Having been in a couple of huge wrecks, it's weird how it seems to be slower than it really is, and you think, "I should have done..", but there is no time for anything, you just ride it out. My really big one, I had time to say one word before I hit the first car, then I hit another car and I pulled some crazy negative G's. I was going 52 in a 50 zone when I hit the brakes, I had a truck with one of the first data recorders in it, and it said my steering was straight (this is all at the beginning), I had the brake effort at max(255 out of 255), my headlights were on, throttle was at 25%, etc, The 20 year old who pulled out in front of me claimed I had no headlights. I hit the first car, a Camaro at 47 mph, no air bag deployment, even though I took the whole front of the car off, then at 45mph, I hit the second car, a Cavalier, on the left rear and launched it like when they go into hyperdrive in a Star Wars movie. Think of my truck as a cue ball that stops instantly when it smacks another ball. I stopped in like 12 feet. I can't remember the G number, but it was crazy, like -30. The air bag went off when I hit the second car, and I remember thinking, "Shouldn't the air bag?"..BLAM! The kids in the Camaro were fine, he had no insurance, of course. The nurse who just got off work at the hospital nearby had to be cut out of her car, but she didn't have a scratch. I was the only one hurt, my neck was messed up, I pushed the brake pedal so hard I bent the whole brake pedal bracket, and my left foot made a nice size 13 depression in the floor of the truck under the carpet. The next day, both my legs from the knees down were purple. I had burns from the air bag, and the punch in the face wasn't pleasant either. My wreck did the seemingly impossible, it finally, after almost 50 years after that hospital opened and traffic exploded, got a turn signal put in. I'm kind of proud of that, one person was killed there just about every year. ODOT would do a traffic study, and then nothing would happen, over and over again. About a year after my wreck, I got a call from the police and they told me my wreck finally convinced them to fund the turn signal. Almost all the wrecks stopped instantly after it was installed. I really don't understand how ODOT could think the turn signal wasn't needed, but they do some odd things. Lately, it's roundabout mania, they are putting them all over, and they need to teach people how to go through them.
