My brother's near death experience

[Luv4Pac4Ever]

My brother recently totalled his truck, fell asleep at the wheel after working long hours and ran the truck off the road. This is my only brother and the baby of the family, I love him very much and I cried when I seen the photos. My brother has been through so much and there's been many times he should have been dead. He sent me an email with pics and this is what he wrote:
At approximately 2:30am on Tuesday, June 13, 2006 I fell asleep behind the wheel of my Ford Ranger. At last glance I was traveling around 55mph headed to the local fire department where I volunteer. That whole night was such a blur. Sometimes when we're driving we get to our destinations and ask ourselves how in the world we made it there in one piece. I have had the opportunity to drive several long distance trips (Like 14-18 hour trips). But somehow and someway I made it there with no complications. I can truly say that God has His hand on my life! With the speckled past that I have there were many times that I stared death in the face and dared him to take me out of this world. But God had a better plan!
As you can tell by the pictures the truck was a total loss. I even gave it to the wrecker driver as his fee for towing the hunk of twisted metal. I know for sure that the drive shaft snapped, the steering column snapped as well, both left side tires came completely off of the rim, my head hit the windshield and busted it, the chassis was warped, the front of the truck as you can see wrapped around the tree, the drivers side door, windshield, and bed was completely caved in and busted. The impact ripped my truck toolbox off and set it about 10 ft away from the truck. As far as my injuries are concerned I was very blessed. I remember being in the back of the ambulance and hearing the medic say, "Stay with me son, keep your eyes open," and I replied, "man I'm tired!"
Upon my arrival at the hospital I was greeted by two very very nice nurses. Now don't read too much into what I just wrote. I'm not talking about their Physique or the concerned look on their faces. All I saw was a big syringe full of Demerol. After the short but painful prick life was good again.
I have to accredit my being here today to God alone. There was no good samaritan, nor a super hero to rescue me from the mangled vehicle. God gave me the strength to retrieve my cell phone from the midst of the rubble and to climb out through the broken glass to the top of the hill to phone for help.
The location where I wrecked was about 50 foot from the corner of someones home. But, it wasn't just anybody's home, it was the home of two very Godly people that pray for me on a daily basis. I truly believe that Deborah and Gary Bullins (Anna Bullins parents) had a hedge of divine protection around their home. Deborah and Gary's youngest daughter Sarah sings a song in church entitled "A Wall of Prayer." In my heart I feel that their prayers and their hedge of protection kept all of us safe. I could have very easily gone about 20-30 feet further and ran right into their home. God is in Control!!!!!!!!!!!!

And that was the day that I almost died!!! Almost!

Pics:

The side of the truck
http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i316/tinasellers/IM000149.jpg
The windshield
http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i316/tinasellers/IM000152.jpg
The front of the truck
http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i316/tinasellers/IM000151.jpg
The tree he hit
http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i316/tinasellers/IM000156.jpg
His face
http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i316/tinasellers/IM000160.jpg

And before anyone makes any comments about him believing that God had His hand in him making it out of the accident as well as he did, he's in school to be a preacher so he is a firm believer in God. So please leave the anti-God comments out of this thread. Thank you.

 

[PuffnScruff]

damn thats crazy. glad to hear he is alright. did he have any serious injuries?

 

[Luv4Pac4Ever]

damn thats crazy. glad to hear he is alright. did he have any serious injuries?

Nope, just what you see on his face, from the airbag and windshield, and he has some bruises and scrapes on his shoulder and chest from the airbag. That's it. Amazing, huh?
Crazy thing is, like he said he's used to driving being tired and has often made trips that he wondered how he made it there and back. He drives an ambulance for a medical transport company that picks patients up from one place and transports them to another place. He's a certified EMT and a volunteer firefighter as well as taking classes to be a preacher. I don't know how in the world he spreads his time out with everything he does, but he does it and loves it.

 

[Vaudeville]

Glad to hear he's ok.

