I survived a very serious automobile accident on the morning of November 20, 1987. I was driving to work on a 2-lane road and running a few minutes late. I was not driving irresponsibly but I was passing other cars when it was safe to do so. This accident was a head-on collision with a combined impact of 80 to 90 MPH. I don’t actually remember anything about it (apparently my mind blocked it all out), but when I awoke in the hospital 2 days later, doctors told me I probably would never walk again and I would be in the hospital for 6 months. I amazed them all by leaving the hospital in just 13 days.

In the collision my 1978 Ford Fairmont Station folded up like an accordion. It was a couple of feet shorter from the firewall to the rear bumper, and the front of the car was just gone. The engine had come into the passenger compartment right next to where I was seated, narrowly missing me by inches. I was not wearing a seat belt in this accident; my face collided with the upper part of the steering wheel, which smashed several teeth out and left me with dental problems that persist to this day. My pelvis caught the bottom quadrant of the steering wheel as the steering column folded upwards, catching me like a catcher's mitt, preventing me from flying out of the windshield, and undoubtedly saving my life.

I also sustained the following injuries:

• Broken left femur, in 2 places.
• Broken left baby toe. This toe was badly lacerated and popped out of the skin, which was hanging off to the side and had to be re-attached. To this day I have no feeling in that toe or the left side of that foot.
• A concussion and lasting spine and neck problems from the spine being out of alignment.
  
• Pelvis broken in several places. It was snapped in half on the left side and the right femur was smashed out of the socket, which punched a hole in the top of the femur and broke off the lip of bone on the pelvis which normally holds the femur in place. Both of these pieces are floating around in the hip now and occasionally give me some pain.
• A nasty scar on my left hip where a steel rod was inserted to aid in healing the femur, and another scar on my stomach from an Exploratory Laparotomy (they cut me open to see if I was bleeding internally. I wasn't, but it left a massive scar).
  

On top of all of this, I was charged by the local police for speeding, crossing a double yellow line, and driving to endanger! The combined charges could have included a sentence involving imprisonment, since the woman whom I hit head-on had broken both of her legs in the wreck (as bad as this sounds, I daresay she made out better than I did with her injuries. This was most likely because her vehicle was larger and heavier than mine).

As the case was heard I was quite despondent and beyond depressed at the possibilities. I had no memory at all of the accident, as I said, so I couldn’t even console myself with the certain knowledge that I had done nothing wrong. I was a young 22 year-old guy with long hair and I was pretty sure I was considered guilty until proven innocent in many people’s eyes in that courtroom. The police report painted a rather incriminating picture of me as well. However, a witness came forth who testified that he was behind me when the crash occurred. As I tried to pass the next car in front of me, that car sped up and would not let me by. When I slowed down to get back in behind him, he also slowed down to keep me in the other lane. A moment later I passed a “Do Not Pass” sign and the beginning of the double yellow line. As I was still desperately trying to jockey for position to get back into the right hand lane, I started across a small narrow bridge. I smashed headlong into a car in the opposite lane as the car in the right hand lane roared away. The witness behind me was so shaken by the sight that he failed to get the license plate number of the fiend who had actually caused the horrific crash.

The case was quickly dropped. The judge personally apologized to me for the negligence of the police department.