Have you ever been in one?
I was just wondering what it was like? Were you conscious of the car flipping over? And how did it happen?
Never heard of such a thing and google came up blank.
What or where is an upside down car wash?
Read the OP again. 
I’ve never been in a rollover myself.
I rolled my pick-up truck over a snowbank and ended up on its side with a window blown out.
I was very aware of everything, mostly because I was only going about 25 miles per hour at the time, as the snow storm I was driving in dictated.
Although, I must say, I wasn’t expecting to go up sideways, and that in my brain is very different. That is, I can remember being very calm, because I knew I there was no way I was going to avoid the snowbank and I was braced for impact, but the flipping onto the side was quite a surprise, and I can recall that part of the accident with much more alacrity (and in slow motion) than any other part.
Probably doesn’t answer the OP’s question as it wasn’t a very violent crash – I came out completely unharmed, as did my truck (except for the window).
LOL!!! Now that would be interesting!
No it does very much so. I’m not interested in how fast or ‘violent’ it was just, more how aware the driver, or passengers, were of what was about to happen and what did happen.
A friend was in one. Sounds scary as hell. He saw and remembered the whole thing in detail. Road with 2 lanes each way and a center turn lane (5 total). He’s in the left lane (which is clear), doing the speed limit, 45 mph. Cars in the right lane are just starting to move after a few cars made right hand turns at an intersection. Somebody in the right lane ‘waves in’ a car that was coming out of a parking lot. This car comes all the way into the left lane instead of the right lane. Sideswipe/front corner impact. Friend’s car rolls left and onto its roof, and slides along that way, across the turn lane into the oncoming lanes. He recalls seeing the road surface just outside the busted windshield (this was before airbags), realizing that he was in the oncoming lanes, and thinking that he was going to wind up getting hit head-on. Remarkably, he was just a little scraped up. He’d tell this one whenever people mentioned ‘waving in’ other cars.
I was driving after a recent snowfall. I approached a T intersection going from right to left across the horizontal piece of the T. However the road that I was on was county road and it actually made a 90° left turn. So the county road (which was plowed ) went from right to left on the horizontal piece until it got to the vertical piece, then it turn left. The town road, which I was planning on taking, continued straight. Unfortunately, it was unplowed at this point of the day. And since the plow had followed the county road, there was a 3’ high snow bank that I had to drive through to get onto the town road. Common sense would suggest that I slow down. But, my dumb 17 year old (at the time) brain decided it’d be more fun to blast through it at 50 MPH and blast through it I did.
Since the snow bank curved, I hit it at a slight angle - which caused my car to skew a little sideways. And since the road I crossed onto was also snow covered, there was no way for me to save it. I went into the ditch sideway (driver’s door first) at close to 50 MPH and everything just whited out due to the 5 or 6’ of snow in the ditch. I couldn’t see a thing. I could feel the deceleration pushing me into the drivers’ door. It seemed like I was slowing down forever since there was this constant pressure pushing me into the door. Then the snow started clearing. I could start to see it falling - from right to left.
At that point, I realized that I had been stopped for awhile - it was gravity pushing me into the door. Then, I could hear the radio playing and the engine running. I’m not sure if this has happened to anyone else, but during the actual accident, it was like my hearing just shut off. Once I realized I was safe and the accident was over, it kicked back in.
So, no I wasn’t conscious of the car rolling - but maybe if I could have seen a point of reference I would have.
There was actually very little damage to the car. Just a dent in the fender where I took out speed limit sign. And I was completely unhurt - except for slamming the passenger door on my head when I slipped climbing out.
Never been in one, but was one of the first on the scene of one. A Caddy got bumped by another car, hit the curb, and flipped over the guard rail and landed on its roof. The driver, who was wearing his seat belt,. was conscious and seemed okay. He spoke to us.
Always, always, always wear your seatbelt!
I rolled an old convertible on an icy mountain road and it turned over twice. Both times the seats fell out and landed between me and the ground and I rolled back over with it. The paramedics couldn’t believe that all I had was a broken nose and some bruises when they saw the mangled car. I remember skidding and seeing the side of the hill rushing at my face right before I smashed into the steering wheel and I remember having this sort of astounded slow motion ‘holy shit I’m rolling over and I’m probably going to die’ thought and a noise like a roaring subway train. When it stopped rolling I was in the back seat with my legs up over the back in the roof well and my head under the remains of the drivers seat. I’m sure that I just laid there for a while and then started thinking about getting out but I didn’t know where the car was and if I had rolled down the road or down the mountainside and I was scared to shift my weight. I knew that my face felt all wet but I thought that water must have spilled and it didn’t occur to me that it was blood. I don’t know how long it was before someone else came down and saw the wreck and got an ambulance, but I remember being wrapped in a blanket and going into shock.
My son rolled one on to its side and slammed into a tree. The vehicle had dropped a wheel over the edge of the road and he lost control; it ran up on an embankment kind of like a skateboard through a half-pipe. The sideways vehicle then hit a large tree and stopped.
