[sandalwood]

I had a friend in high school who was home from college as a freshman and went out for a night of drinking with some friends. He decided to go "surfing" on the roof of the Jeep Cherokee, and when the driver (who was drunk) put the car into gear, he fell off the roof.

Hit the back of his head on the asphalt just so, and after laying brain dead in a hospital for three days, died.

Sad, sad, sad. Because in a few more years, these young adults would have been old enough to know better, but never got the chance.

[Paloma_55]

When I was a teen, I was sitting on the back of a friend's car in a parking lot while talking to other friends. He started it, rev'ed the engine and took off.

I stayed on because I thought he was going to slow down, but he kept going faster and faster until I figured that if I fell off I would be dead.

So, rather than fall off at 40, I jumped off at about 20mph.

The only thing that saved me was my western boots with steel "horseshoe" taps. I slid backward as the taps sparked all over the place and came to a stop facing backwards. I was able to modulate my traction by shifting my weight from front to back to remain stable.

I was really pissed, but alive.

If I had been wearing tennis shoes, probably would have been brain dead too.

[dead]

I dated a girl whose previous boyfriend was in a completely vegetative state. His friends had taken him out for his 24th birthday and got him drunk. When they stopped at a red light, he got out of the car to run up and tell his other friends in the pickup ahead of them something. They didn't see him approaching and they didn't see him slip on the ice and fall under the truck. The light turned green an instant after he slipped and they stepped on the gas and crushed him.

The guy driving the truck was never the same either.