OMG!!!!!! let send some prayers everyone!!!

[Joshu]

i will say this... and this is joe. they wanted to cut the roof off to get him out..he wouldnt let em... he bent the steering colume up off his legs and positioned himself at the drivers window to be extracted......... dern... thats JOe!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thats F-body love

Get strong man.

[FroSSty]

WOW!! I still can't believe this has happened to him! I have a lot of respect for Joe even though I haven't known him long nor have I even met him in person. I hope he gets through this as easily as possible.

It is too bad that I am in Michigan. I work at a body shop and we do get all of our parts at a really good price. I could order up all his parts (from Berger Chevrolet, who is our parts supplier ) at our cost and save him a bundle but I know shipping them would negate the savings. Hell I would even put her back together for him on the side for a couple of beers.

Lemme know if I can help...

[wolfdogs]

ive got a bunch of O.E. parts stored in the basement off the CompTA and Firehawk too... lower control arms, pan hards, throtte l bodies, ill have to inventory it.

[Christopherrr]

dang...wow. don't cut the roof? now, that's admirable. Glad he's pulling through.

[ryan34]

So i just thought of this, the other guys insurance isn't going to pay for this? And if not, why not?

[Rhode Island Red]

I just hope the culprit, did get caught. So far most of us are assuming the other driver didn't drive away from the scene. Thanks for the update as always

[wolfdogs]

I just hope the culprit, did get caught. So far most of us are assuming the other driver didn't drive away from the scene. Thanks for the update as always

he tried to...two witnesses wouldnt let him. the police got all his info.

we dont know if he's being charged with the accident or not as of yet.

[Joe 1320]

To all the brothers and sisters on this forum

First off, let me say that the outpouring of emotion, thoughts and prayers has me overwhelmed. As much as I try to be the silent and strong type, when I read though the threads I broke down.I am truely in awe of the way you folks have me in your thoughts and prayers. When I spoke to Ken the other day, I had little idea of what everyone was planning. Ken mentioned something about "all that I've done for F-body.com"....... I was a little startled. The board was a considerable help to me when I first started playing around with the then new 4th generation f-body. When it merged in '97 and became f-body.com, I became a perminant member and shared whatever knowledge about these cars that I had managed to glean. Hopefully I thought I could help steer people clear of some of the pitfalls and mistakes that I had made along the way, not to mention learning as much as I could. You see, I'm the type of person who tries to learn something everyday. This board contained a wealth of knowledge and it's members seemed top notch. I was also impressed with the way that the members handled themselves. I thought to myself, "These are the kind of top notch people that I want to be able to associate with". There were very few instances where members belittled others, there were no flame wars like what still exist on the other forums, any time that type of activity reared it's ugly head, the moderators shut it down quickly. Because of that kind of environment, I knew I was hooked.

Fast foreward a few years, and I found myself going though a bitter divorce. Yet again, the members of the board gave me support and the strength to rebuild myself mentally. The divorce wiped me out emotionally and financially. I found myself so deep in debt that I didn't see any way out. The support from the members even in non tech topics was amazing. Again, I learned a great deal. I didn't declare bankruptcy, I worked my butt off to repay almost $40K in debts that my ex had managed to accumulate, with some attorney fees and other things all piled into the heap. None of that included the mortgage on the house or the loan on my beloved 97 WS6. Fast foreward a few more years and the day came when I paid off the note on my WS6, indeed it was a great day. Then........... in the blink on an eye, I was back into the fray when a few back to back Hurricanes tore though my neighborhood and my house. Of course some remember that I got screwed by the insurance company and I found myself again looking at huge bills, and even to this day there is work still yet to be done mainly due to lack of funds. I suppose I could have taken out a second mortgage to finish the repairs, it just seemed like there were other prioritires that kept popping up. My son had been injured and his hospital bills needed to be paid out, I thought eventually I would complete everything. The members of this board banded together to help out and again, I found myself surrounded by good thoughts and prayers. Just when all seemed to be getting back close to normal, an event happened the other day that has changed my life forever.

continued.............

