Apparently, it took me a while to realize that a vehicle is intended to keep its wheels on the ground.
In February, 1987, I had been seeing friends at Miami University, Oxford, Ohio. I was returning sometime after 1 a.m. I was driving along Ohio St. Rt. 127, commonly called the "Highway to Heaven," because of the number of fatal accidents that occur on that road. It is a rural, two lane road with lots of twists and turns. Places where people have been killed are marked with small white crosses, one for each fatality. It was cold and very foggy. I was probably driving too fast. My friend, Ron H., was in the car with me. I was driving a 1970 Dodge Dart Swinger.
I could see only a few feet in front of the car, because of the dense fog. We were traveling at about 55 mph. Suddenly, immediately in front of us I saw a huge yellow sign with a black arrow pointing to the left. I yanked the car to the left and it began doing 360's along the road. I couldn't believe how many 360's it did! I also couldn't believe how long we stayed on the road. But that condition wasn't permanent. Eventually, we plowed off the road through mud, and into a deep ditch. As soon as we hit the mud, the wheels caught, and we rolled passenger door over driver's door. The car came to rest 3 quarters of the way over leaning against a now bent sign. Ron had slid across the bench seat and was generally sitting on me. I noticed that he had crushed my hat.
As soon as we came to rest, without saying a word, Ron clambered up the seat, opened the passenger door and leapt from the car. It was really pretty funny. I also climbed up the seat, through the door and leapt from the top (passenger side) of the car. I really didn't want a ticket, so I went around the car, got under it and was actually able to push it back over onto its wheels. Unfortunately, because the car was half in a deep ditch, the back wheels weren't touching the ground. As I looked around, I saw that there were numerous white crosses lying scattered all about us.
I crossed the road to a house that had turned on its lights when the accident happened to ask if they had a tractor that could pull us out. The people said that they had already called the police. They thought that there had been another fatal accident. So, I went back to the car and waited.
Half a dozen police cars from different jurisdictions showed up, along with other emergency vehicles and a tow truck. The road was closed for an hour. They pulled my car out of the ditch. It was banged up, but drivable. The hub caps all had dirt in them and rattled as I drove home. Neither of us were injured.
I didn't get a ticket.
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