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.

here are some pics...
...there is a small peice of tree missing from the pics that i had to break off to exit my Jeep.

:shock: OMG. I feel for the one that was sitting there , all ok? I'm just clenching looking at it!

I assume there is supposed to be a picture in here somewhere. But it's not showing for me.

No blood but the twins could be seriously hurt still. A little further and ......

Wow! Extremely lucky.

more on this at jeepforum

Oww oww oww.

The branch actually poked a hole in the firewall? Hmm, that's one strong branch.