I know that I am one of the few drivers on the roads around here who fully concentrates on driving and does not let myself get distracted.

I NEVER text or talk while driving. I also drive very defensively.

Yesterday while driving on the freeway I had to abruptly swerve to the right to avoid part of a front bumper. Then all of a sudden the two cars that just got into an accident were in my lane with parts of their cars unraveling off so I had to swerve to the left to avoid them. I had three kids in the car who were scared and I just about shit my pants. I can swear that if any other person driving at that time was in MY EXACT situation they would not have been so lucky. Why? Because no one is paying attention while driving.

I've been in my share of accidents. One was a hit and run on the freeway where a car going about 10 miles per hour decided to pull into the carpool lane right in front of me with me going 65. Of course I hit the car I couldn't brake fast enough, kept hitting the divider my tire popped and the whole left side of my car was damaged. Hit and run.

Another time I was driving about 45 mph down a busy street going to work when a car turning left decided to turn right into me. The air bags deployed and I was full of cuts and bruises and my car was totaled.

Those were my worst two accidents. The other 6 or is it 8 were pretty minor. One year while helping out at the church I got into 2 fender benders. These old people can't judge anymore so one man hit my rear bumper. He hit it hard enough where it had to be replaced then about six months later another older lady backed into the left side of me. That too did some damage so I got a new rear door. My car was starting to look brand new thanks to these old folks

Anybody else noticing how distracting people are while driving these days?

I wont go through details but I have almost went through one windshield as a young teenager, and I was hit by a van at work when I first started in the utility industry. Neither one was a nice experience.

Other than that I hit a dog doing 65 (he was one of those Great Danes that was about 4 foot high) and done about $2,500 worth of damage to my Mom's car. I didn't even have time to tap the brake before I made him explode. If he lived I was going to stomp his ass out as I was so mad after it happened. We had to claim she hit a deer as I wasn't on the insurance yet

That's crazy how you got hit!! No broken bones? The story about the poor dog causing all that damage and exploding (yuck) makes me very sad. RIP doggy.

Only accident I have been in was a few years ago, someone ran a red light and t boned me on my passenger side. Luckily I did not have a passenger in the car and no one in the other car was hurt

I was driving on Fairview Road in Costa Mesa by the 405 Freeway and slowing down to a red light. All of a sudden a stupid pigeon flies down to the street right in front of my right tire. There was nothing I could have done since I was already stopping. I heard this pop and I knew what happened. Felt bad, but animals don't pay attention and get killed.

Which time on the broken bones? Sadly the windshield hit (we were barely out of the school parking lot) has given me a rare disorder in my back that is VERY PAINFUL. I have to chew painkillers just to get out of the bed and work.

As for the van hit I got back up and went back to work like nothing happened. I was so scared, nervous and my adrenaline was pumping so fast I was just relieved to still be alive so I got up and went back to work. My co-workers were amazed. I estimate he hit me at about 20 as he was making a left turn off a major highway here and claimed he had the green light and never seen me. My co-workers were ready to beat his ass and I probably should have let them. We had the red light out due to an outage we had to have for that block so he didn't see no green light. First rule of thumb when you are flagging traffic is to never turn your back, but I had a car coming up my ass and I had to make sure they were stopping but some angel told the guy flagging the other side of the highway to holler my name and that truly saved my life. If he never hollers the van runs me slam over, bumper hitting me dead in my mid back and more than likely killing me.

That was one of many close calls over the years on a line crew. Luckily we are much safer these days

Most all accidents are caused by distraction, whether it is from alcohol, cellphone usage and one often overlooked- drowsy driving which can cause horrendous accidents. Most but not all accidents can be prevented

Dixie you are a good sport to laugh about those terrible accidents you were in. You are one tough guy. I don't know anybody who gets hit by a car and says he's going back to work moments later. You really do have a guardian angel looking out for you

I cannot imagine the pain you must be in though, sorry you have to deal with it every single day.

I swear to it though. All I remember seeing is GMC on his front grille. First contact was the bumper hitting my knees and luckily from my co-worker hollering my momentum was taking me to my left and once the bumper hit my knees I did a full flip like a bull just threw me off him, and it hit on my ass and sit there for a second praying my legs would still move. Luckily they did move and I wasn't hurting so I told my foremen I wasn't going for treatment lets get the day done. Young and dumb!

Last summer driving in Alberta I was driving very late at night in tight twisted roads and I came around a turn and BOOM right in my way is a moose standing in the road. Luckily no traffic was coming and I swerved around him / her.

