from
Surviving: Drunk Drivers - Gutter Politics and Police Corruption
by Raymond D. Schaffer
"The drunk's car spun violently after impact, ejecting the driver through the passenger side window. She slid across the road coming to rest on the shoulder of the road in the southbound lane. I understand she had a multitude of broken bones and was lucky to be alive.
"My patrol car had collapsed around me and caused serious injuries to my body. The front end of the car was crushed, forcing the driver side door off the frame and shattering the window. The dashboard was pushed forward and the steering wheel had collapsed. The force of the impact shattered both bones in my left forearm as I apparently braced myself in anticipation of the impact. The sheer force of the seatbelt tightening around my waist not only bent my handcuffs, but broke a rib, which in turn punctured a lung. My face was impaled against the inflated airbag, which broke my nose. My glasses were ripped from my face causing a deep laceration over my left eye and my legs were twisted under the dash. The brutal violence of the collision knocked me unconscious. I'm not sure how long I was out, but as I began to regain consciousness, I remember thinking to myself that I was dreaming. At one point I remember smiling, thinking that this was an interesting dream. The next thing I remember was hearing the faint voice of a female coming from somewhere in the darkness calling out for help. "Help me. Help me," she cried out. Other than that, there was dead silence."
What Deputy Schaffer didn't know was that his police patrol car had gone off an embankment, into three feet of snow, and was invisible from the road. He recalls trying unsuccessfully to reach for his radio microphone, and apparently was barely conscious when he managed to click his mike at least once. That was enough, because communications heard the click. Before that officers on the scene had been assuming it was a one car accident. That one click might have saved his life.