The same thing happened to my dad. He fell asleep on the whel going home (he works late everyday) and his SUV is gone, he had a damaged lung, but luckily he seems to be fine.

So I know what it feels when things happen to your family.

 

[_carmi]

good thing he is fine. he really has almost no injuries. its basically a miracle!

 

[AmerikazMost]

it's crazy seeing nasty accidents like this and people come out relatively fine

 

[insomnia]

that's nowhere near death experience. car is just a little wrecked and he got just mild bruises.
i remember once i was driving at 85mph and slipped from the road at the curve. now, that was shocking, but almost with no consequences... so i didn't call serious experience

 

[Tru Principle]

Allahou Akbar!

 

[lii]

im glad hes ok too but like insomnia said, the car doesnt look *that* wrecked. im not tryna be insensative. ive had the front of my car almost smashed completely off and didnt consider it a near death experience.
altho, i must say hitting ur head on the window woulda hurt like a bitch!

 

[Sebastian]

Pretty irresponsible to drive a car for several hours, even more if its in the middle of the night when its dark....

 

[Luv4Pac4Ever]

Pretty irresponsible to drive a car for several hours, even more if its in the middle of the night when its dark....

This didn't happen on one of his long trips, those are when he drives the ambulance. He was driving from home to the fire dept, a fairly short distance. But he had worked all day and had not planned on going out anymore that night but he got a fire call and had to respond so he was on his way to the fire dept, probably to go out and try to save someone's home. He does this voluntarily, he gets nothing from it but the satisfaction of helping others. He puts himself aside to help others, that's all he ever does so I hardly think it was irresponsible.

 

[Dogmatic187]

Glad to hear he's not seriously injured and alive. :thumb:

 

[Duke]

Moral of the story: Ford Rangers are solid cars.

I know you don't want anti-God comments in this thread, but you opened the door to this yourself.

See, if someone survives this, people chalk it up to God. If someone doesn't survive, it's just tragic and not God's fault.

 

[PELLA]

doesnt look like a death defying accident. Glad he's ok, still :thumb:

 

[Luv4Pac4Ever]

See, if someone survives this, people chalk it up to God. If someone doesn't survive, it's just tragic and not God's fault.

You're right. But like I said, there's been many times where he should have been dead but he's still here. There has to be a reason for that and he feels that the reason is that God has a plan for him. There's something he was put on this earth to do and obviously he hasn't done it yet.
But yeah, the truck doesn't look that bad but the embankment he went down was pretty steep from what he's told my mom. There was obviously something during the accident taking place that made him feel like his life should be gone or he wouldn't call it a near death experience because he's had much worse happen to him, he's came much closer to death than this.
It's just amazing that his injuries are so minor, he really could have been hurt alot worse.
Thanks for all the replies y'all. Much love.

 

[XIAN]

Yeah I think things get done to us in this life that sorta point us in the right direction. Living a spiritual life can give you so much strength and I can get where he's coming from.
Glad that he's okay...
~peace~

 

[Duke]

You're right. But like I said, there's been many times where he should have been dead but he's still here. There has to be a reason for that and he feels that the reason is that God has a plan for him. There's something he was put on this earth to do and obviously he hasn't done it yet.
But yeah, the truck doesn't look that bad but the embankment he went down was pretty steep from what he's told my mom. There was obviously something during the accident taking place that made him feel like his life should be gone or he wouldn't call it a near death experience because he's had much worse happen to him, he's came much closer to death than this.
It's just amazing that his injuries are so minor, he really could have been hurt alot worse.
Thanks for all the replies y'all. Much love.

I understand. It really doesn't matter what happened anyway, he's okay and thats important.

My older cousin once flipped his 900 Turbo in a field at 60 MPH because some crazy motorbike rider had to swerve on his lane. He rolled 5 times through a field into a ditch, afterwards he stepped out cursing his beautiful Saab was totalled. Nothing happened to him. Yet he considers it 50% luck 50% strong car. Not God's doing. That's kinda my point. But you understand that and there's no need to milk it out further.