I was on my way to school that morning.. roads were a little damp and I was in a hurry because I was running late... I'll give some specific places because the Barr bros. probably know the road I'm talking about.. I pulled out at the intersection where the only red light in Pleasentville is heading toward Bedford on RT56 on my way to the Chestnut Ridge HS.. The road is a straight stretch for about 2 mile and I was on it.. I hit 110mph by the time I was going past the COW ice cream place and held it there until I needed to take a long sweeping left turning bend at which I backed off the pedal and left it coast back to about 90 around that bend then it was straight stretch for about 3/4 mile where it comes up to the intersection of where the Chestnut Ridge Market used to be and the road starts to go up hill and curves to the right in sweeping uphill bend... I took it back up to 95 on the straight.. backed off and entered that uphill bend at 85-90 I guess.. (memory gets a little fuzzy at this point).. Back end came loose from the road and I hit the 8' embankment head on on my side of the road.. car spun around and started doing flips on the road.. I went up the 10' embankment on the opposite side of the road rolling and clipping a row of trees and a sign off 10' in the air.. car came to rest on the roof with me pinned between the roof and top of the bench seat by my legs.. I was in and out of consiousness so the memories are patchy.. But you never forget the sound of the Jaws Of Life... I'll give you that much... 2 years later I worked with a guy that was driving on the opposite side of the road JUST as I went through this wreck and he saw the entire thing and told me the clear version of the story.. Thats how I know exactly what happened.... Wasn't wearing a seatbelt and I was told if I had been.. I wouldn't be here telling this story because I got thrown clear of where the roof and pillar came in and occupied the drivers position... The steering wheel was imbedded in the seat.. Gotta give thanks to the paramedics and fire dept guys and a few friends that were on the scene in a big hurry.
and yeah.. took a while to recover from this one..
BTW.. that area where this accident occured was a hotbed for accidents.. and it took a big rig slamming into the Chestnut Ridge Market store that was on the bottom right hand of this turn and killing a few people for them to finally rework the road through there.. Today the store is gone.. The embankment on the inside of the turn I hit head on is gone and has been cut Waay back and flattenend out.. but the opposite embankment still stands and so does the sign where you can see a red 71 chevelle took a chunk out of the corner.. Probably can still see some Cranberry Red paint about 10' up on them trees right there too.
