Amazing the sense of power we (me included) get from the power and speed of our machines. And just as amazing how quickly and unalterably that thing went out of control after clipping that smaller car.
This is of particular interest to me, as I was in a serious roll-over accident back in '72 when I was hitch-hiking. A wonder we survive some of our folly -- I was on my way to Pullman, WA, got picked up somewhere near North Bend by a bunch of hippies in a '60 Buick. A hippie much crazier than I had latched on to me. The previous car picked me up with him already on board and we were let out at the same spot. The guy was sniffing glue by the side of the road and was acting like he wanted to be my traveling companion.
I was wondering how I was going to ditch the guy when the Buick pulled over. It had 6 people already in the car. The guy had taken the back seat out and put in a platform with foam rubber and some tapestry, so we had 3 in the front and 5 in the back.
Somewhere near Ellensburg, we had a blowout doing around 75 I'd guess. The car started swerving and I could tell he wasn't going to get it under control. We hit a guard rail post and my field of view spun around violently. My life didn't pass before my eyes but I did have the thought that maybe I'd know soon if there really was life after death. My next sensation was a bright light.
I had come to rest on my side, sorta facing the sun. I tried to stand up and couldn't. It was a mixture of pain and an extreme feeling of fatigue. I was always curious what a video replay of the event would have looked like, and I just got a whiff of it.
In our case, there were 7 peoples flying out of the car, all except the driver, who had the car lifted off of him by about 10 guys, I heard -- two died, including the glue sniffer dude who was sitting next to the rear, right door -- I was next to him on his left. The guy sitting next to the right, front door was the other.
I had some cuts, scratches and many bruises. Gimped up for about 7 to 10 days.