He says he remembers all that up until the moment the air bag hit him; he saw it coming and it knocked him out.
He came to with his passenger lying on top of him and some other friends yelling at him through the windows.
They were extremely lucky that it hit a tree - neither was wearing a belt, and all the windows were rolled down - they would have been thrown out. It all happened so very fast but he said the impact was incredibly hard.
shudder
A few years ago, I was a passenger in an SUV that rolled over. At the time, I was studying at Purdue, and a few friends and I headed up to Chicago for the weekend for some fun. The weekend was great and everyone had a good time, and now it was time to head back. It was late at night, and everyone was tired. The driver fell asleep. We ran off the highway, and the vehicle flipped over when the driver woke up, realized we were off the road, and over-corrected. We were going about 70 - 75 MPH at the time. There were sparks and broken glasses flying everywhere. We must have rolled over several times, but we ended right-side up in a ditch by the road. Fortunately, we didn’t hit anything on the way. Everyone was using their seatbelt, and except for some scrapes and bruises, we were fine. I got some minor cuts, the top of my head hurt (probably from when it bumped to the roof of the car), and I also pulled a muscle on my neck, which also hurt for a few days afterward. The car was written off though.
Don’t remember a darn thing after hitting the wet leaves in a downwards corkscrew. This guy in a big trick came up the hill at me, I touched the brakes… Apparently, I slid up an embankment, flipped… landed more or less square on the roof and pointing backwards.
'92 Honda Civic. Yeah, the tin can kind. Hatchback.
After realizing where I was, I discovered I had about a quarter inch of headroom, but I was kind of suspended by the belt, so…
Stuff was scattered everywhere. I was doing maybe 35, and I slid about three car lengths before the flip.
On October 15, 1991 I was driving on Route 29 through southern VA. I fell asleep at the wheel which is VERY bad when the cruise control is set at 65. I have no memories of the actual crash. I just remember coming to upside down with my head on the windshield. The car had hit the embankment and turned upside down, crushing the top down to the level of the top of the doors. this was in a '91 Acura with less than 5,000 miles. I had head and shoulder injuries and suffered a slightly collapsed lung from air and fluids building up around it. I was airlifted to UVA hospital and spent a week there.
:smack::smack: Slinks away.
No, no. Think of it as an opportunity. You just have to invent upside down car washes now and you’re golden.
Are you researching for a novel or something? I’ve never been in an upside down one, but have been in a spin round and round and round and end up in a shop window one.
I was in a slow speed roll over. I was in a minivan hit in the right rear quarter-panel. I was going about 20 mph, the other car was going about 60.
The rollover was in slow motion, at least in my head. I remember thinking “Damn, I’m going to have to climb out the passenger window.” Then I was upside down, hanging from the seat belt. The radio was blasting, (I don’t remember it even being on before the crash) the engine was running and the guy who hit me was yelling, “areyouokareyouokareyouok.”
I got the radio off, but somehow couldn’t figure out how to tunrn off the engine.
He dragged the door open, and I carefully extricated myself. It seemed to take forever.
As soon as I was out and on my feet, he said I should sit down. That pissed me off, I said “I just got up!” (No idea why that was important.)
Then he pointed out I was bleeding. I looked down, and wondered where all the blood on the ground came from.
The paramedics came and I sweet talked them into not giving me a “ticket to the trauma train”*. The policeman gave me a ride back to the hospital, where I had my wound dressed and got a ride home.
Three hours later I got to my doctor, who yelled at me for 5 minutes before he put 25 stitches in my arm.
*I heard later they got into trouble for not transporting me.
Hee. I actually read this as upside down car wash the first time.
I rolled a car one time. Doing about 60 MPH on a 2 lane country highway, and lost control at the top of a curve. I remember the car slipping of the top of the curve and the car rolling, side, top, side…, into the ditch. I remember the care rolling, I remember panicing after everthing stopped, afraid that I had injuried my SO, who was in thet passenger seat. I remember everything being covered in a layer of broken glass bits as I hung there. I don’t remember actually getting out of the seatbelt or out of the car.
We were lucky. A few scratches and a totalled car.
I was in one in January 1996. This was on the southbound Merritt Parkway in Greenwich, Connecticut. I was going about 50MPH and there was black ice on the road that caused me to fishtail initially, turn perpendicular to the guardrail, kick up snow from the still-running tires, launch in the air, land on the roof and spin round three times. I crawled out of the car (which I was careful to leave so that only one of the two southbound lanes was blocked) and stood there while I waited for the Connecticut State Police and the tow truck. (About ten minutes late, the state truck went by to deposit salt on the road.)
I spent the time waiting apologizing to passing cars for the inconvenience. The fire department showed up but had nothing to do, although they waited with me for the tow truck driver, who, by the way, did more damage to the car in flipping it back on the wheels than I did in flipping it on the roof. I was the lead story on Channel 12 News that night, as a cautionary example of what not to do.
I was completely alert the whole time. Mostly I was thinking about how the car normally doesn’t behave like that. (The airbags didn’t go off, which should tell you how low impact this was.)