Well, 2020 did its level best to kill me! After 36 years of having a DL, I guess I was finally due! I was in a wicked car wreck on the way home from Xmas and totalled my car! It was quite a ride but luckily I was uninjured. My car is trashed, which is a bummer. IIRC I only had four payments on it, was really looking forward to having it paid for while I still had 40,000 miles of warranty. Oh well, you know what they say...if you want to make God laugh tell him your plans.

Tip one- wear your seat belts! My air bags didn't deploy but it was quite a crash. My car rolled once and ended up on the top. I was shaken up good but since I was buckled in I wasn't injured. Well, despite my best efforts to avoid it, I did wind up falling on my head a bit when I unbuckled my belt.

Glass Breaker: I didn't need it but I had it! The A-pillar was crushed just enough that I couldn't open my drivers side door. For a second I had that panicky/claustrophobic feeling but my passenger door was fine. Still, I had a glass breaking tool hanging around the steering column, accessible no matter the attitude/angle of the car.

Winter Gear: It was cold with driving snow and wind, but I had plenty of winter gear. The wreck was at my exit so the HyPo's were there pretty quickly but I had water, warm clothes, sleeping bags, etc.

Insurance: I could have helped myself out a bit! At some point in the last year I guess I dropped rental coverage from my policy. In retrospect that was a bummer! It cost me $250 to rent a car for a week while I shopped for a new one. Hmmmm, well, guess I should crunch the numbers. It's $10/month or so, so three years of payments was about the same money. Of course, if it worked out that I needed a rental longer it would have been worth the coverage. On my new car I did opt for rental coverage!

It does suck! My new car is a bit more expensive than my old one and I didn't get as good of promo financing on it. I shopped for three months last time, so I got a better deal! Still, I'm alive and unhurt! There are problems and expenses- if money can fix it, it's not a problem! Looking back a small change in trajectory could have meant a really bad crash, perhaps fatal (probably not but it could have been). I could look at this as a crappy deal but I could also consider myself pretty lucky to be typing this from home instead of the hospital!

I'm sorry about your car, but very happy to hear that you were not hurt.

Your lessons about wearing a seatbelt properly, having a glassbreaker at hand, and always having appropriate outerwear in the car are exactly the right ones to take from this.

As for insurance -- you *had* insurance. That's a huge part of the happy part of this story.

Bottom Line - you are OK. Not a good time to be in a hospital 9at least in LA).

Best wishes!!

Dude! Whoa, what a way to end 2020. It's good to hear you're okay!
-Blast

Glad to hear that you are OK. Sorry about the car, but in the end the vehicle is nothing more than a minor player in a good story you get to tell folks. It's the occupants that are important. The car did its part in protecting you, may it rest in pieces.

Yeah, modern cars do a good job of protecting the occupants, so there's that.

Glad you were not injured. Enjoy the new wheels

New car fever.

2020 being 2020... Prefer good endings from potentially bad occurrence. I look at preps such as yours (and ours) as insurance. Sorta like, if you do it, you lijkly won't need it. If you don't, watch out cause you're going to need it. Except, of course, when you prep and need it.

Enjoy your new wheels, you earned them!

Glad you're okay! It's a reminder that driving in a car is probably the most dangerous thing any of us do, at least on a regular basis.

Your rollover also reminds me how much loose hardware I have kicking around in my car. I need to get control of that, lest I create a blender.