chuckography

Flashback to 1964....

Coming out of the Post Office today I was stopped in my tracks.

A Chevrolet CORVAIR Monza.

It was a 1964 model.

I was suddenly revisiting "Unsafe At Any Speed" by Ralph Nader. Yikes.

My left arm tingled. The area where the scar from stitches shows.


I had borrowed one of those while I was in college in San Diego.

When I totaled it, the rear-engine car violently rolled over three times. Just like Nader had predicted

Manufacturers were not required to install seat belts until 1968.

As it flipped I remember being in the front seat, then the back seat and ended up again in the front seat - on the passenger side.
Upside down.

I had watched the windshield pop out and heard loud banging and scraping noises.

The rolling and spinning seemed to go on forever and I thought I would pitch over the edge and crash down the mountain side.

I lived.

In fact I was barely injured.

Sore as hell later but, except for a bleeding wound on my arm, I was dazed but safe.

Ah yes, memories of college days.


(Click on the pictures for more detail. The young lady who had loaned me the car was pretty understanding. Her Dad, however, was another story. Glad I'm here to write about it. Drive carefully.)

Labels: 'Unsafe At Any Speed', 1964, car roll overs, car-owning coed Chevrolet Corvair, Monza, Ralph Nader, seat belts, stitches in the ER

posted by chuckography @ 11:25 AM