That accident I witnessed the other night was the worst accident I've seen, all the rest being fender benders. The worst accident I've been in happened when I was 16 or 17, driving a bunch of friends to a death metal gig at the Bronx (a now-departed nightclub) one February evening. The day had been nice, and some of the snow had melted, only to refreeze in the evening as the temperature dropped below zero again. Being an inexperienced driver, I hit some ice, and started swerving uncontrollably on the freeway, heading towards the median. Since I knew I definitely didn't want to go into oncoming traffic, I jerked the wheel the other way and we wound up jumping the curb on the other side of the road, skidding a ways and then hitting a light pole sideways. The first thing I said was "Evreyone alright?" When everyone was, I said, "Holy shit poo that was quite the ride eh?" That was the end of my parents' little 1988 Subaru Justy, a fine car that had 4WD. Other than that, I was rear ended in my Little Green Jellybean once, but no serious damage was done, which is just as well since the guy who rear-ended me gave me false info and I nver was able to track him down.
When I was a rock truck driver (think Gigantic Tonka Trucks) I used to enjoy powersliding them in ice and mud. They were surprisingly prone to sliding, especially in ice. I used to try and see if I could do a complete 360 in them. I found that in mud, this was very difficult, a 180 was generally about as much as you could hope for, but in snow, multiple 360's were easy. Preventing them wasn't as easy. A number of times I'd be helplessly sliding sideways down a hill, not worried in the slightest, unless a pickup happened to be approaching. Pickups always lose in a collision with a rock truck. I once surprised my foreman who rounded a corner to see a huge yellow truck sliding sideways towards him. We managed to do the appropriate evasive maneuvers, but he called me on the radio right after, and in a very small voice asked, "Did that scare you as much as it scared me?" I poolitley said yes, but in truth I wasn't too worried. For myself, at least. Maybe a little for him. A similar thing happened with the mine manager once, but he was escorting me on a super slippery road, and decided to pass me just as I started turning sideways, but he didn't even seem to notice.
Sarah over at Desolation Angels was hit real bad by a semi once, I'll go and dig through her archives to see if I can find the story later on.*
Trevor, who was driving when we saw the accident the other night, was involved in a horrific accident once, but that is not my story to tell.
* Sarah doesn't have permalinks, so go to this link, and scroll down to December 8, to the entry entitled "How I Lost My Life and Lived to Tell About It, Or in Which Sarah Gets Run Over by a Semi and Sued for $250,000.00" Like all her stories, it is worth a read.