I mentioned this in the little known facts thread but it deserves the full story. It's not a "car" story, but it was a horrible accident.

When I was 17, a friend and I were riding on his Vespa heading home from a night at a dance club. We were about 1 mile from his house when a car coming towards us began to swerve. We slowed and pulled over to the shoulder of the road, and when the car seemed to straighten up, we began to pull back onto the road. The next thing I knew, I was lying in the middle of the road. We had been hit head on by a drunk driver. My friend was lying in the road too and the Vespa was nowhere in sight. He was moaning slightly but not moving. I looked up the road and saw headlights coming towards us. I pulled myself out of the middle of the road, fearing we might get run over. That car stopped and the driver got out. I asked them to call an ambulance and they did at a nearby house.

My friend was taken by lifeflight to UCSD Trauma center. He had a compound fracture of the Tibia, a punctured kidney and lung, and was in a coma for 4 days. I was lucky, being the passenger I was thrown over and onto the car, rather than into the front of the Vespa. I tore my Abductor Magnus, which is permanently contracted in my leg, cracked three ribs, bruised my chest and left elbow and suffered a concussion. I also broke a toe. They told us our accident was the equivalent of falling off a four story building.

We both lived to tell this story despite the fact neither of us were wearing helmets. The law did not require them at the time. The woman who hit us was taken to a women's detention facility where she tested .19 on a breathalyzer, almost 2 1/2 times the legal limit. From the police investigation, the point of impact determined she was completely in our lane at the time of the collision.

The moral of this story... Don't drink and drive and always wear a helmet when riding motorcycles. You may not be as lucky as we were.