Why this girl will never "race" on back roads again ....

[JBougie]

Last night was probably the thing that finally scared me enough that I will never, ever, ever again horseplay around in the back country roads of my area - or speed, or race on the street, etc.

This is something we have done for YEARS, we know the back roads like the back of our hands and we know the speed that the cars can handle - well, last night it went horribly, horribly wrong.

B & R were in the extended cab 4x4 Silverado truck pictured below; it was R's truck but B was driving - B is a phenomenal driver, experienced track racer, has been racing cars since only God knows when - so he knows what he's doing. No booze or drugs were involved, just so everyone knows that off top as well.

I was behind them with Chris in the 09 Mustang GT on our way to B's house to hang out - on the back roads we go faster than most would consider safe. It's a clear straight away with minimal bends to the road so the thought of hitting on-coming traffic is never an issue, and you can see another driver on the road 1/4+ up (just thought I'd clarify that for those who would want to yell about the risk of hurting others - because that is never, ever a factor on these roads) However, of course we gamble with what could happen to us every time - but we are young (well, not so young anymore as we are all in out mid to late 20's now..ugh..) and dumb and just have fun... been doing this ,again, for years and nothing has everrrr happened until last night.

Anyway - Chris slowed down after about a mile of keeping up with him because 1. he is adamant about not driving fast with me in the car because if he was to ever wreck, he wouldn't ever be OK with putting me at risk of being hurt and 2. he doesn't want to hurt his baby (lol) ... but for a minute I convinced him to play around and keep up so he did but not excessively speeding (well, we were going about 65, so that is excessive on these roads); he backed off the Silverado after that mile or so down to 35mph and then about 1/4 mile up drove into a huge cloud of dust - the Silverado, while going about 65 on the paved back single-lane country road, hit a patch of gravel did a 180 and got wrapped around a tree off in the ditch.

All I thought about was R because she was on the passenger side of the truck and it didn't look good from where we were so we both jumped out to go see if they were ok, I just kept screaming "Are they OK!?! Are they OK?!?" and then the "you have to stay calm just in case they AREN'T ok" kicked in and I was able to gather my thoughts instead of freaking out. THANK GOD they were both fine. She hurt her knee, he broke a couple ribs, and the truck is TOTALED. The frame is bent in almost every place possible, the passenger side extended cab is slammed into the middle of the car and if it would have hit even 3 inches more forward, she would not have walked away from that wreck. I have NO idea how, but the truck was thrown into 4 wheel drive and backed out of the ditch and then driven the approximately 2 miles up the road to the house - how it made it is beyond me because when you look under the truck there is no way it should have been able to move.

You always hear about how so-and-so wrecked but you always say "meh - it would never happen to me" and continue doing the dumb sh!t you were doing before. I can honestly say that last night changed my outlook on racing, and horse-play in vehicles forever. It literally scared the hell out of me for two reasons, I could have lost someone that I absolutely adore and that thought alone brings me to tears as I write this thinking about HOW close that was to being a completely different outcome and the other reason it scares me is to think about what would have happened if Chris wasn't one of those drivers who is 100% control of his vehicle at all times (he is the one who never races people and doesn't like goofing off in his car, unless it's at the track or from time to time on the highway they will just do a flyby or something) and he would have been like me and tried to keep up with him. In my opinion; there is no way that if that 4x4 truck couldn't make it threw that patch of gravel at that speed that the Mustang would have. That is a sobering experience right there because the Mustang also wouldn't have taken the impact like that truck would have .... it was a little too close of a call for me and the combination of not knowing if my friends were OK as I look at this mangled truck and thinking that it could have been us right behind them almost broke me down were I stood.

I don't know why I am posting this really, but I felt it was something people should see just as another reminder of what can happen when you're driving too fast - even on roads you know, with experienced drivers, and no booze/drugs. I always thought the only time things like this happened was when people were drunk and didn't know what they were doing. That isn't true.

Sorry about the dark pictures; I tried to get clearer pictures but all we had were the headlights from the other cars in the driveway, so they didn't come out the best. I'll update it with day-light pictures after I go over there and check on her today.

[1stToyota]

Thanks for sharing. Very glad that everyone is okay and your story will probably help a lot of other drivers.

[DandiDani]

wow. i am glad everyone is okay. very scary...

[Kaotic Lazagna]

Whoa, glad everyone wasn't hurt too badly. Yeah, I stopped goofing around when I had my first car and had a close call.

[SilverBack]

Very good to know you're okay. Even better to know that you realized you've gotten too old for this shit (don't take that the wrong way, because this is also how I learned too).

[slothman86]

WOW! Glad to hear everyone is Alright!

[landrym28]

Great to see that you're ok. Could have been alot worse!

[fluke_boy]

Yikes. Glad to know that you all are ok.

[why?]

Originally Posted by SilverBack

Very good to know you're okay. Even better to know that you realized you've gotten too old for this shit (don't take that the wrong way, because this is also how I learned too).

This. Surviving or seeing this type of stuff happen right in front of you is a sobering, scary thing.

Especially when it is something you've probably done a million times before, with nothing ever going wrong.

I am glad everyone walked away.

Had a friend who did this type of thing a bajillion times like you get himself killed because the bajillion and first time a semi was where he didn't expect it and his old bug had no chance. The dude loved to brag how fun it was getting his car airborne. yup...

[maxxman420]

scary

[nemelek]

I rolled my dad's suburban on a gravel road with 2 other people in it when I was 21. Fortunately no one was hurt.

[toyo]

agree, thanks for sharing