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Actually, your crash involved considerably less force than a “130 mph” crash. Not to dispute the gracious protection our Lord extended, but Mythbusters showed that a head-on collision between two identical cars going the same speed is the same as one car going that same speed into a wall that does not move or deform.

I guess your 130 mph number comes from an assumption that both vehicles were going 65 mph, with the centerlines of the vehicles matching up head-to-head. This is probably not a correct assumption.

First, this was not a “head-on” crash as most people understand that term. Although it does appear that the forces acting on your truck were mostly from front to rear, they were offset. It appears that most of the force was offset to the right side of the truck. That did a lot to reduce your injuries.

More importantly, it is clear from the damage to the Saturn that she was crossing in front of you, with the centerline of her vehicle making an angle with yours of perhaps up to 30 degrees. (I could tell you more if I saw more pictures of her vehicle.) So even if she was going 65, the speed she was moving relative to your vehicle’s center of mass was something less than that.

If your vehicle had expended all the energy of its 65mph speed at the point of impact, it would have stayed at the point of impact, as a vehicle does in a barrier crash test. Instead, it had enough energy to come off the ground and spin around. That further reduces the energy available to injure you.

Nor did the Saturn stop at the point of impact, but traveled some distance beyond, including a rollover.

Any post-collision motion is caused by energy, has to be accounted for, and cannot be part of the injury-causing mechanism. It’s not the crash that kills you, it’s the sudden stop at the end. The less sudden the stop, the less energy available to cause injury. It’s a concept called “ride-down,” and it’s why you wear your seat belt.

Again, not to diminish this tragedy or the good news of your survival. Prayers up for all involved.

Looking at other pictures of my truck, I'd say 30 degrees was a fair assessment. She was swerving back to correct for her overcorrection on the first swerve into my lane. She would've been better off merely over-correcting once, and going into the farm field, I think... although 65-to-0 is going to hurt no matter what you're hitting. Sadly, she got two tries in, and found me. (I think the minivan in front of me had kids in it, so if someone had to get hit, I guess I was the better victim... not that she was choosing, of course.)

The "130 mph" was assuming that the speeds added up... and I'll probably continue to use it casually with friends, LOL.