My Birthday Incident {December 2021}

 My birthday fell on a Monday last year, so I worked the weekend before and ended up driving home on my actual birthday. Things were going fine, we were just a little later than usual because we had to do some extra shopping for Christmas dinner. I think it was around 7ish when we were on the second part of C highway. 

We live in the country, so we drive on a lot of roads with low-water bridges. A few days before this we had some pretty torrential rain that caused some minor and flash flooding. Not too much came of it, by Monday most of the water had receded. It was dark coming home and the headlights weren't shining as bright as they should, so the upcoming collision wasn't even remotely detected. I noticed a dark spot on the bridge which alerted me, so thank God I was able to swerve a little before the impact.

Talk about a shock to the system... and car!

It literally felt like we hit a brick wall. It was such and intense impact that I just knew the front end of the car wasn't intact anymore. The front passenger tire was destroyed, of course, but I was able to back into a gravel road that led to one of the local sawmills. After we got out and assessed the damage, I walked down to the low-water bridge to see how big the washed out hole was. The pictures I have attached do not do it justice. I'm not kidding when I say it was easily 3ft wide -- you could see entirely under the bridge! 

Naturally we were in a dead zone, so I had to walk down the road to find service. Luckily I was able to reach my aunt and she came to our rescue. Ended up having to get the car towed, of course. Not only did we need a new tire, but we needed a new rim as well. The mechanic was shocked that we were able to drive the car even 15ft to part it, he was just amazed that the only thing that was broken in the car was the rim. It was a miracle to say the least!

It was a sucky way to end my birthday, but it could've been so much worse. If I hadn't swerved as much as I did we would've probably had to replace the entire front end of the car.

Attached are a few pics of the road and car, then a couple pics of the rim that I took after the mechanic showed me. Enjoy!

I know this picture doesn't do the hole justice, but it was ginormous.

It was about half the size of the left lane of the road. I should've had LaVaughn lay down next to it for comparison, lol.

Here's the flat tire. Not even a scratch on the side of the bumper!

Here's the bent and cracked rim.

Everyone that saw it was in disbelief.