so I was in a major car accident Friday afternoon, grateful to be alive.

[Liberty Belle]

83. Have a mechanic check the brakes ASAP before it gets totaled and taken away.

So glad you survived but don't let evidence get destroyed. Call an attorney ASAP and ask who they recommend to examine the car. Maybe also ask your car insurance company and make clear they CANNOT have the car until this is checked out to see if the brakes failed to work properly.

Airbags are supposed to go off if the collision is 40 mph or more. If they didn't, and you were going over that, you may have another cause of action against the car manufacturer.

Take care of yourself. Having survived 5 car accidents, none my fault, I can tell you that after the last two I went IMMEDIATELY to a good chiropractor (after xrays to assure nothing was broken) and got immediate relief before serious whiplash caused a variety of chain reaction issues.

I do have permanent nerve damage from one early accident and disk problems in my neck from another, but given how serious that crash was (a collision at 40 mph with a truck that ran a stop and totaled m vehicle) I am lucky it wasn't far worse. My airbag probably saved my life though it broke a rib. My face was just touching the steering wheel, I thought it would smash my face, when the airbag went off.

Get a lawyer Do NOT talk to the other side's insurance no matter how much they badger you, until your lawyer says it's okay I never talked to them until I sued them, last time around. They try to trick you into saying things they can use against you.

Another tip - don't let medical providers charge treatment to your car insurance co. Make them bill your medical insurance. My providers nagged and whined but I refused to make my car insurance pay. Here's how great that worked. My medical insurance negotiated down the emergency room rate by a huge amount, and I only had to pay a small deductible. I also forced them to pay the full ambulance fee they tried billing me for. Since I only had $5,000 in car insurance medical, I used that for every treatment NOT covered by my crappy medical insurance policy -- including chiropractic treatment and massage therapy, the two things that helped relieve pain the most. I also filed two complaints with the state of CA to force my insurance to pay for stuff it initially refused. They weren't going to pay for an ambulance because it didn't take me to their preferred hospital, but that hospital had turned away the ambulance when they called because they were full.

Get well soon - you will need your strength to fight the insurance companies and the jerk who caused the accident and win!