Most Saturday mornings, I am awake and ready to run the trails nice and early. This weekend, I was a bit tired but got up anyway so that I could hang out with a friend that was staying with us for a few nights.

By the time he left for a class he was taking, I felt wide awake and decided to ignore my desire to go back to bed and instead left the house to meet up with the Trail Monsters at Pineland Farms.

Unfortunately, about a mile and a half later, I’d discovered just what an engineering marvel modern cars are.

10 years ago, I’d have had an engine in my lap. Instead, my 17 month old car just dropped half the front end on the street and the rest of it crumpled up in front of the car. The windshield, tires and cab weren’t damaged at all, so I was able to steer the car off the road after the impact.

I did need the emergency brake to stop the car since the brake lines were gone, but I got out of the car without having been hurt. The airbag felt like a good punch in the face and is certainly something I hope to never have to repeat, though.

This just needs to be a reminder, if you are running or driving, to be sure that you pay attention to your surroundings. The intersection where the accident happened is a pretty common place for cars to hit one another according the officer and the guys from the fire department that responded to the accident.

In fact, damage to a nearby telephone pole was originally called in as part of my accident until the officer realized that there was no way that either car could have hit it.

This is just one more reminder about why it is important to be mindful of your surroundings when you are out running. Thankfully, there were no pedestrians near that intersection during the accident, but there easily could have been. I’ve run through there dozens of times over the past few years.

I’ve been hit by a car while running before, and it only takes a moment of distraction on either the runner or the driver’s part for their to be a problem.

As for this past weekend, nobody got hurt. Despite all the damage to the front end of the vehicle, I walked away uninjured. I am so impressed by the car that I am probably going to replace it with a newer model of the same car.

(More Photos: Flickr)