Another time if I was looking down waiting to cross a busy intersection to go across a highway. The light turned green and I didn't go across right when I could of....I look up and a big transport truck blew the red light at like 80 mph and would of t-boned me to mars if I had been going when I could of. Thankfully that didn't happen lol.

Worse vehicle accident so far has been having a golf cart roll multiple times and land on me. Yeah.

Sonny Black is gonna put a curse on you now for killing one of his lil pigeons. I'd say that they are both together up in heaven but I don't think one of them was let in

You had some close calls. A gold cart rolling and landing on you...how does that happen? That's crazy.

As I was driving my kid home from school today, some jerk off pulled out in front of me from the left turning lane, I was going straight. I had to slam on my brakes. Well, little did that driver know, there was a motorcycle cop right behind me. The lights went on and he pulled the driver over. + 1 for me. But my hands were shaking cuz it was a little scary. My kid was a bit rattled too.

I love it when that happens. Justice.

That happened to me about eight years ago. I was driving on a dark road, speed limit 50, when all of a sudden I saw a very big elk standing stock-still in the right lane. Luckily I was in the left lane. It all went by in a second and a half. Thank God I just happened to be in the left lane. If I'd have hit the animal with my little Honda Civic, my wife and I would have been history.

I nicked a deer with my wheel on a dark country road about 25 years ago. I stopped. The poor animal's leg was broken and it was struggling to get up. I stopped at the first home alongside the road and asked the owner to call the police. When I passed the same spot the next day, I saw blood on the road. Evidently the cops shot the deer and took it away.

Most accidents happen close to home. Which means to me that your concentration eases as you get closer to home.

This is what happens when you drive in the city. Don't drive in the right lane on an avenue closest to the curb. Then you will see someone in the outer lane dive in front of you to go down a local street. How do you avoid hitting him. You just turn with him on that local street.

When your a new driver the car moves where ever you look. So if you look when a car is close to you. You will drift closer to that car.

Give yourself 4 car lengths stop tail gating when you start hitting traffic because you lack patience.

When a car cuts you off on the east river drive near Houston street at 3 am. Don't cut him off to get back at him for cutting you off. Then both of the drivers actually stop theirs cars right on the drive. Get out and you tell the driver to fuck his mother. Especially when your 55 and he is a Russian in his thirties. Then you hit him and he hits you. Now the traffic slows down and people start watching the fight. Then you finally hit him with a good right and left and the Russian goes down. Then you think about running him over in his own car. But then seeing all the witnesses you get into your own car and leave. What do you have to show for it a cut lip that needs a few stitches and a broken pair of eye glasses.

My two worst;

As driver - Got rear-ended by a semi on the way to work twice in succession. Not as serious as it sounds (light up ahead turned green, did not know my car was in front of him) but it gave me neck and back pain that was thankfully not permanent but I had to go to work on an important case before being able to go into the chiropractor. So I had to suffer at work for 5 hours before I could get away.

Overall - was front passenger in a car where we had stayed up all night, then left on a 5-hour trip at 2 AM. Sometime after sunrise, the driver fell asleep while driving on the interstate, drifted into the median, woke up and overcorrected, sending the car off the highway where we did a 3/4 rollover. Luckily, no one was hurt. Even more luckily, the car came to a stop about five yards from a ravine.

It's getting bad around here! I can go down the Interstate and every other person you see they are staring at their damn cellphone. I've even seen folks have a newspaper laid all the way out and reading it while driving. Don't even get me started on this new generation of drivers either, they can't take a crap without having that phone glued to their hands!

I know what you mean. I work in an industrial supplies warehouse with a lot of heavy machinery and the "young people" we hire (kids in their twenties) are constantly getting caught driving forklifts and other machinery while using their phone to text or listen to music. I don't consider myself old (I'm 37) but when I yell at them about it they act like It's no big deal. One particular kid who always does this was driving home one day in his car while texting and drove right off the road into a ditch. I was right behind him. I laughed my ass off at him.

I had a family member do the SAME thing. Going down his own freaking driveway and hits a power pole. How in the hell do you do that without having a stroke or something? Safe to say I don't ride with him anymore. I'd rather walk.

When I started on a line crew back in 99 our job required us to drive our buckets down the interstate about 25 miles and was near a big city so we were in traffic jams A LOT, but we'd get to rolling and I'd see guys pass us with a newspaper opened all the way out and he had a coffee in his lap too. Couldn't believe it.

Just the other day I drove 3 miles into town and was almost hit 3 times by folks looking down instead of at the road. It's only going to get worse too

I was a passenger in a car that was involved in a head-on collision.

