Just when you think things are looking up, something brings you right back down to earth.
So I'm driving in my brand new car - picked it up on the 4th of this month, when I slow down because the idiot in front has decided to turn right in a hurry and an even bigger idiot crashes into the back of me at around 50mph!

So I go into shock and my son calls 999 (911 to you across the pond) and the world descends on us. I'm back-boarded out of the car and spend the rest of the day -evening in hospital getting x-rayed (primitive, I know, but they don't have medical tri-corders over here yet) getting my blood tested and all that stuff, while Trevor, my son, who we thought was ok, suddenly feels very ill and ends up staying in hospital with what looks like a fractured C3.

But despite the chaos, the damage, the inconvieniance and the injuries, I'm stunned with the kindness and concern of the dozens of strangers who went out of their way to help at the crash scene, the woman who sat next to me in the car for what seemed like hours trying to keep me from falling unconscious by talking and asking me questions, the firecrew and ambulance guys who struggled to get me out of the car, the cop who was first on the scene, who got pissed-off with the pillocks that just wanted to drive past instead of sitting quiet and waiting till the road was cleared, and who came back to the hospital later at least 3 times to see if I was ok and to take my statement, the Doctors and nurses who understood my medical problems and took them into account while looking for crash related injuries and of course my family who rallied around to re-organise the world like only families can. My faith in human kindness had been restored and I'm reminded of a quote from a sci-fi movie....."Humans are at their very best when things are at their very worst."

Pictures to come..............thanks for reading.....I just had to get this off my chest so to speak..........

Ouch!  Been there, done that...  Hope all is well with you and your son. 

Like Peggy, Chris, been there - done that!  Stay well, my friend, and know that you and Trev are both in my thoughts and prayers!  :a_kiss: :a_kiss: :a_kiss:

Well, I could try to tell jokes to cheer you up, but I don't think you need that much sleep.... I do hope you fully recover soon, though. Lou.

I'm sure we've all suffered with this one, in my case the man who went in to the back of my car last year was an old friend who mis-judged whether I would speed up for a gap or not. I broke and was going as fast as he could to make a gap in the traffic at a round about. By the sounds of it not as much damage as you had Chris, and at least I have the chance to tease him for the next ten years......

I'm really glad I wasn't on the motorbike though!

Hope you and your son fully recover, prayers are with you.

Sorry to hear about the crash....but glad you both survived, if a little worse for the wear.

Please get well, you and your son. My prayers are with you both.

Best wishes to you and our son Chris! Hope you are both feeling ok soon!

We all care for you and wish you well.
Both of you take care of yourselves and try to get back to Brycing when you can.

Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers. Trevor is still on his back in hospital awaiting the results of tests. I don't suppose he's too happy but his wife and son, and other family members have been to see him so at least he isn't feeling alone and all that.

  Waiting is always the hardest... especially, in hospital. Lou.

Hope all is well soon. Best to you and yours.

People is all we got in this world...  everything else is just to be believed.... get well...

Bloody hell.

Glad you both lived! 

No jokes, 'cos any injury at C3 is potentially worrying. I hope your son gets the all clear.

Here is hoping for a quick recovery for everyone.  Please take the advice of the doctor and do everytihing in you're power to heal.

Such is life that unexpected situations good or bad happen...it seems often more bad than good.

I program Industrial Robots for the Automotive industry so I get to see how calls are built these days and let me tell you a lot of engineering goes into protecting the passangers inside even if its at the cost of wrecking a car.  A Car is material replacable, Human Life is more precious.

Please take good care.

Oh Chris I hope that you and Trevor heal up real fast, with no long term complications. I get idiots riding my rear at dangerous speeds. I get nervous and will sometimes do strange things to make them back off.  Tapping  the breaks doesn't seem to phaze them too much so sometimes I have to wiggle the car back and forth, that usually gets their attention. Funny thing is these same idiots usually fall back to a safe distance when the speed zone goes down to a slow one. That always puzzles me.
Well in any case, I'm glad your home recooping and I hope you son gets out real soon. 
Hugs

"I refer to them as 'amateur proctologists' (when I'm in mixed company..;) I don't know how it goes over there with insurance (or even if they have it..;), but here, the whole idea is to 'total' the car; that way you have to buy a new one, which, of course, needs a lot more insurance..hopefully they don't do that there. Had that happen to me in '96..and they spent the next few years trying to get rid of me..

