Car Crash Craziness

It’s extremely difficult to take a picture while looking down in a neck brace, in case you were wondering.

Impact in T-5 4 3 2… and finally he notices but its too late. Glancing up at the rear-view, I see the streak of white lights racing towards impending disaster. The sound of sheet metal and rigid plastic, piercing each other into a masterpiece forced by chaos, scream across the dark sky. My car gathers this unwelcomed gift of kinetic energy and is forced forward into the car in front of me, where I come to rest.

I start shaking, not out of fear, but some unconscious bodily response. I hear voices, and I see a woman emerge from the car in front of me holding her head. I look around and see fragments, of what used to by my car, laid to rest on the road. I sit motionless and take in what is happening. Five things become evident

-I was already stopped

-I was hit from behind at high speed

-My neck is in pain and I have a headache

-I speak no Japanese.

-My cell phone battery is nearly dead

The fourth and fifth are especially relevant because, being involved in a serious accident, I have absolutely no linguistic ability to explain myself less rudimentary bodily gestures and the assistance of a Japanese/English speaker.

A crowd started to gather around me, made up of police, ambulance technicians and what I assume to be insurance adjusters with some type of measuring tool. Although I’m obviously a foreigner and have already commenced my hopeless stare of non-communication they fire off full speed Japanese sentences at me and continue to do so for about 5 minutes.

At this point, someone had a friend who could speak English so we started conversing via cell phone. I confirmed that I was in pain and would go to the hospital. Although I know my neck obviously wasn't broken, it was very stiff and I had some persistent pain on the back of my head/neck.

The story is fairly standard from there with the customary CT scan for potential head/neck injuries with the recommendation of rest and pain killers for one week but I cannot understate the importance of either knowing some Japanese or having a Japanese friend/girlfriend who is willing to help.

PS: The pain is continuing to subside since the crash and I know I will will be fine.

Reflection: For those of you who watch my Ninja Sensei videos and see my shenanigans, you are probably surprised by the fact that I have not sustained any injury of note from any dangerous/extreme activity. Yet, it is this incident, which was completely and totally out of my control, that resulted in injury.

My point, as it has always been, do not wait to push yourself and try something you are afraid of or may seem challenging to you because it's the seemingly safe road that is filled with hazards.

Edit: I was just told the the actual damage cost is almost $10,000 and the car is worth only $2500. That apparently shows how bad the accident actually was. Craziness