The individual driving the other car died in hospital.

The driver of my car had to be cut out with the jaws of life.

The other driver was at fault, and, at first, I felt like a prick for getting out of my car and yelling at him while he was trapped in his car in a ditch crying in pain.

But you know what? Fuck it.

I could have died instead even though I wasn't at fault. The person driving in my car could have died.

Life is fleeting, and precious. I don't have time to feel sorry for people who show so little value for their own lives, and the lives of others, that they careen around recklessly in cars.

Put it this way. Would you have any sympathy for a drunk and/or reckless pilot flying a passenger plane?

No, you wouldn't.

Cars are death machines. You are statistically more likely to die in a car wreck than a plane crash.

Don't drink and drive. Don't drive over the speed limit. Don't drive when you are sleepy.

Being accused by police for something that wasn't your fault and being treated belligerently by the "victim"'s family at an inquest isn't fun.

I really don't have anything to share about this subject as I do not have a drivers license and fortunately have not been in an accident. Hope I never will be a part of any. Honestly, the thought of driving a car on a highway has made me really nervous in the past. Driving that fast and other peoples wreckless driving is not a nice combination!

Anyway, why I decided to comment was because of that I wanted to share with you that in my country, it's the only country in the world where it is not against the law to be on the phone and actually hold it in your hand while driving a vehicle. I am quite sure of it at least. Complete madness!

About eight years ago I left church and headed over to my friend's house on my motorcycle. I was about two blocks from his house. BOOM! Some Fucking old bitch from Connecticut ran a stop sign. I t-boned her and went flying. When I came to, I got up and surveyed the area, red plastic everywhere. I was able to stand up to further assess the damage. The lady's car with my bike through the windshield finally stopped in the front wall of a house. I looked down and had blood all over my legs, but nothing serious. But I had to sit down and have a smoke. People started gathering and everyone kept saying "she's dead but the dog it's still alive" Wtf just happened. The paramedics came and told me my leg had a compound fracture and i needed to be bay flited. I said my leg isn't broken, I had previously broken both legs in another accident when I was a teenager and knew what a broken leg felt like. In the helicopter I go. My left knee sheered off the handlebar but no serious injuries. Just an i&d and some stitches.The lady lived, they paid for a new bike but I kept the money and considered myself lucky to be alive. A few days later, I get a letter in the mail with a ticket for not wearing a Fucking helmet. Not one scratch on my face. The roads are a dangerous place. The lady was lucky I wasn't in my truck bc she would have been ran over with her poor dog. I would've felt bad about the dog though.

The point of the story is...do not go to church kidding, lucky you stayed alive

Moe that is human nature to get out and holler at the other, it's just like someone getting out to help someone who just wrecked when you're not involved, you just jump into action and do it without thinking.

I suppose I felt guilty for shouting cos he died, I didn't think it would be fatal.

It's funny what goes through your mind after an accident like that.

There was blood on me and my first thought was to check my crotch to make sure I wasn't bleeding there.

The adrenaline is something else though. I never felt more alive than I did immediately after it happened.

Yep it makes everyone react different, that's for sure.

I remember getting ran over before at work, before I made lineman and worked on the ground. Luckily I heard a co-worker scream so I turned around and was able to side step a foot which saved me as my knees hit the bumper of a GMC cargo van and it threw me for a flip off the side. My co-workers were ready to drag the old guy out and literally beat the shit out of him, but I was young and scared and was just hoping my legs moved while I laid on the ground. Once I got up I just went back to work and told everyone I was fine which I pretty much was until the next day when I was sore as shit. But when the adrenaline flowed I just wanted to get up and go back to work, happy to be walking as it could have been a LOT worse!

Here in Arizona, state law requires that, in case of fatalities, police shut down both sides of any street or highway until their investigation is finished. This week they shut down I 17, the state's only north/south interstate, for five hours in downtown Phoenix.

The stories on here are quite disturbing. I'm so glad everyone turned out alright.

Ever since our last incident, my little doggie will not stick his head out the window when I pick my kid up from school in the afternoon. He cowers in the back seat. All other times he's happy putting his head out the window. It's definitely because when the bad driver cut in front of me, my poor lil doggie body slammed into the back of passenger seat and ended up on the floor behind me. I bet here in California I can find a dog therapist for him But seriously, the dog is traumatized. Isn't it strange how he can differentiate from morning and afternoon time? He comes with me in the morning, same route, sticks his head out. But in the afternoon, the dog cowers.