High Speed Chase Saturn Smash
Springfield, Missouri
Because of one person's complete stupidity and attempt to run from the police, I almost lost my life.
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This Saturn Wreck: Pic 2
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Location: Central and National, Springfield, Missouri
I wanted to send in these pictures from my accident which occurred June 9, 2006 because I sincerely believe that this accident should have never happened. Because of one person's complete stupidity and attempt to run from the police, I almost lost my life.
It was at about 6:00 PM on a Friday night. I was headed back home, traveling north on a 35 mph road with 2 lanes both ways. I was stopped at a red light and saw 2 cops headed east. Since I don't listen to the radio in my car, I had no idea that there was anything going on that might affect me. The light changed and I was the first out of the light. Right after going through the intersection, I noticed a cop parked up ahead on the opposite side of the street, the farthest lane from me. He got out of his car (slowly) and walked back to his trunk and was getting something out. I looked at him to see if I should stop, but figured since he was on the complete other side of the road, and I was in the far right lane, I just slowed to about 30 mph and went past him. Since he gave me no signs of stopping or signs that there was an emergency, I figured I was ok. (I found out later that he was trying to lay spike strips). Then out of nowhere a black truck came flying over the hill about 2 blocks ahead of me, going probably somewhere from 60-80 mph. That truck slammed on the brakes and tried to cut in front of me and turn onto a side street. It was so unexpected that I didn't even have time to react.
After the smoke cleared (I was wearing my seatbelt and the airbags did an excellent job), I got out of the car in one piece only to be yelled at by a police officer to get down. I got back behind my car, and peeked over to see the other driver being tackled by 4 officers. A girl who had been in the car with him was crying as they arrested her, and I came to find out that I was the end to a high speed chase that had been going on all afternoon. The man was a wanted multiple felon in a stolen truck. The officers said they were surprised that he hadn't killed anyone (least of all me) and hadn't wrecked before - he'd been driving through the city for a while like a maniac. The stolen truck (a 93 Silverado) had only hit me with the front passenger corner, but the high-speed impact caused the damage you see here. I was so lucky it was not fully head on - if it was I probably would have been seriously injured or might have died. The felon hurt his neck - there were no airbags and he wasn't wearing a seatbelt. The entire front of my car was pushed back nearly past the tires and of course my car (which was a Saturn Ion coupe, only 2 years old!) was totaled.
The best part about this was that because the cops laid the spike strips, he had turned in front of me, causing this accident. However, I hate to think what could have happened if he had gone through a busy intersection during rush hour. I guess he was lucky he hit me and not the elderly couple behind me or the full car behind me in the opposite lane. Credit to Saturn for building a car that my friends all say "looks like plastic", but kept me alive with only an airbag burn on my arm.
Erica
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