- “Time Warp” Head-on collision…ticketed for speeding, crossing a double-yellow, causing an accident. Yes, I was cutting corners deliberately. License suspended for 1 month.
Arist: Paul Simon
Album: Graceland
Song: You Can Call me Al.
Volume: VERY VERY loud.
I turned in front of somebody. My bad.
I’ve only been in one accident. It was the May long weekend, 1996, and I had run up to the mall to get a birthday present for a friend. I was just leaving the parking lot, turning onto the main road, when a little old lady ran a stop sign (she actually told me at the time that she sped up to avoid me!) and slammed into the passenger side - good thing I was alone in the car or there would have been injuries.
Music: a tape of U2’s Achtung Baby, can’t remember which song.
“Rockin the Paradise” by Styx. I was passing someone just as the song took off following the opening buildup and I never slowed down. The music had a direct effect on the accident. I was 19 and should have been killed. I rolled the car after coming up on a curve and slamming on the brakes.
“Johnny Come Home” - Fine Young Cannibals on the radio
I, in a 1988 Dodge Shadow, rear-ended a 70’s-era Olds Delta 88 I had just let turn in front of me when the school bus that was in front of me at the stop sign stopped almost immediately after turning the corner. It was a mile from my house, on the way home from my night shift job. Scared the crap out of me.
Don’t remember the other (had to have been “classic rock” though) as it was a group of four of us, probably gabbing, heading for the beach when the right rear tire blew out on the highway at 65, we fishtailed and headed toward the deep, gully-like median. I was the only one injured…we hit a turn-out in the median sideways, I bounced forward into the rear-view mirror and broke it off, driving my glasses into the bridge of my nose, cutting it nicely. Ended up in my buddy’s lap (the driver) when we came to rest at the bottom of the gully. Turned out apparently the retread on my friend’s car was mounted in the opposite direction it should have and came apart. Luckily it didn’t happen the week prior, when we had driven 250 miles to see the Grateful Dead at the Meadowlands.
As the starter of the “How many times a day do you pee?” thread, I guess I have to respond.
Only major accident, 1997. Soundgarden’s “Fell on Black Days” on the radio. A little ironic.
I still won’t listen to that song while driving. I’ll change the station.
My only major accident was in 1997, I was listening to Machinehead by Bush. I kinda sorta t-boned a lady. No injuries, but her camoflauged colored POS was totaled.
Another datum for you. I honestly can’t remember how many car crashes I’ve experienced, but I can say that I don’t recall any sound system being in use during any of them, with one exception.
When I started driving, tape decks were still a few years out, and my first several cars had either no sound or only a crappy AM radio that was even worse after the cheap speaker (singular) blew out. So, I wasn’t in the habit of listening to fuzzy AM radio. Didn’t stop me from crashing cars, though.
My one exception was when a semi rolled into me in the wee hours one morning - then I was focussed on the highly entertaining Graveyard Shift Taxi Dispatcher Show.
One of a sort I doubt you’re looking for: when my last accident happened, several years ago, a fellow ran a stop sign and, as he broadsided us, my then GF had the presence of mind to say, “Goodbye.” (We lived.)
First crash: “Livin’ La Vida Loca.” Ew. But that one wasn’t my fault.
Second: “Der Komissar” by After the Fire. My fault, but it involved only myself. Hydroplane. Very lucky to have come out of that one with only scrapes and bruises, given what happened.
Third: Honestly, I can’t remember. I think it was one of my CDs, probably Flogging Molly. Another wreck in which I was lucky to be essentially noninjured.
Tuesday night, 1 hour after sundown I went through a herd of deer at 75 mph.
Listening to Radiohead, OK Computer. It was a very trippy experience, since I managed to drive between a couple of deer and miss all of them.
Ok, not a wreck, but damn close.
Ooh, Flogging Molly! Although I dunno if bagpipes would be the ticket after a wreck. Might give me a mild headache.
1998 - I had on Edie Brickell, “Beat the Time”, when I was stopped at a red light. I looked beside me and saw a friend of mine in his car. Being the friggin idiot I am on occasion, I asked him for a cigarette. He tossed one through his passenger window and it fell between the cars. So, intelligently, I open my door quickly to reach for it, and when I bend over, my foot slips off the brake and onto the gas…
Vrroom, smash.
Luckily, I was driving a Saturn, and it’s got rubbermaid bumpers. I just bounced off. I was mortified at the time, but now it’s just a hilarious memory.
Never ask for a cigarette from the next lane before putting your car in Park.
U2: “She Moves in a Mysterious Way.”
And I did… kind of sideways.
My only accident was pretty minor, but since I was 17 at the time, it seemed like a big deal. I didn’t see a stop sign, blew through it, and got clipped on the tail end by a driver who didn’t have a license. Memorable I guess because she tried to claim a crapload of injury, even though there was no damage to my car, and only a little ding on hers. I was going about 10 mph (I was looking for the auto repair shop where I was supposed to pick up a friend of mine). She couldn’t have been going that fast, either.
I was listening to The Jayhawks “I’m Gonna Make You Love Me.” My mom got that CD back shortly thereafter.
The only serious accident I’ve been in was when my Dad was driving. We were going down to the nearest Krispy Kreme, which had just been built a few weeks before. I’d never been there, and was home for Thanksgiving break. A woman blew the red left turn light and smacked into the driver’s side of my dad’s car, crumpling pretty much all of it. My dad got smacked by the side view mirror, which I found to suddenly be in my lap. Insurance judged it to be entirely her fault. I was sore for a couple of days, and my dad got one hell of a bruise.
We were listening–well, not really LISTENING, it was just on–to NewsRadio 78. Which, if you live in the Chicago area, you know you can’t live without, so I still listen to it.