Probably not. I was involved in a high speed rollover crash on the I-5 in San Diego 20 years ago. I was driving a Nissan X-Terra in the number 2 lane on a 5 lane freeway at approximately 75 mph, when suddenly a black Ford Focus began moving towards me at a 30 degree angle from the number 5 onramp lane. He had lost control of his vehicle because he was driving at approximately 90–100 mph and his lane unexpectedly ended. He panicked and slammed on his brakes, and then began skidding. I didn’t have time to react, not even time to blink my eyes. I thought to myself that this was going to be really bad. He impacted my car in the right front door, and then I felt my car tipping over, and then it rolled onto its side. That’s all I can remember. If I had died, that would have been my last thought on Earth.
But…I hadn’t died. After I regained consciousness, I was now right-side up, facing 180 degrees in the other direction, with traffic bearing down on me. There was a loud squeal of brakes and tires, then several cars stopped to avoid a secondary collision. If the car had hit me, it would have driven the now broken windshield into my neck. It had detached from the roofline, and was projecting into the passenger compartment at a 90 degree angle.
But the oncoming cars did stop in time. Once again, I got lucky!
A state trooper appeared, and asked if my car was driveable. Yes, I think so (it was still running!) I happily exited the freeway and parked on the shoulder. I got out of my car, and noticed that I was covered with broken safety glass. I had several small cuts, and I felt disoriented. Several witnesses to the accident had stopped to see if I was safe. They mentioned that I had rolled over 4 times and had been tossed around like a rag doll inside my car. They assumed that I had been killed during the accident, but were shocked that I was still in pretty good shape.
I had suffered a mild concussion and a few mild bruises, but I was 100% alive and well. It occurred to me that if I had died during the accident, I would have been unaware of my own death, and that it would have been entirely painless. Everything would have been gone, and that would have been the end of that.
Yet 20 years later I still thrive, and am extremely grateful that I didn’t die that day. Someday I will die, but it wasn’t on that particular day. Maybe I was lucky while being unlucky, but I’ll take that.
PS, It turned out that the 2000 model year X-Terra had the strongest roof of any car made at the time. It had an incredible crush strength, of approximately 2–3 times of other vehicles. It had been designed for other than First World countries, so they had added extra strength to the car for durability. It helped, because I had room to live. It saved my life.
Thanks NISSAN!!!!
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