luck" is done and you escaped with minor wounds in comparison.
 
What happened Dr. Chop?
dude fell asleep with the cruise set at like 80-85...Truck was a Colorado Z71 so had a slightly higher stance and it simply rolled, well not simply, it freakin went around like a clothes dryer when he over corrected. I am all good, never had any issues, and he is fine, although I think it loosened a couple screws that were "finger tight" lol. Best part of all was my son, who at the time had just turned 9, decided not to go with us at the last minute. He for sure would have been done in...Like Jim told me on OR back then, we have to count our blessings.

jannard

3/14/2006 11:03 AM

Incredible story... we all need to count our blessings everyday.

My best,

Jim
 
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Holy smokes! How on earth did you walk away from that one Doc? That truck is completely trashed. Count our blessings indeed. Amazing!
 
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