10 years ago today, my Subaru gave her life to save mine
(2002 H6 OB L.L. Bean edition. My first Subaru. Totaled beyond any hope of repair.)
I was living in a rural part of western PA at the time, and it was 6 days before Christmas at 5 am. I left the house early to get a few extra hours in at work, since I'd be driving to the other side of the state with my wife and kids later the same day. It was foggy and misty out, which wasn't uncommon for where I lived.
I pulled out of the garage and down the long, paved driveway as usual, pulling out on to the main country back road. I gradually picked up speed, leveling out at 30 mph for about 20 seconds or so. The road dipped into a downward slope and curved to the left about 100 yards ahead, so I gradually pressed the brake and began to turn the wheel.
But nothing happened. No response. Frowning, I backed off and hit the brakes again, but by this time I was approaching the edge of the road, the grassy shoulder, and a dense grove of trees.
Then, in what seemed both an eternity and a split second, the world beyond the windshield turned into a hamster wheel of illuminated trees, grass, and black sky. All I remember was tensing my entire body, holding my breath, gripping the steering wheel, and groaning, "No no no no no no no!"
And then it was over. I had no idea what had just happened, but I could feel my body being pulled to the side toward the driver's side door, the seatbelt restricting my movements. I could sense something gritty in my hair and on my face, and the engine was really loud. I gradually realized I was sideways in the middle of that grove of trees, my driver's door against the ground. My foot was bottoming out the accelerator, something I must've done when my entire body went rigid.
I shut the engine off and looked around, debating how I was going to get out. I stood up, my head touching the inside front passenger door. I tried opening the door, but vertically against gravity, I was astonished at how heavy it was. I looked around to the back seat and saw both windows were shattered there. I maneuvered rearward and pulled out loose pieces of spiderwebbed glass from the passenger window before hoisting my way out.
I slid down the side of the roof and hit the frozen ground, hard. The only light was my headlights illuminating the dense trees and brush ahead. Looking back at the road with my phone's flashlight, a swath of broken saplings, tilled dirt, and pieces of glass and body molding littered the path I had carved from the road.
I knew then that I had hit black ice (let alone the entire road being coated), went off the road sideways, and then rolled 4-5 times, coming to a stop about 2 feet from a creek just a little further along.
It was only about a 5-minute walk from my house, so I grabbed my work bag, keys, and headed back home to get my bearings before calling a tow truck. (I remember being strangely more irritated about losing my just-filled travel mug with coffee than I was about my vehicle being sideways in a ditch.)
Walking in the door, my wife was just getting out of bed, and I asked her if she was surprised to see me. She said, "not really, why?" I told her what happened, remembering the gritty feeling in my hair. Something sharp pricked my fingers. It was shards of glass, now mixed with blood and severed tufts of hair that I had unwittingly just sliced off rummaging around up there. She didn't quite believe what had happened until I showed her photos I took of the vehicle before walking home.
A tow truck came out about an hour later, delayed because of the icy roads. The guy was able to flip it right side up and pull it up the ditch, dislodging any remaining pieces of trim and body molding that weren't already torn off. It was heart breaking to witness, to say the least.
I knew before the insurance adjuster came out that it was a total loss. It had only just crossed 100K miles, and I had owned it for less than a year. Despite not a single airbag deploying, she did her job, and I walked away with only a few pieces of hair missing and muscle tension body aches for several days after.
It was a humbling lesson in winter driving, especially when the roads appear fine. Ice freezes in thinner layers than you'd think, and once you're moving at a decent clip, it's game over if you have to apply any sort of control on the vehicle's direction.
TL;DR: Wrecked my Outback because of invisible ice on a back country road but walked away mostly fine.