The good Lord loved idiots, he made so many of them (if only they didn't have licenses..;)

get well soon, or the bane of heresy doth descend on the forum..;)

This is why I love being a member of this forum. THank you all for your thoughts and prayers.
Trevor is still in hospital and I expect to be able to see him tomorrow (wed)
Thanks, guys! You're the best!:thumbupboth:

Thoughts are with you and your Son Chris.

Glad to hear you are doing ok. Let us know how Trevor is doing. Got fingers crossed for him.

Good to hear that you are doing OK.

I'm certainly happy to hear you're recovering nicely. C3 on Trevor, eh? Hmm. I'm more accustomed to C2 being fractured. This is troubling. We'll pray for him, definitely.

You are bang on when you talk about people's good qualities coming out during crises. I have seen this time and time again. If people were as reasonable and able to stack their priorities day-to-day as they are when trauma hits, we'd have a much better world.

We usually just see people dish out junk, until something stark occurs in their world that clarifies just what is or is not important.

Know that we appreciate you. Get better soon.
John

Huge thanks for  all the replies, Guys!
Trevor is doing well and it looks like his neck c3 is NOT fractured, but he has bruising and stuff in the muscles around that area of his spine/neck. Prognosis is good, but he'll have a soft collar on for a while yet. He is sitting up now and eating bacon-butties (Well known English delicacy) !!!!!
Me? Well me head has stopped feeling like my brain is swimming in mud and I'm not dizzy anymore....but thanks for asking!
Love you guys to bits!

That's GREAT news about Trevor, Chris, and I'm glad your head is better, too!  Thanks for keeping us informed.  Luv to you and the family.

damn... whatta shocker! I'd say ur car looks remarkably undamaged... thank goodness u 'n trevor seem to be doin better now too, hope u both recover entirely pretty quickly!

Trevor is out of hospital - came out this afternoon. He has to wear a soft neck-brace atm, but it looks like he's on the mend!

I got to see the car today. The back-end is a mess but repairable. Sad, because it was beautiful and less than a month old.

Now I have to get physio on my back and neck, not looking forward to that.

The local paper has asked us to take part in a 'heads-up' about the dangers of that stretch of road. We've said yes to that because it's an accident black-spot that needs sorting. They might even get a local polibeaurau VIP to join. Stardom at last!

Not the best way to achieve stardom, Chris, IMHO.  Glad to hear Trevor is home and doing okay, the same for you.  PT is no fun but it does help.

Haven't visited the fforums for a while.

Was so sorry to hear about your misfortunes, hope all continues to go well with you and Trevor Chris, and that the car gets sorted soon.

Chin up friend, keep smiling.

All the best, for a speedy recovery.

3 to 4 weeks for the car to get repaired...sigh..............sometimes life just sucks!

Dude, you can't get an even break !!! Sounds to me like you need a Fresno Bell or some other  lucky charm. 
Hoping for the best, -TJ

The main thing is you are both ok! Happened to me as well, got rear ended (ooerr) by a big truck in Birmingham. I had a sore neck for a few days so wasn't too bad. But after that whilst driving I was always nervous and constantly checking my rear view mirror. Anyhow all the best and a speedy recovery.

Sorry to hear all this mate, when i read about Trevor it sent shivers up my spine and yes it brought back memories of my neck injury. Glad all is well with you both though and you tell him from me that neck brace is a pain in the behind but bare with it..i wore one like that and the hard neck brace for some months after i got out of my 8 months stay in hospital from my neck injuries..

OUCH!

These injuries build upon themself. I would lug stuff up to 50kilos around all day then get laid up for a week when I bent sideways to grab a pen off the floor. Do your therapy after the therapy is over. They stop giving it to you when they're out of money, not when you are out of hurt. Continuing will keep you strong so that something minor won't set you back again.
Here's hoping your botth in shape for the Glouchester Cheese Roll next year.

electroglyph i know what you are on about there..i would spend hours chopping wood and then would spend days with back pain, this went on for near on 9 years until one day i could hardly walk from the pain. 3 years ago i had a back operation and the therapy which lasted for 6 weeks, i still keep it up on a daily basis thanks to the sheets of exercises i was given to do at home. i still suffer back pain but only if i bend the wrong way or( don't laugh) if i sneeze and turn to the side while sneezing.

