A close call

Last Wednesday I was driving home after spending some time at my girlfriend's place. It was getting late, and I had to be at work at 9 pm for the overnight shift. I didn't really get a lot of sleep the night before because I needed to be at the car place by around 8 am so they could check the light I fixed on my license plate. The day had been an eventful one and my body was tired, but I didn't fuly realize it until I woke up driving off the road.

The car was shaking on the grass and my mind was numb, but I immediately jerked the steering wheel back into the lane. My brother tells me later I probably over-corrected. So I'm pressing the break and trying to straighten the car, but it's out of control and spins around, back off the road and down a small 8 ft embankment to hit some bushes and trees on the driver's side. Thank God I was the only car on the road at the time.

Before I go on, I want to say that I'm safe with no injuries from the crash itself. I attempted to drive forward and back, but with no luck, so I climbed out of the passenger's side and looked around. Pretty soon, cars started pulling over, and one of them told me that the police were on their way. Some branches and leaves had been shut into the passenger's door when I closed it, so I got back in and was trying to push them out when I shut my fingers in the door. Luckily, there was a rubber covering and my fingers were fine apart from a loss of feeling for a couple days. I found out later that the bushes were poison ivy. -_-;;

The cops arrived in 5 minutes, the tow truck in 15, and my brother in 20. I told the cops my story and they basically said that this stuff happens and let me go on my way. The tow truck pulled the car out and I was finally able to see the damage, which I personally think was exacerbated by the way they pulled it, causing the end of the bumper to bend off and drag on the ground. There were some scratches and dents, but nothing too major. Still, the guy took it to their towing place and I picked it up the next morning on the 4th. After they took the car away, I got a ride with my brother to work, which I got to only a half hour late.

Overall, the experience left me shaky for about a day and feeling kind of helpless about the situation, but happy to be okay. This was my first real accident, the closest to it being when my car slipped on the ice and drove into the median strip. Now I'm faced with getting the damage assessed, though my dad wanted to sell it before this anyway and would rather just give it to charity than fix it up but we'll see.

I kinda feel like I'm no longer going to be seen as a responsible driver, but honestly I think it was just a bad combination of events. Maybe I should start thinking about ways to keep myself awake when I'm not even aware that I'm really tired, though I was playing a podcast at the time which usually helps. Extreme temperature may be a good idea. And slapping myself when I start to close my eyes. Or just give in like I did one night, and pull over to nap for a few minutes.