I'd been working non-stop since 9 am today, so around 5pm I decided I needed a break from staring at a computer and mixing loud rock music. I threw on my boots and waders, grabbed my 4wt. and hopped in my car for a quick 5 minute drive to a little creek that I knew would be high, but hopefully holding some bass looking for clearer water and less current than the main branches of a nearby river. I was indeed rewarded with a nice 15" smallie in the first pool I came to, but I could not really get any further downstream without getting deep water, so I decided to loop back to my car and head upstream to see if I could find a similar pool.
Normally from this spot, I would crawl up to the road and walk along the road back to my car, but for some reason today I decided to stay in the bush and follow a meager trail back along the river. As I was walking, I heard an engine revving up kind of fast, and a car coming down the road which was about 30 feet away and about even with my head above me. Suddenly, I see a flash as this car goes airborne and slams into a tree so hard I felt the impact in my rib cage and stomach - like a bomb exploded. It hit so hard, it knocked over a good sized tree that was falling toward me, and fell down to my right as I dodged it, and scooted up the trail trying to reach the road. When I came out onto the road, I was about 25 feet behind a fairly new maroon Camero that was up in the trees and completely crunched. He hit so hard, that the car was buckled and parts of the engine had come off and were laying off to the side. His car was up on the tree that had fallen over toward me, and was head first into a huge hickory that had stopped him cold. I don't even want to guess how fast he was going when he hit, but it was fast. He left about 15 feet of skid marks about 25 feet up the road before he went airborne and landed in the trees.
I couldn't open the door as it was buckled in and jammed, but as soon as I started trying, this 16 yr old boy pulled the side air bag up and looked out me with eyes so big you'd think he'd seen a ghost. I was yelling and asking him if he was ok and if he was the only one in the car, and he was responding that he was ok and alone. Another guy who had seen the crash while driving the other way on the road came over and together we were able to bend the door open. We called 911 and stayed with the kid until the Sheriffs and Ambulance arrived.
He was ok - pretty shook up with a possible concussion from the impact but otherwise he'll walk away unscathed. He's lucky that he was in a newer car with all those airbags. The impact was so hard it had ripped his seatbelt out.
I didn't feel much like fishing after that, so after the Sheriffs officer got my name and info, I headed home...
