From 1983

The Crash


I don’t really remember the sound of the crash. The first thing I thought was – “Why is my head on the brake pedal?”

The lights of emergency vehicles were the next thing I recognized. Then voices (I could not pick out who was talking) but they sounded familiar. As I regained more hearing, I could hear Rory crying “I killed Vin” over and over. I thought that was strange - as far as I could tell I wasn’t dead!

I pushed myself up into the seat of the truck and took a look around. The first thing that came to my mind was – “What the fuck happened here?” There were El Cajon PD, El Cajon Fire, CHP, and paramedics from La Mesa. There also was a shitload of people standing in from of houses.

I opened the passenger side door and walked to where my friends were on the curb. Before I got to them, Rory ran up crying “You’re alive!” I thought what a dumb thing to say. Tony & Steve were there also and they were white as ghosts (or maybe they thought they were seeing one. Ha). I felt kind of dizzy so I tried to sit down on the curb.

As I was sitting down, a paramedic came up and started asking me a bunch of questions. I could see his mouth move and hear his voice but his words were jumbled in my brain. He reached down to my fat stomach and pinched it. I was pissed. I slapped his hands away. I looked down and my shirt was torn where he pinched me. I remember thinking – “How did that happen?” He was trying to find out how deep the puncture wound was. What puncture wound?

I looked at my gut and sure enough there was blood coming from me. I told him to back off. As I started to take inventory of my body parts, I realized I was not breathing so well. It fucking hurt. I moved my arms and legs around, did some stretches (that hurt) and told the paramedic I was ok.

The PD gave Rory a field sobriety test which he failed miserably. He told them he was in shock because he thought he had killed me. They let him go. All four of us, Rory, me, Tony, and Steve piled into Steve’s truck and went to Rory’s. We were there a couple of hours when I told Steve I had to get home. I did not want to let on that I was having a lot of trouble breathing. The ride home and the couple of beers must have been good for me as by the time I got home I was breathing ok. I went to bed feeling sore but otherwise ok.

I woke up the next morning and I was not ok. I went to swing my legs out of bed and they did not move. Not a good feeling. I finally got out of bed, got my legs to respond and put my robe on. I was living at my mom’s house so I had to walk up 14 stairs to get inside her house. I can tell you now – that is the hardest thing I have done in my life. She met me at the door and asked how my night went.



I said I was in an accident and my chest hurt. I did not have a mirror in my room – so when I opened my robe I was as shocked as she was. I had underwear on and I was bruised from my neck to my knees. Big Very Purple Bruise and a hole in my gut. Looked like I got shot. She freaked and wanted me to go to the ER. I did not want that. She took me to the family doctor. When he saw my bruise he was impressed!! Ha.

I had x-rays, probes, and so forth. My injuries came out to be 2 broken ribs, a concussion and a ¾ inch puncture wound. He gave me a rib belt (which I ditched ASAP), some pain killers, and a tetanus shot. I went home and tried to recall what happened.

As best as we could figure, this is what caused my pain. I was riding with Rory in his truck and we were going to my brother’s in El Cajon. We were coming from fishing at Fiesta Island. We had all been drinking. I remember looking for my seat belt all the way. It was shoved down between the seats. The weather was kind of shitty and raining a little.

As we took the Chase Ave. exit from 8 East, the truck broke loose to the left. Rory over corrected and we slammed into 10 mail boxes and a telephone pole. We broke the pole and ended up facing the wrong way on Chase. When we hit the pole, I flew across the cab of the truck, breaking off the radio knobs and hitting the column gear shift with my gut. Rory said when he got out I was not breathing.

Everything turned out ok for us. No DUI – but Rory paid for the mail boxes and the phone pole.