Ginny's story
March 24, 2009: What started out as another "ordinary day" for us ended up being quite an unexpected event in our lives.
My husband and I commute almost 80 miles round trip together every day in our Smart Passion Coupe and we loved our little car. With only 1 mile to my work location, and while making a left turn, we were broadsided by a Ford F-150 on the passenger side of our car (the speed limit on the street is 45mph). Neither of us saw the truck coming and all we remember is the huge bang that we both heard and can compare it to an accident like in a NASCAR race. All four airbags deployed and the passenger window was shattered. After the initial shock, my husband was able to get out of the car and was trying to check me for injuries. The doors of the car were not sprung open and according to the police, we ended up facing the opposite direction from where we were going, but we have no idea where we actually ended up in the intersection.
I couldn't breath; my chest hurt and my right arm and hand were very painful. My husband tried to get the passenger door open but then realized that he had dislocated his first 2 fingers on his left hand and his right hand was all cut up from the flying glass of the window. Once the rescue teams and paramedics arrived it took 2-3 firemen to get the passenger door open and a bit of time to get me out of the car. I ended up in the hospital for the rest of the week because I ended up with pulmonary embolisms as they found blood clots in both of my lungs.
While in the ER a co-worker of mine (who came upon the accident scene after it happened and realized that it was us) was calming my husband down when the police officer that took the accident report came to the hospital ER to talk to my husband. This was the first accident involving a Smart in Plano and he was beyond impressed with the structural integrity of our Smart car, especially considering that the Ford F-150 was completely destroyed and totaled. He went on to say that had we been in any other small car in the size family like a Honda Civic, etc., we would most likely had either been life-flighted to a trauma hospital or been killed.
The ER doctor that was treating my husband for his dislocated fingers and cuts was in the room when the police officer was talking to my husband and couldn't believe that we were in a Smart car and that we survived the accident. After that, our Smart car and we were literally the talk of the hospital. Every time a nurse or doctor came in to my room, it was always "this is the couple that was in the Smart car and survived the accident".
Later in the week a nurse at the hospital came to talk to us when she found out that I was in the hospital because she wanted to come share her story with us. She also was at the accident scene after it happened and saw the damage done to the Ford truck. She said she kept looking for the "concrete truck or semi-truck" that the Ford truck had to have run in to but didn't see anything. Then saw our little Smart and said "no way" and couldn't believe the damage to the truck in comparison to our little car. She went on to say that it literally looked like an accordion with the engine area being where the cab of the truck was supposed to be, the cab was where the bed of the truck should be and that it was bent in a /\.
According to both my trauma doctor and primary care doctor, the reason I couldn't breath was most likely when the blood clots were passing through my heart and entered my lungs and it could have been a very different outcome for me. Thankfully neither of us had any broken bones and I didn't have one cut. We both had lots and lots of bruises and scrapes but we were blessed to be alive.
While the reason why all of this happened is still beyond comprehension for us, all we know is that God was watching over us that day and we are very blessed to be alive. And we also thank God that he gave the engineers and designers an incredible gift to be able to engineer such a safe car and for that we are very, very thankful.
Sincerely, Alan & Ginny North Texas