A Near Death Experience

I was riding passenger on my way to Turin from Milan on Blablacar, Europe’s carpooling app. In front of myself and the driver, Davide, was a semi truck. We saw its tire explode before it, and its rim, began spinning into the air at an altitude of 50 feet (10–15 meters), plunging itself in our direction at 85 miles an hour.

1st miracle: in few milliseconds my now friend Davide, promptly hit the brakes and turned the car, avoiding the collision with the flying rim hitting the windshield. His precise timing caused the rim to hit the front-right part of the car, saving our lives. The collision with the rim instantly activated all our airbags and I lost consciousness for a few seconds. Looking back, everything happened so fast.

2nd miracle: the way the rim bounced after it hit us, avoided other collisions on the highway. Davide woke me up, whilst screaming in pain, telling me to get out of the car or we would both die. I climbed out slowing, screaming in my own pain, while hearing cars breaking, and others trying to avoid as they drove 80 mph. The truck was on the sidelane and it’s driver was fine, asked us if we were okay. We contacted the police, ambulance, our families and friends.

We all realized that other cars were driving so fast, and most of the drivers were too distracted by talking or texting. We decided promptly to warn all these drivers by waving our arms to slow down in order to avoid our car as we were still screaming in pain. Davide was positioned about 500 feet (150 meters) from the car, the truck driver near the car, me in the middle. We noticed the scared faces when people saw us waving our arms or the vehicle at the very last minute, or seconds. Some threw their smartphone to make a sudden steering because they were so distracted. We saved their lives and this motivated us to continue until the first responders arrived.

One car with 4 young men in their early 20s, really scared us. They were so distracted by the music, they missed all 3 of us waiving at them. We were prepared for their collision. Thankfully they avoided it at the very last second.

The police and ambulance finally arrived after about 30 minutes. They put me on the gurney and the ambulance drove me to the nearest hospital. I did x-rays and ultrasound tests, nothing was broken thankfully.

Presently, I am still in pain, especially in my back, the neck, and my right arm, but I am happy to still be here with you 🙂 Life can be short. In a few seconds, you can suddenly die. When I was in the hospital I realized that it’s better to do meaningful things and have amazing people around you. I feel lucky, obviously, because to have avoided a potentially tragic car accident, but even more fortunate because I love what I do and I have met wonderful people on this planet.