TheBryster, i still have neck trouble, the bone never knitted together correctly on the C5, at times i can actually feel it sticking out a little. I crushed the C4, broke the C5 and fractured the C6. So you can see why i shivered when i read about Trevors neck injury..

Double ouch!

Did a photo-shoot for the local paper today. Woah was that scary.....seeing the chalk marks the cops had put on the road to show where my car had been.  The Photog was great though, gave me time to get it together and didn't push me to do anything I didn't want to. 

I wanted his camera, would you believe he could take 9 frames a second. He showed me some of the ones he took. Talk about awesome! He had one with me steady in the forground and a minivan zooming past complete with motion-blurr!

Turns out his brother is also a Photog and then I found out that his Dad took pics of me and Trevor when trev got runover by a car about 15 years ago!!!!!!

After 20-25 minutes though I wanted to 'port back to Mars. I'll see if I can get him to give me the shot the paper will use and post it here.

Oh good gosh! From reading the above it seems as though you’re doing well and I’m glad to hear that no one was seriously hurt. Talking about hurt though, I do understand the hurt when your new polished car straight out of the dealer is…ah…rear…ended…sort of got it’s rear end wrinkled and that hurts! Well, here’s hoping that things gets better.

Sounds like you were quite lucky after all - but what a shock...
Get well soon, both of you!!

sort of got it’s rear end wrinkled 
Reads, "Got it's rear-end totally destroyed..............."

I can't believe the stupidity of some people.  I mean why on earth would you get a Corsa!

Just kidding.   It's shocking and to end up in hospital shows just how fast the were going.   Just takes a split second of not concentrating and accidents happen.   Everyone is guilty of it.
My parents were hit at the weekend by a guy who passed his test 3 months earlier and failed to even slow down at a give way.   Dad's car is pretty beat up and it's brand new too.

Glad you're both getting better.

Phil: Woah! Hope your folks are ok.

On the other hand....... Take a walk............Vauxhall Corsa 5-door 1.4 SXi, fully programmable cd player, digi radio, MP3 Player plugin, time-sensitive welcome lighting, wrap-around airbag protection system, front fog spots, auto-box with instrument panel gear indicator, air-con, low-profile alloy wheels, black pearlescent paint job, 2007 model, car of the year!
Sticks to the road like glue, goes like (insert expletive here) and it was free!!!! Well, nearly!

My only gripe? No friggin' ashtrays!

I can also make my own cd of mp3s on a RW/CD and listen to them in car! 
It even has a button on the dash to lock all the doors in case of attack by Heretics. The remote key only opens the driver door at first in case you're the only person using the car and bad guys are after you..:lol:

I'm having them fit a James Bond style missile system with proximity alert firing facing the rear.  You get too close and the car toasts your ass!!!!

The car is not an issue when your son is involved eh mate? Glad the son is on the mend and you as well. A car is a great thing but doesn't hold a lot of weight when the health of your family is in question. 

No worries lad,  you'll be alright! 

Dash101: You are absolutely right of course. What is more worrying is that we usually have my 3yo grandson in a childseat in the rear. He was wasn't with us on that trip.
No, the car can be fixed or replaced - lives can't. Besides, Phil is only jealous!

But, Trevor is on the mend and I'm due for an overhaul at the Doc's soon as well as physio. 

