Vehicle accidents...

The worst accident I was involved in happened when I was about 8 or 9. We were driving north out of Fresno on Highway 41. My father was driving the 1965 yellow Ford Galaxy 500 sedan. I was in the middle front seat, my mother was on the right. My 2 brothers and 2 sisters were in the backseat.

Approaching a side road right (with stop sign) my Mother said, "Charlie he's not stopping!!!" My Dad locked up the brakes and we slid into a station wagon. The driver of that car said they had been having brake trouble ever since getting rear ended by a bus. I know sounds like a BS excuse type story now but then I was a kid.

Fortunately no one was seriously hurt. My Father made everyone wear seatbelts (unusual at that time).

The Ford was a company car (one of the perks of my Dad's job as a Civil Engineer in a private civil engineering firm in Bakersfield). They replaced that car with a 1971 lime green Ford Maverick coupe with a 302 V8. About a year later a lady made an illegal U-turn and caved in the drivers door (t-bone). The other people in the firm started calling Dad, "Crash-em up Karoly" after that. Around that time he also had the scissor gear on a rental airplane break (C182); the slip stream turned the nosewheel about 45° sideways. He knew there was an issue due to the handling of the airplane in flight so he flew by the tower at Meadows Field and they verified the issue. So he declared an emergency and landed on the dirt/grass between the runway and taxiway. The nosewheel collapsed and caused some damage but I think the airplane was repairable. He had flown it into a mountain strip at Templeton Meadow to drop off my brothers and sister for a backpacking trip. Land uphill, takeoff downhill.