I don’t even have a scratch on me, yet I’m surprised I’m still alive. Let me explain.
My Grandmother died last week (not unexpectedly - she was 90) and I was driving up I-95 in my Ford Ranger to go to her funeral this morning. The right rear tire’s entire belt came off at 85 mph. It was a relatively new tire, so I’m going to call a lawyer on Monday and probably sue Firestone. When the tread went, the back end swung out and I hit the guard rail head on while I was still probably doing 80. Right before impact the only thought I had time to think was “Hmm. This is gonna suck”. Then the truck flipped over 3 times. Three damn times! It came to rest laying on the driver’s side door and the cab started to rapidly fill with smoke.
“Monkey”, I thought “now would probably be a good time to get out of the truck”. So I turned off the engine and climbed out the passenger side door as a crowd of motorists started to gather. I stood next to the truck thinking “yep, that pretty much sucked alright”. But what I said was “Anybody got a cigarette? I think I left mine in the truck.” People kept asking me if I was alright and I looked over myself and realized that I didn’t even have so much as a bruise. Holy Fuck. The cop that responded to the scene told me that the last three overturns that he worked on that stretch of Interstate all resulted in fatalities and that he feared the worst until he saw me standing next to my overturned truck scratching my head and asking for a smoke.
That shit just doesn’t happen. People don’t normally just walk away from a wreck like that. I guess I got lucky.
Two bad things: I only have liability insurance, so if I don’t get any money out of Firestone, I’m going to have to eat the loss. More importantly, I missed my Grandmother’s Funeral because of this.
I’ll close the OP three pieces of advice:
Don’t buy Firestone tires. They had a recall on them a few years ago for exactly the same problem.
DO buy a Ford Ranger. That tough little truck probably saved my life. After the wrecker flipped it back over, me and the cop started looking at it and we both had the same thought, “Hell, I bet this thing still runs”
Lastly, and this goes without saying: Wear your fucking seatbelt!
Good on ya for wearing the seatbelt! I lost a perfectly good father-in-law because he didn’t wear his. I’m glad all turned out well for you! Now go buy a lottery ticket
That’s funny. The first thing I did when I got home was have the taxi swing buy the gas station so I could buy some beer (I sure as Hell needed one after that) … and a scratch off ticket. I lost though.
Casdave, good one. mhendo, Ogre, et al. Thanks.
Sapo, “Don’t do it again” doesn’t make any sense because it was a defective tire. How the Hell was I supposed to prevent that? I checked 'em all before I left - tread was fine and the pressure was fine. The damn thing just had a catastrophic failure. That’s why I’m probably going to sue Firestone. But you know what? I really, and I mean really don’t want to do it again, anyway.
Monkey, I don’t mean to be a buzzkill–and I’m glad you’re ok!–but you may want to check in with your doctor or the ER or something anyway. My understanding of accidents is that some injuries can take a while to manifest, while others can be masked by the feeling of relief and shock that happens when you realize that, hey, you’re not road pizza. And if it just happened this morning, well. . .you know. Better safe than sorry.
Shit, though, being able to walk away is still bloody amazing!
When was the last time you checked your tire pressure? A lot of tire failures happen when underinflated tires overheat at high speed. I wouldn’t be so quick to blame Firestone.
