---
title: My Car Accident
date: 2022-12-29
description: I was involved in a very bad car accident in 2022. Here's the story.
categories:
  - personal
meta:
  keywords:
    - car accident
    - tesla
    - recovery
bannerCloudinaryId: kentcdodds.com/content/blog/my-car-accident/car-in-daylight
bannerAlt:
  Kent standing by a wrecked Tesla model 3 in a junkyard. It's completely
  crushed.
---

I was involved in a very bad car accident at the end of January 2022. Here's the
story.

I had just dropped my son off at a birthday party and was on my way home when I
stopped at a four-way stop, saw a car opposite the stop sign, checked my left
and my right, then proceeded through the stop sign. As I was going through, I
checked my left again and saw headlights coming fast. I had less than half a
second before impact. I remember clearly that my thought was "oh great" as in
"this is going to be such an annoyance." Had I known how fast and big the truck
was at the time I may have thought "I'm going to die."

![Night-time ariel view of a car accident at a four way stop. Arrows point to the point of impact in the middle of an intersection and where the vehicles ended up over 75 feet away](https://res.cloudinary.com/kentcdodds-com/image/upload/v1672331271/kentcdodds.com/content/blog/my-car-accident/arial-view.jpg)

![Night-time ariel view of a car accident showing a truck that had gone through the entire length of a fence. Debris is everywhere](https://res.cloudinary.com/kentcdodds-com/image/upload/v1672336300/kentcdodds.com/content/blog/my-car-accident/ariel-view-broken-fence.jpg)

![A mangled Dodge Ram 2500 truck up-side-down. It's completely crushed and parts of the truck are strewn about.](https://res.cloudinary.com/kentcdodds-com/image/upload/v1672331311/kentcdodds.com/content/blog/my-car-accident/truck.jpg)

![A destroyed Tesla model 3 with firefighters around helping to extract Kent who is covered in a white sheet. An arrow is pointed at Kent with the words: That "ghost" is me, covered by a blanket to protect my eyes and head.](https://res.cloudinary.com/kentcdodds-com/image/upload/v1672331295/kentcdodds.com/content/blog/my-car-accident/kent-ghost.jpg)

The Dodge Ram 2500 truck hit me at 80 miles an hour. We ended up 75 feet away
from the point of impact. The truck rolled several times straight through the
entire length of a fence. I spun 180° (not a chance in the world you're flipping
an electric vehicle with that huge battery in the bottom). The first thing I
remember after impact was spitting pieces of my two front teeth out. I remember
feeling really annoyed about that.

I was pinned in the car for 40 minutes. I was conscious the entire time. Several
people witnessed what happened and came to check on me. They told me I should
probably not move (I had been trying to get out without considering the fact
that I might do further injury to myself... I couldn't get out anyway). I had
one of them call my wife to let her know what happened. She met me at the
hospital later. Emergency responders arrived within minutes. They had to cut the
roof off the car and cut off my door to get me out. I was given an IV to keep me
hydrated and warm. I remember the ride in the ambulance when they told me I had
broken my collarbone which really bummed me out.

![Kent in a hospital bed with broken front teeth and a bruise on his left collar bone](https://res.cloudinary.com/kentcdodds-com/image/upload/v1672336296/kentcdodds.com/content/blog/my-car-accident/kents-broken-bones.jpg)

![Kent's left wrist with cuts and glue covering a cut](https://res.cloudinary.com/kentcdodds-com/image/upload/v1672336295/kentcdodds.com/content/blog/my-car-accident/wrist-damage.jpg)

![Kent's left knuckle with a small piece of glass which came out of a cut of his knuckle](https://res.cloudinary.com/kentcdodds-com/image/upload/v1672336298/kentcdodds.com/content/blog/my-car-accident/glass-out-of-the-knuckle.jpg)

I broke both my front teeth on the air bag. I broke my left clavicle on the seat
belt. The dashboard smashed my foot for 40 minutes while I was extracted from
the vehicle which caused damage to my right ankle. A piece of glass damaged my
nerves in my left wrist. We were pulling glass out of my scalp, hair, and hands
days later. I had surgery on my clavicle to put a plate in it which damaged the
nerves. It took three days before my teeth could be operated on. During that
time I experienced extreme pain eating and drinking. I finally had surgery on my
teeth to put crowns on them (one got a root canal).

The guy driving the truck was not under the influence of anything. He was not
distracted (he was doing 80 mph in a 35 mph speed limit). He was just driving
recklessly (or should that be wreck-fully?). He somehow got out of the vehicle
and ran. He was caught a few blocks down and taken to the hospital to treat
minor injuries before going to jail.

I went to a chiropractor for a few weeks to help with my neck, back, and foot. I
went to a physical therapist for a few weeks to help my shoulder and foot
recover. After several weeks of hoping I could join back in the games, I
eventually had to quit my indoor soccer team due to the pain in my ankle. I did
manage to get back to snowboarding a bit before the season was over though.

After a few months I was able to start up soccer again without too much trouble.
My teeth recovery is extremely slow. Even now almost a year later, I still can't
bite down on food much harder than a hamburger. Improvement there is happening,
but it's excruciatingly slow.

Just a few weeks ago, I had another surgery to remove the plate in my clavicle.

![Kent in a hospital bed with a green clavicle plate and nine screws](https://res.cloudinary.com/kentcdodds-com/image/upload/v1672333164/kentcdodds.com/content/blog/my-car-accident/kent-with-his-plate.jpg)

What little recovery my nerves had experienced was completely wiped out by the
second surgery. I'm still recovering from that.

I'm still experiencing some pain in my shoulder, wrist, teeth, and ankle. I'm
still not able to do a lot of things I used to be able to do. I can't give my
kids piggy back rides without feeling pain. In certain positions, my ankle still
hurts. My son keeps checking that he's not snuggling with me on the hurt
shoulder side 😭.

Despite all this. I'm still alive. Two people who witnessed the accident said
they thought I was dead. I was told repeatedly by emergency and medical
personnel that I was lucky to be alive. I'm so grateful to be alive. I have a
wife and four kids. We've had wonderful experiences together since the accident
that would be tragic to miss and I look forward to many years on this earth with
them. I'm convinced that I was protected by God for a reason.

And on top of all that, if it weren't for the accident, I wouldn't have been
able to make this awesome [kif](https://kcd.im/kifs)!

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I'm still recovering. I expect things to improve slowly over time. Whatever
happens, I'm grateful to be alive. Thank you to everyone who sent me messages of
support and things to help me recover.

I've still got lots to do, so I'm grateful to be given the chance to keep at it.
