Accidental History

The other day I was thinking about car accidents and how I have driven thousands of miles all across the United States – from busy cities like DC, LA and NY and I have had no problems. Then the recent death of Derek Loux, a worship leader from IHOP-KC, caused me to really thank God that despite the accidents I have been involved in (almost everyone one of them close to my home), God has kept me safe over the years. But my heart does go out to the Loux family during this time of grieving. Derek was on his way home from a ministry trip in Colorado and his car hit some ice and flipped over several times. Derek was an amazingly talented musician, and he and his wife Renee have ten children. They founded a ministry which adopts orphan kids with very special needs. So if you would like to make an end of the year donation to a charity, please consider helping out this family and their awesome ministry. The Loux Family Blog and The Josiah Fund Ministry.

My Accidents Over the Years:

1. 1973 Ford Maverick into a ditch (1989) – The slush pulled me off the road, coupled with nearly bald tires. Messed up the steering pretty bad.
2. 1981 AMC Concord into a tree (1990) – slid through and intersection while attempting a right turn and ended up hitting a bunch of trees. No serious damage, just a dented front bumper.
3. 1983 Nissan 200sx into a deer (1991) – bought this one wrecked and spent time and money getting it all fixed. It was ready to paint and then a doe jumped out of the woods and wrecked the front of it. I was riding my my good friend Jay Morrone. Dad was more upset about this one than I was since he had done all the work fixing it! Had to replace the hood and passenger side fender.
   
4. 1987 VW Jetta into a tree (1995) – This one was a major accident. I came over a hill at 55 mph one night after a tornado and there was a huge tree lying across the road. I had only moments to react. God told me to lean over and put my head into the passenger seat, which I did immediately. I hit the tree and it crushed the roof down to about window height as the car went underneath the tree. When I came out on the other side, I tried to sit up, but obviously could not. I was amazed that I was still alive, and that I was not bleeding except for one little cut on my arm from the shattered windows. The car was a total loss.
5. 1991 Acura Integra into a corn field (1997) – this was the stupidest accident. I was going to drive home on a whim and got about 2 miles from my house in Indiana. I went around a corner too quick (like 45 mph) on wet pavement and los control of the car and plunged down a steep bank into a corn field. I thought it was going to be ok until the wrecked pulled the car up to the road where we discovered a large rock buried in the field had carved out the steering, axels, oilpan, transmission and other essential parts of the car. A total loss.
6. 1993 Acura Integra – slid in the snow into a concrete barrier (2000). Just some surface scratches on the front bumper.
   
7. 1994 Nissan Pathfinder – multiple accidents (2002-03). The first one was in 2002, where I slid through an intersection after a freak snow storm just appeared on the way to work. I smashed into a poor lady who was on her way to a nursing home where her father had just died. I made an appointment with the body shop. A couple weeks later, I was driving down a side street and a woman back straight out of a parking space into the street and into the side of the truck. Her angry husband appeared on the scene and tried to say it was my fault… for driving? I am not sure what his deal was. Needless to say, her insurance paid for it and I got both accidents repaired at one time. In August of 2003, Robert and I were taking a load of steel chairs on a trailer back to Winona Lake from Osceola, and as I came up to a stop light in Nappanee, the light turned red and I realized that I would not be able to stop in time. I promptly smashed into a red Sable who smashed into a VW Bug who smashed into a Ford F150. My truck was quite a mess as the trailer kept moving forward and tore off the hitch and crushed the back bumper. In the end, it was a total loss, but somehow I did manager to drive it to Dayton for Jason & Kristi’s wedding.
8. 1993 Volvo 850 – rear-ended (2003). I looked long and hard and found this beautiful car and got a great deal on it. As I was driving to Barnes & Noble one wet rainy night, an older man came up too fast behind me and totalled my car. No one was hurt, but a total loss for the car.

