About our neighbor John – he was on his way to another town to pick someone up – early evening around 7:30pm. Our farm roads have a lot of curves and you have be careful for deer – early evening and morning as the deer are out and about. From what John told us, he had swerved to avoid hitting a deer causing his car to go sideways. Trying to correct the slide did no good and he ended up in the ‘ditch’ – with the car laying on its side. Fortunately, it was not raining and there was no water along the road. This brings us to getting out of a car – any vehicle for that matter – that is laying on it’s side. The car was lying driver side down with the passenger door up. The contents of the console and for that matter, everything else in the car had gone everywhere – and the seat belt latch was frozen. Fortunately John had a knife and was able to cut the seat belt freeing himself and then with a huge degree of effort manage to get the passenger door open – basically having to lift the door like dead weight so he could crawl out. Lucky for him the door wasn’t jammed. There were a lot of things happening here I had never considered as consequences of a car wreck.

• Car lying on it’s side
• Seat belt becoming locked & trapping you in
• Stuff scattered everywhere (can you say projectile?)
• Non-working electric windows & door latches
• Leaking gasoline (FIRE!!)

I’m a major planner so John’s wreck has really got me thinking. I’m going to put a soft-side ‘tool bag’ together with stuff in it – knife. towel, flashlight, small fire extinguisher and whatever else I think I might need for a car wreck and probably stick it under my seat. I’d already had a LifeHammer Orange Original Emergency Hammer that I carry in the car door where you keep the maps – but if you go rolling – you might as well forget finding that little gadget. The ‘Life Hammer’ is a pretty cool little tool. It has a notch on the handle with a razor type blade for cutting through seat belts while the other end is 2 pointed hammers specially designed for breaking window glass. If you’re in a wrecked car and the motor is off – those windows aren’t going anywhere without power. Imagine if you were under water! John was very lucky he walked away with only a skinned elbow. I hope I never have that experience but if I do – I will thank John for my being as prepared as I possibly could be.

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