Culture|Garage

 This is one of those one in a million shots that would leave any Jeep owner laughing…after they’re done crying.

The owner was out on the trail, driving cautiously, when out of nowhere a small tree decided to enter the cabin via the firewall and impede his progress. Good thing it wasn’t a few inches over or he would have been a shish ka bob.

He ended up with $250 worth of damage (It looks worse, doesn’t it?), some bruises, and oh, some internal injuries.

Read the full account and see some more pictures after the jump. (Ouch.)

This is what the guy posted up on the Jeep forum after his rig got speared: (He’s ok, just a little bruised.)

“What was originally planned to be a nice easy New Years Day Run got sideways on me very quickly.

I believe what happened was that my drivers front tire caught the tip of a fallen tree that was laying paralell to the trail and it kicked it up or turned it in such a way as to jump up a bit and i was travelling at just the right speed and and at just the right angle ( i think the tree missed everthing but the brake line before it hit the firewall ) to drive it through the firewall upwards between the clutch and brake pedal grazing my groin and hitting me in the left side of my stomach pinning me to the seat. It happened really fast and very violently and i think the driver behind me had a better view of what happened but that’s the best i can describe it. i’ve driven over logs and branches before and never even considered the idea of one coming up through the floor. i guess like any time i get hurt i always think that i could have been more careful, but it still seems like a one in a million type thing ( everyone who witnessed the accident seems to agree ).

Thankfully I was wheeling with a group and they were able to transport me out to get medical attention. They also took care of my Jeep and have made it so much easier for me to concentrate on healing. I am forever grateful for there help. Thanks again Ian, Tom, Blair, Martin and the rest of the guys.

I wasn’t being careless, but in the future I will certainly be more careful. I’ve heard of other incidents similar to mine since it happened, but never before. Please be safe on the trails.

As you can see in the pics, i have some damage to my torso ( my ” boys ” also took a hard shot and are swollen to 3 times normal size and are dark purple ). There was internal bleeding that stopped on it’s own without surgery, and i have damage to my kidney and bowel that require another visit to the trauma Doctor. In the meantime i have some time off work to heal, I am very swollen/ bruised/ stiff and sore but everything seems to be working OK.

there is a small peice of tree missing from the pics that i had to break off in order to exit my Jeep.”

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