Those were all my personal vehicles. Now I have had a couple in the ministry vehicles:

1. 2001 Dodge Ram 2500 – rear-ended (2006). This one was annoying. I was driving the truck down McKinley in Mishawaka and came to a stop light. a guy was not paying attention and totally slammed into the back of the truck, denting up the back bumper but causing way more damage to his car. I got out and he offered me $50 saying he was late for an MRI. I said “I don’t think so, I’ll just call it in” and as I was talking to 911, the guy took off. I chased him while talking to 911 through the busy streets, but in the end he slipped away. The big diesel is just not as nimble in traffic as a little car. No major damage, just a bent dented bumper.
2. 1994 GMC 1500 – multiple accidents (2007-2009). The first one was in the parking lot at Martin’s supermarket. I had the plow on and as I slowly and carefully backed out of a parking spot, I slowly and carefully scraped the plow edge down the side of a guy’s shiny black Ranger and took out his back tail light in the process. The second one was I got rearended by a guy in a KIA SUV with no insurance. He was freaked out, but it did no damage to my truck. I told him to get insurance, but did not call it in. Somewhere in there, I was plowing through the lane to Bob’s house and slid into a tree and put a nice dent in the door. Another time the tailgate flew off in the middle of the highway sending a shower of sparks and metals shavings everywhere.
3. 2001 Dodge Ram 1500 – tailgate smash (2009). This was definitely NOT my fault as my good friend Robert hooked up the trailer and forgot to lock it down on the ball. As we put the tractor on the trailer, the front of the trailer came up and the dropped down, putting some deeps gouges in the formerly pristine yellow paint of the tailgate. No serious damage, just a few hundred dollars to repair.

Childhood Accidents:

1. Massive Old Station Wagon – We had this car we called the floating mattress because it just seemed to float along the road – probably bad springs or shocks or something. Anway, it was obviously horrible in the snow, and one day we were going to the church in the middle of a cold winter day and Mom went off the road and got it good and stuck sideways in a ditch. We ended up having to walk to some friend’s house down the road and wait for Dad to come get it. Ah, the days before cell phones…
2. 70s Chevy Malibu –I was probably 9 or 10 – The car was stuck in the mud of our driveway. Dad was trying to pull it out with his dump truck. We had a chain hooked up to the back bumper. I was steering the car and had the accelerator to the floor. I do remember seeing the speedometer reading 110 as the wheels spun. Thank God it did not catch as I would have been killed at that rate of speed and my young age. In the end, we managed to rip the back bumper off the car but did get it out.
3. 1942 Jeep – I was around 13 or so and we were trying to get the Jeep started. So Dad figured we could pull it up the driveway and “pop the clutch.” I had never done this before but he told me what to do and I got in. We were pulling the Jeep with the dump truck which was hooked up to a triple axle trailer, on which was chained a huge wooden barrel. So this odd caravan got underway slowly and he told me to let out the clutch… which I did. Well the engine caught and started, and of course, me not knowing what the heck I was doing, the clutch was still out. So the Jeep proceeded to repeatedly slam into the back of the trailer while I tried to figure out what pedal to press. Obviously, pressing the brake did not help much, and to compound the whole thing, the pedals were bare steel and slippery because of the winter snow. The truck/trailer was stopped and Dad came running back and yelled at me to press in the clutch. I finally got the thing stopped, and it stalled. Needless to say, the front bumper was pretty trashed from the repeatedly slamming, and Dad was not happy at all.
4. 1980s Dodge Omni – rollover. I was probably 14 or so and we were coming home one night after church. We had just dropped Jay off and the roads were pretty icy from a late fall storm. We were at the top of a hill which goes down and curves to the right, and about halfway down the car started to spin. We crossed the line and went into the ditch on the left side of the road, and once we hit that, the car rolled over, and over, and over. I remember seeing the trees go by in slow motion. We ended up on the drivers side (all of us kids in the back seat had no seatbelts on) in a pile on top of Sara. Mom was hanging up in the air, being the only safety conscious one in the bunch. The back window was shattered and I climbed out of it. Sara was screaming that the car was going to explode, (over and over again at full volume) and Matt was in a daze. I got Matt out and the Sara, and Dad got Mom down and we all got out. We went across the road to some folks that Dad knew, and they gave us a ride to our house (about a mile and half away). Dad and I came back with the trusty Jeep and flipped the car on its wheels and towed it home (with me steering). No one was hurt but the car was totalled.

Well, that’s the list of my encounters in motor vehicles. Like I said, I am thankful to God that I was very injured, nor did I injure anyone else in the operation (or mis-operation) of the automobiles.