Rann here. Just a little story to tell, today.

This is fairly representative of the vehicle I want to talk about, the 2001 Honda Accord:

Yes, it’s pretty standard, and bland-seeming. It’s one of those cars that it would be easy to lose in the parking lot because it looks just like everybody else’s. So why, you may be asking yourself, is such a car showing up on a site that is supposed to be about really, exceptionally cool stuff?

That will require some exposition, so sit back for some of my usual teal dear style of post.

My parents own a 2001 Honda Accord. That isn’t it up there, theirs is white. Nominally my mother’s car, my father has taken to driving it lately to save on gas, as she works from home. I work in the same office as my father, so we carpool to and from work in it. The car was obtained when it was new, so it is indeed seven years old. It’s made countless trips from the DFW area of Texas to Tulsa in Oklahoma, Shreveport in Louisiana, Red River in New Mexico, and a number of other places. It has a ton of miles on it, and has been over some seriously tough terrain, effectively haven been driven hard and put away wet. It has been a fabulous car, though. When I’m at home (as I am now) I drive it quite a bit, and it’s a reliable and comfortable drive, if a little small for my 6’5” frame.

This afternoon, on the way home, something happened. We’re not sure yet what it was. At the time, we thought it was a blowout, but it doesn’t seem to have been the case after the fact. It may have simply been one of those eventualities of any thoroughly-used car… a drive train or power steering or something going out. The car veered to the left.

We were hit by an oncoming eighteen wheeler, with full trailer on.

We were pushed some distance by the truck, and slammed into the left-side concrete barrier. The car rebounded and skidded back across the highway, by some miracle of fortune not being hit by anyone else, and came to a stop at the right side of the freeway as if we’d deliberately pulled over and parked there.

The airbags didn’t deploy. Which upon immediate reading, sounds like a defect in the car. All that and the airbags didn’t deploy?! The front end was a crumpled mass of metal, and the airbags didn’t deploy?!

I think they didn’t because they didn’t need to.

You see, my father and I are fine. We were banged around a bit, but the worst that happened was that I banged my knee pretty hard and it hurts some. I can move it fine. Neither of us were so much as scratched. Not a drop of blood was shed.

I repeat, we were hit by a semi truck, impacted against the concrete barrier, careened across the highway… and we’re just fine.

The honda itself is totaled. The front end is smashed all to hell, probably having been moved about a foot back from where it should be, if not more. But the inside of the car was just fine.

It may have been pure luck. Or some sort of miracle, I don’t know. It might have nothing to do with the car itself, but rather that events conspired to allow me to live another day. Maybe there’s a God, or maybe the universe’s random chances were just in my favor.

But I can’t get over the fact that we were hit by an eighteen wheeler, which is generally considered synonymous with a mass of twisted metal and pulped flesh. And we’re fine. The car came through for us.

So, for this, I declare the 2001 Honda Accord to be made of metal and awesome. Thank you, car, for jumping on that grenade. I salute you.

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06/12/2008 6:31 PM
Categories: Stuff
Tags: stuff,personal,honda,accord