[Joe 1320]

On the last day of February, I had already taken my son to school and returned home by 7:45 AM. I did a few things around the house and got myself ready for work. I left for work in the WS6. I had recently had a string of breakdowns that left my 93 Z28 parked with a blown headgasket and the 94 Camaro was being driven by my girlfriend. I put insurance on the car in order to drive it daily for a couple of months until I got a few other things situated and then she was going to be retired for good and given a refresh. I was putting it away for my son to have as a show car for when he was older. I gambled and only put personal injury coverage to save some dough as this was only going to be a short term thing. It was a gamble that came
back to haunt me. I pulled out of my neighborhood onto a rural county highway. It's a two lane road with a mix of passing and no passing zones. I drove for a couple of uneventful miles and came up behind a pickup that was pulling an enclosed trailer. He was going a fair amount under the speed limit having just pulled out pn the road, something that was not uncommon in this area. I pulled the car slightly to the left to take a peek at oncoming traffic, it was clear. I made sure I was in a legal passing zone and pulled into the left lane to pass. As I approach the rear of the trailer, the truck moves over into my lane effectively blocking my pass and my line of sight. There was no turn signal, nada. I quickly touched
the brakes and dropped behind, if I hadn't I would have slammed into the rear of the trailer. I though maybe there was something that he was trying to avoid, I thought maybe he was trying to pass even though he didn't use a signal. When I pulled back into the right lane, he was still 3/4 in the left lane and I could plainly see that there was nobody in front
of him. WTF? My line of sight showed that the next closest vehicle in front of him was hundreds of yards ahead. By now he was slowly pulling back into the right lane. I took another peek at what oncoming traffic looked like and saw a car in the distance so I stayed put until he passed. Again I moved into the left lane and started my pass. All of a sudden, I see the trailer coming over again only this time I was already next to it. As I drifted left, evidently my left rear tire hit the shoulder of the road and the car started to rotate. My nose was pointed right at his truck. I said to myself "uh oh, this is bad". I got off throttle and tried to regain control and it wasn't happening. I gave the car some opposite input to bring the rear end back in line and it swung around to the right and went into a side spin that took me off the left shoulder. The car was now sliding sideways away from the truck and
down an embankment. The WS6 slammed into several trees, one of which was a downed tree that was left over from the hurricanes. The airbags didn't deploy as this was not a frontal crash. The large limbs from the downed tree ripped though the windshield in front of the passenger side and tore it's
way though the dashboard, causing it to explode. The tree cut though the instrument cluster andacross the steeringing column, forcing it downward into my legs. The tree exited the dash and blew though the driver's door, pinning me in the car. The dashboard exploding into sharp plastic fragments cut me in so many places that it would be difficult to count. I have lacerations to my
head, hands and arms, and my left leg. One deep laceration on my left hand and wrist was down to the bone and I knew that I was losing alot of blood. The bad thing is that I was pinned by the steering column and the tree limb. I was fortunate that others stopped, one of which was an off duty EMT and helped control the bleeding until the ambulance arrived. I knew that I had to get out of the car, I couldn't tell if my legs were still intact or whether I was loosing blood from them. About that time, ambulances and fire/rescue arrived and were going to cut me out. I'm not sure why, but I said "like hell you are". I reached under the steering column manipulated the tilt mechanism which was jammed, and literally bent the column upward off my legs just enough.
I reached across my lap and grabbed the seat back tilt release and let the back recline. It was just enough room to allow me to be brought out though the window ala Nascar style. The EMTs were trying to get me airlifted to Tampa or Orlando but of the choppers were flying due to bad weather at their points of origin. I was taken to a local hospital for diagnosis and
treatment, but more on that later.

