Well if I listed all mine we'd be here for weeks, if not months. But here's one that stands out.
When I was 4 I had a pedal car. No full sheet metal body, was just a bunch of tubes to support everything. My family raced modified stock cars at the time, so that was my race car, I even hand painted a B4 of the back of the seat, just like our cars had numbers.
Anywho, I lived on a farm, the county road was part of my play ground, you were lucky to see two cars or trucks a day. Just past our place the road dropped down to the valley below. Probably a mile or so to the valley, but the road was at a near 45 degree angle down.
Got this bright idea to see how fast I could go on said hill. Pedaled my car to the top of the hill and without a second thought started down.
When folks say "It went all down hill from that" I was probably the poster child for it.
First problem encountered, direct drive, wheels to pedals. Also how you stopped, by holding the pedals, unlike a bike where the pedals freewheel.
Oh about a hundred yards down and the pedals had turned into blender like speed. So I removed my feet from them.
Now no brakes, and have to avoid pedals or have feet removed.
As the car reached the sound barrier, I noted another problem. Play in the steering became amplified the faster the car went. So even though I'm holding the steering wheel in a death grip, the road wheels are now wobbling and turning back and forth. So I'm treated to a vibration like a cheap motel vibrating bed, while at the same time the car is veering back and forth across the road.
Then physics took over and gravity be damned. Said road wheels finally exceeded my ability to hold somewhat the steering straight. In less then the blink of an eye, the wheels slammed over to the left, dug in, and proceeded to launch said car and driver. And this was no ordinary launch, remember I'm traveling now at the speed of sound. Car and occupant, since I wasn't driving anymore, escape the force of gravity, leaving the pavement. At the same time due to the launch angle, car starts to roll and cartwheel at the same time.
Not touching the pavement, we rolled and cartwheeled for what seemed like hours. In brief glimpses I noted that while all this was going on, we were not slowing down, and we were veering to the left. To the left was good/bad. Good as we were headed to the grassy berm. Bad as the grassy berm sat next to the rock strewn ditch.
We cleared the grass with ease. We impacted the ditch like an artillery shell going off. Remember me saying the car had no sheet metal body? Well mine took place of it. I don't know how many times we hit as we rolled down the ditch slowly loosing speed. Somewhere along the line we departed ways, me going one way and the car another. Or so I thought. Seems the car decided it wasn't done with me. As I tumbled down the ditch, the car followed, slamming me repeatedly from behind.
We both came to a rest in a cloud of dust at the bottom of the hill. I was too stunned to move, or hurt. I just laid there till things started to stop spinning. Slowly I realized I wasn't dead, but soon also realized that there wasn't one part of my body that didn't hurt.
Some tentative movements told me all my parts were still attached, and I proceeded to slowly stand up.
I pushed my car back up the hill and decided to tell no one about my adventure. Worked out well till the next day when I was purple from head to toe from all the bruises.
The fall didn't hurt at all.... but that sudden stop sucks. Believe it or not I got a nice 8 pt. that morning 1/2 hr. after sunrise!!!!
Then I remember the guy working on the monitors and run over to where he was. Well he was on the floor across the aisle huffing. I asked him if he was alright, and before he could answer almost in unison a couple of people say "Naw, he's OK he does this about once a month." Yup! He wasn't very good at getting the high voltage probe in the right place, and quite frequently hit the flyback. Then about a month or so later, I'm trying to bend a lead over for a 440v line with one of those 2 1/2' long screwdrivers. It slipped and I was between the lead & the cabinet. Woke up with the familiar metallic taste and proceeded to figure out the screwdriver was about 1/2" shorter and my wedding ring was almost fused to the shaft. The engineer just happened to be walking by to the break room and proceeds to lean over me and says "Pretty cool huh?" "Want some coffee?". Well there went one life!
