Last night I was driving to an event about 1/2 an hour from our house. It was snowing heavily, and the road was slippery. I was behind a medium sized truck (somewhere between a dump truck and a large pick-up), it was hard to tell because it was dark.
We were both taking it pretty easy because of the road conditions. He started to gaining speed and leaving me behind. As I went into a bend in the road the back of the jeep began to fish-tail. I tried unsuccessfully to recover. I went off the road and into a 5 foot ditch, and rolled onto the side, then onto the roof.
As I started into the ditch, I thought to myself, there's nothing you can do now, so best to relax and don't tense your muscles. It happened so slowly.
As I hung upside down from the seatbelt, I thought, first find the emergency flashers and turn them on. When I did that, I also turned off the engine. Then, remembering conversations from past incidents, I cautiously attempted to undo my seatbelt, but it was locked up, so that took some time. I was able to slowly let myself down and not fall on my noggin.
It's incredibly disorienting being in an upside down vehicle, especially in the dark. There was a log outside the one door, so I didn't even try to open it. I tried to kick out the other window, those windows are tough. So I thought, well just maybe the other door will open, and it did, just enough to get my head out and wiggle the rest of me out.
So I gathered up the stuff I needed for the event I was attending, climbed out and flagged down a passing motorist. No point hanging around as cell phones don't work and I wasn't hurt, so I went to where the event was taking place and called the police from there.
The officer didn't need me to attend the scene, if I could fax a statement, so I arranged towing from there.
This morning, I have a couple of twinges, but no big hurts at all, so guess my instructions to myself about relaxing paid off (and it was all so slow). I went over it and over it in my head afterwards, and it's odd though how difficult it is to picture yourself in your vehicle when it's upside down and you've righted yourself, despite having actually been there.
CRAP!
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