The driver of the truck had stopped, but was going to leave when one of the witnesses stopped him saying: "You aren't going anywhere, we saw how you cut him off". Thank God for the witnesses and off duty EMTs that were on the scene, I owe them a considerable amount. At this point all I have is the accident information, I would hope that the other driver will be charged. However, one never knows what is going to happen. In my opinion, he should have been taken off to jail immediately for attempted manslaughter. By now, I was in the ambulance with an entire crew taking care of me and in minutes I was in the ER being attended to by another team of medical specialists. Fortunately, there was a top notch orthopedic surgeon across the street who rushed over to check me out. I was given a blood transfusion, the wounds were under control and I was scheduled for surgery later in the day.
Now all I had to do is lay there and get pumped full of blood, morphene and a host of other things until the surgery could be performed. Later that night, the surgery was done to repair my left hand, things are looking good and I should know more when I go back to the doctor's office on Wednesday. I have not been able to walk, the bruising and lacerations to my legs are very painful. A wheelchair was the only way to be mobile. The good news is that yesterday I was able to stand with the use of a cane and today I was forcing myself to do limited walking. I had to go down to the towing and storage place that had the WS6. Damn, I'm in the wrong business. They charge up the wazoo and they wanted cash, no checks or credit cards. I had
to arrange to get the car out of these and see the damage for myself, not to mention to get some personal items and license plate from the car. Upon arriving at the facility, they asked me if I was the person driving. They said it was a miracle that I survived. So far, everyone that has seen the car is amazed that I lived. As soon as I took another look at my baby, I suddenly felt a shiver. I can't figure out how I survived either. I took a few photos and have the links posted below. I'm going to warn you that the photo taken of the driver's compartment area is frightening. The condition of the car
is terrible in many ways, I seriously doubt that it's fixable. The only parts of the car that weren't touched were the driver's rear quarter, rear hatch and rear bumper. The powertrain appears untouched, it's the whole unibody thing that looks pretty rough. I've posted the links below to save bandwidth, not to mention the fact that I really don't want to continue to look at them if I don't have to. I also have doubts that the car can be fixed, it will have
to be taken apart first in order to better see the damage. All I can say at this point is that God was on my side and apparently it wasn't my time. I can also say that the members of this forum are the best group of individuals, neigh.... brothers and sisters that I've had the priviledge of being associated. You've all given me an enormous gift, a feeling of having a new lease on life and feeling of being exceptionally lucky to have friends like you. God bless you all and you have my never ending gratitude.

Now for the pics:

http://img267.imageshack.us/img267/6638/crash004ms7.jpg

http://img267.imageshack.us/img267/6018/crash003cr0.jpg

http://img267.imageshack.us/img267/1264/crash002kl3.jpg

[Dave M]

That's quite a story Joe! I'm glad to hear you made it out of the car in (relatively) one piece. The members here will do all we can for you, you know that. If you need anything during yourrecovery, just say the word. Those pictures are crazy. That car did its job and saved your life. You are definately lucky.

[Joe 1320]

Thanks for everything, you folks are the best............


http://www.f-body.com/forum/showthread.php?t=19205

[Trash man]

as every1 has said be, cars can be replaced if needed, but people, cant and thats what matters! glad ur on the high road to recovery

[dochidalgo]

Joe:
I'm truly sorry about your car accident. I already saw the pics and I thanked God you survive (with injuries i know) to tell the story....
I don't know why this events happen to good people like you...I guess the final intention is to get a strongest soul, it's intended to thank for each life's good thing has given us, it's a stop in our life path to reconsider who are ourself and what is most important in our life.......
I'll pray for your complete recover in mind and body....I'm sure you will be a strongest man, with a spirit nearest to God.
A huge and respectful hug for you man...get well
dochidalgo

[Gary94Formula]

What a story Joe... After looking at the pictures, God was on your side. I hope they hang the other driver... I'm glad your doing better and let us know if we can do anything to help...

[raroZ28]

unbelievable. The classic jerkoff that doesn't want to let anyone pass. I've never had somebody merge into me, but 9/10 times when I go to pass, some jerkoff will speed up to prevent it.

I hope it was worth it to him, and I hope that he gets hit with every offense possible, including attempted murder. He deserves to be put in jail for a long time.

That damage is worse than I imagined when wolf said it wasn't totalled. \

Great to hear from you Joe. I'm happy you survived the wreck.