Well my luck is still in.
There I was minding my own business merging with the traffic on the local motorway 11 days ago.
Stuck the boot in to get over to the fast lane when the rear end decided it wanted lead position.
Now remember my car is (was) a Ford ute with a Tickford go extra fast engine package, and I like the fact it is (was) a motorcycle on 4 wheels - fast and nimble. However like a motorcycle it didn’t like wet roads and rain, and with the lack of weight in the rear was a sitter for an oily patch whilst under extreme acceleration.
Have you ever thought about what happens in your mind when your life may be ending?
First of all there was no noticable adrenalin shot - I mean I was calm and rational. This surprised me.
“First thought as the rear overtook the front “this is gonna hurt cos it isn’t a theme park ride…” 
CRUNCH!
Second thought “bugger I’ve wrecked the only nice car I ever owned..”
CRUNCH!
Third thought “gee that bonnet looks interesting flying thru the air down the highway…”
Fourth thought “oh good the car has stopped moving and I am alive…”
Fifth thought was an emotion - relief and anger, mainly directed at myself.
It was about then I discovered I couldn’t breathe real well, and that my right shoulder hurt lots.
The passenger door opened up and the usual question (I have asked it often during my lifetime) “are you all right mate?”
“Sure I just wrecked the best car I ever owned at 100 kph plus and I can’t breathe - right as rain…”
Well I didn’t say that but it was how I felt. He seemed like a friendly bloke though and told me to breathe deep…
The driver side door opened up and a nice middle aged female voice said “how are you we are nurses…”
By now my mind was a bit blank. The girls told me to breathe shallow and wait for the ambulance. Better advice than the first bloke’s I figured, becasue it seemed to reduce the pain in my chest somewhat.
A moment later another head appeared in an ambulance reflective coat and proceeded to give me a bit more advice on how to breathe and generally stay alive. He said he wasn’t the official ambulance but just happened to be following me…
(I’ve heard of ambulance chasing but being chased by one is new to me…)
It was about this time I saw yet another figure chatting to the ambulance figure about how he had collided with a flying step ladder, but wasn’t really injured. “Good” I thought, “glad he isn’t hurt but I guess I need a new stepladder too.” (Such was the case - the ambulance fella asked me later if I owned an 8 foot step ladder and after saying “yes” he informed me it was now a 3 foot step ladder… hilarity all around)
I was still sitting in the car not doing much apart from breathe shallow, so figured I better scope out the scene and see what else had happened - I mean it is the major highway between Brisbane and Sydney after all. Being as how I couldn’t move very much I used the rear vision mirror and saw my rear end was neatly parked against the side of another car but he didn’t seem to be stoved in (luckily his damage was mainly cosmetic it turned out).
I noticed my windscreen wipers were still going except they were upside down and had no blades so I thought I better turn them off too - didn’t want to scratch the windscreen now!
Anyway the ambos finally disgorged me, the coppers breathalysed me and off we went to hospital…
So why am I a lucky sob?
Well first the injuries I sustained were not life threatening - a broken collar bone, a few bruises and cuts and a severe muscuar wrenching in the upper body left and right.
Picture this - your upper right torso hits a seatbelt at 100 kph and stops moving but the left hand side is still unrstrained.
What does it do? Well tries to tear itself off the spinal column and keep moving of course!!
I guess all the upper internal organs were bruised too, but scans showed no ruptures or anything. Considering the speed at which I hit the concrete barrier, I got off lightly. Even the hospital folks were surprised I wasn’t worse off, and I reckon they’ve seen a bit more than me in this regard.
12 days later I can report that I am slowly healing, but it is gonna be a couple of months I think before I can get back into some serious physical training. I suspect the fact I am pretty strong and fit for my age helped out as well - we will see during the recovery…
Second and most important, nobody else was hurt. The bloke following me said debris flew off everywhere and it was quite spectacular. Lucky too that the right hand lane was empty at the time, that there were no big trucks close enough to t-bone the wreck. The bloke who wore the ladder reckoned he had a minor cut because it had attacked his windscreen but was otherwise ok. (This was what I overheard him say to the ambulance bloke later anyway)
Third, the car landed up in the left side of the freeway leaving 2 lanes wide open for collision avoidance. traffic seemed to be moving pretty freely.
4th the first ambulance bloke was transferring a vehicle and was just behind me as were the nurses. They controlled the situation whilst waiting for the real ambulance to arrive.
5th damage to other vehicles was minor - my car was written off. I think the mag wheels and tyres were ok but I didn’t want to see it
6th this whole scenario has goaded me to reassess what I am doing as far as my health and fitness business is concerned. My whole life actually…
And yes I was insured, both financially and physically but since I can’t properly service my face to face clients my business is effectively kaput…
Lessons? 
Everything we do in life has consequences… If I hadn’t been quite so lead footed in the rain, a really simple little thing, my whole life would not be so radically changed.
Be Awesome! and if you have any similar experiences which might have changed your life then why not share them? Just comment below