I'll take this one to thank everyone for their prayers, thoughts, well wishes and comments!
Thanks a million, guys! I love you all - ;-)

StopPress!!!!
Saturday afternoon just gone.....
Knock on the door...
The fing bast** who crashed into me turns up on my doorstep with...wait for it....HIS MUM!!!
Over here (in Wales) it is considered polite/an act of contrition to go round and 'see how you are' - 'specially when you've f***ed up!
Seems that Mum had had enough of sonny-jim and dragged him round to my house to see what the score was. If Mom hadn't been there I would have punched his lights out.
She was seriously hacked-off when she realised that her darling little boy had put two people in hospital. He's been lying through his teeth about what happened and I put him and Mom straight. 
He's been trying to tell folks that I was rolling backwards - the accident was going uphill - but I have an auto-box. And for those of you who don't know, you have to be in neutral or reverse to roll backwards - and therefore I contributed to the accident which of course is crap!
Then on my doorstep he tried to make out that because the scene was on a bend in the road he didn't see me until it was too late, that the road had been clear in front of him so I must have been stationary for several minutes.......all bollocks of course and said only to impress his Mom who by her expression wasn't having any of it!
I have it on good authority that he had spent the entire weekend drinking, didn't get home until 7am Monday morning (crash test dummy day) and was out driving for most of that day. 
In my estimation he was asleep at the wheel, although the cops breathalised him and he passed.
I'd tell you his name but I've a feeling this one's going to court. I've been told that I have a solicitor (lawyer) assigned to me by my insurance co.......watch this space......

Sorry about the accident and I am glad you guys are on the mend.  I will pray for your speedy recovery.

I'm having them fit a James Bond style missile system with proximity alert firing facing the rear.  You get too close and the car toasts your ass!!!!

**This is cheap as hell to implement and is almost as funny as firing a missile at somebody.  Go to an auto parts store or a surplus online store and get a pump that will operate on 12 volts.   Windshield washer pumps are good.  Mount it in the trunk with the spray wand from a garden sprayer connected and sticking out from under the bumper.   Fill the reservoir with used crankcase oil and connect it with a momentary normally closed switch.  When somebody gets too close, lean on the switch for twenty seconds and watch them pull over to the side of the road in your rear view mirror.

Alternately you could epoxy a tire valve onto a garden sprayer so that you can charge it with an air compressor and fit a solenoid valve on it to electronically trigger it from the dash.**

Don’t you just love A-holes like this? It’s always someone else’s fault that the little punk was out gallivanting and getting loaded before hurting two innocent people and destroying their property. He creamed you because he was half gassed himself behind the wheel…the little snot-nosed perp!

I don’t like it when things like this go to court because unless you have eyewitnesses or absolute proof you stand a chance of getting hosed. Here in most States we have what is known as no-fault insurance coverage which in essence was put in play by insurance companies to help them cut their costs. It implies that everyone has some proportion of blame in all auto accidents except in situations where it is impossible to implicate one of the drivers, such as when a vehicle is parked and unattended for instance. Under this statute you are therefore partially to blame and this ratio of culpability is taken into account by insurance companies when it comes time to devi-up the financial responsibility of the companies. In these situations each driver bares blame and his/her insurance premium are raised to compensate. I’m sure the legal details I give here are far from the exact application but it’s a close and rough paraphrasing of the statute.

Back in “89” I was involved in a traffic accident where the other party drove clear through a “Stop” sign onto the main thoroughfare where I was driving and I creamed him good. Back then seatbelts were not mandatory and not being belted sent me flying into the windshield breaking my nose. The fellow in the other vehicle came running when he saw I was bleeding like a stuck pig and was profusely apologetic even in front of the police when they arrived and professing that it was entirely his fault by going through the stop sign.

Well, I was sent to the hospital and two months later my insurance carrier called me at home to ask for another accident report. I asked them why and they said they needed it because the other fellow claimed that it was my fault that he didn’t see me coming because I was driving too fast and got himself a lawyer. At that point I called my lawyer and to make a long story short…6 years later I won the case against him and ended up suing my insurance carrier.

God…I hate long court cases. Good luck!

Pretty ballsy of the guy to come to you house and then lie through his teeth in front of you.  What an idiot.

My mum sent me a picture of their car.   Looks like it might be a right-off.

Triple ouch, Phil!
Looks like a right-off to me too.

I don't think the guy would have turned up if it hadn't been for his mom.

Well guess what?
The paperwork arrived today! 
The paperwork from the police, the lawyers, and the council.

Well, Mr Boy-Racer! Thanks for nothing - you B*****D!

Good news is, I should get my car back next thursday...;-)