Icy, mountain roadways sure are deceptive in their danger. I totaled my '99 Nissan Quest today. I am extremely lucky I was driving slowly and carefully - just not enough of each.
Seat belts are designed to keep one from being flung about. You get out by pressing the button thingie at your side, where the metal buckle needs just a bit of movement to release the latch. That latch is NOT designed to release easily when the straps are supporting a hefty driver from falling to the roof when the floor has become the roof.
Hanging upside down makes the inside of the passenger compartment look really different. When the the roof is closer to the floor because... Well... Stuff crumpled and the windshield shattered... It skews one's perspective even more.
All my weight was pulling on that blasted seat belt latch. I couldn't figure out how to rise, or crouch in suspension, or do whatever I could to GET OUT of the seat belt. I also imagined it would hurt when I dropped ... Oh, I dunno, four inches, perhaps? Which I imagined was a huge fall..
I got the button depressed and fell out of the seat to the inside roof, now floor. There were all sorts of things in the front with me, strewn about. Most befuddling. Those empty egg cartons - what were they doing in my way? Like in a movie camera angle, I watched through the space where there used to be a side front passenger window at an approaching pair of upside down legs and work boots.
The nicest people in the world live & work in the Foothills, lemme tell ya. That pair of legs belonged to an AT&T worker who pulled me out of the Quest. He blocked approaching traffic because the Quest was perpendicular across "my" lane of Mt Aukum Rd/E-16. He hadn't seen the accident occur (because most of the SMART, local people weren't out driving around, anyway - he had to be up here on the job) so he approached, calling out, "Is there somebody in there? Is somebody in the car?"
When I answered in the affirmative (saying rather stupidly, "I am" as if he should -of course - know my voice and identity) he asked how I was and if I could move "everything" okay. Okay and yes - I just wanted to get out of the car.
Shortening a long story: No injuries at all except a seat belt abrasion on my neck. That's it. I can even turn my head/neck further to the left than I have been able for some weeks! Oh, well, there was a major case of shakes and really apologetic and colorful language. Really freaking inconvenient, definitely costly, and my poor flock needed feed! It's the only reason I left the house, anyway.
Slow speed rollovers are not so bad, even for hefty 60 year old folks like me. Either that or I have earned a few Karma points and had a sufficient number of them to encase me in a bubble of protection.... The tow driver - just happened to be going that way and was the second vehicle to arrive - he was NOT dispatched to the scene - will let me pay after the first. His wife happened to be following HIM in the family car and she gave me a ride home while her husband uprighted the Quest and towed it to my street. Friends picked up feed and delivered it so my home flock won't starve.
So glad you are alright! And there were people there to help you and your car and your flock! Thanks for sharing your story.
