The Van Crash

Okay. So, everyone wants to hear the full details about the accident we recently experienced on tour. Before I get into it, I have to say that all of us walked out (or climbed out) of that van in one piece. We are EXTREMELY lucky because 4/6 of us were not wearing seat belts. Before I tell you about the accident, I have to tell you what lead up to it.

We just got done playing a gig in Wisconsin. My tour manager and I were trying to load up our equipment rather quickly because we had to be in Michigan the following day. Unfortunately, load-in time wasn’t at 4pm, 5pm, or 8 pm….it was at 12pm. That’s a really unusual load-in time AND it screws with our schedule. Usually, we travel at night and get into a hotel and get our sleep. This was one of those times where we would have to sleep in the van… after load-in.

We left the venue around 2am, from what I remember. We punched the address of our next gig into the GPS and that little demonic voice told us it was about a 9-hour drive. Now, everyone in our crew can drive except for Archie (Tripathi / vocals), but our tour manager made sure he did 95% of the driving. He said that he was responsible for us and he felt more comfortable handling the van and trailer, especially in bad weather we were experiencing. His only request was that if he became tired, someone else would take over. Usually, either myself or our front house guy would take over because we can handle driving the van. Unfortunately, our tour manager is very stubborn and typically won’t let anyone drive unless it’s absolutely necessary.

So we were on the road again. Our tour manager turned around and shouted, “WE’RE MINIMIZING ON STOPS SO MAKE YOUR PISS STOPS QUICK!!” Basically, that meant we were hauling ass to make it the next venue. Usually, I like to go to sleep as soon as possible so if my tour manager needs me to drive, I’ll be all rested up. I shouted up to him, “Jay, if you need me to take the wheel, wake me up.” He said, “Sure, no problem.” And that usually means, “I’m not gonna wake you up. I’m doing it all.”

So, I went to sleep. I was sitting in the very back of the van, on the driver’s side. I fell asleep wearing my hoodie and with my head pressed against the window. There were a few times when I woke up and I looked down at the road. I saw that we were going way too fast so I shouted up front, “Jay, slow down dude!!” I don’t think he heard me and I didn’t want to wake up anyone else, so I went back to sleep.

The next thing I knew, we went into a spin. It jerked me so hard that I woke up by going through the window. Unfortunately, I was still sleeping when this happen AND the window is big enough for my entire body to go through. So, when I went through the window arm/face first, out of instinct I grabbed the seat in front of me. So here I am, awake for literally 2 seconds, hanging out the window, going airborne, and holding onto the seat in front of me.

As we were spinning, I kept on getting more airborne and my head was outside and above the window frame. If that wasn’t enough, our van caught an edge and started to flip over onto the driver’s side. Luckily, I yanked myself back in so the van wouldn’t crush my head- but I wasn’t quick enough. The van ended up crushing my arm, but when it landed on it, it bounced up enough for me to rip my arm back so it wouldn’t stay on top of my arm. Then, I passed out.

I woke up a few seconds later to Jay yelling, “IS EVERYONE OKAY??!” I said “Yeah!! I think so!” I think my mind temporarily forgot about my arm so I got up and tried to scratch my head but I couldn’t do it. I was confused and I looked at my arm and it was dangling awkwardly. At that moment, I thought to myself, “OH S&*#! MY ARM IS BROKEN!!” Thankfully, I was wearing a hoodie and couldn’t see my elbow all screwed up and my bones sticking out!

Jimmy (Knauss / guitars) looked over and saw blood, so he jetted out of there. (he hates blood) Oddly enough, a Marine jumps in and asks, “Are you okay?” and I said, “NO!” It’s definitely surreal when you’re on a tour for the troops and a Marine comes to your rescue.

Now, I believe I went into shock and was freaking out about being inside the van. I couldn’t climb out like the rest of them because my arm was useless. It took the paramedics about 15 minutes to get to the scene and they helped me get out. They put me on the gurney and wheeled me into the ambulance. I told the EMT that it felt like something was dislocated because I can’t move my arm. The EMT cut the sleeve on my hoodie and looked at my arm. He said, “Well Dave, your bones are sticking out, you’re bleeding all over the place, there’s glass everywhere… but you were right about the dislocation.” I screamed at him, “YOU’RE SUPPOSE TO TELL ME WHEN I’M ON THE MORPHINE!!!” He got a kick out of that.

How has this affected me? As far as I was affected, I was very angry at first. I mean, I can’t play my bass until late January. That’s extremely frustrating. On top of that, I’m extremely active so I can’t even do the things I normally do. After a couple days, I calmed down and realized how lucky we all are. I mean, out of six people in the van, only one person was seriously injured.

How has this affected my band? Well, we have a couple new lyric ideas for some new songs! This definitely affected our band, though… but it hasn’t stopped us. We got one of our buddies, Hollis Godsey, to temporarily fill in for me and we’re going to commit to our shows that are coming up.

One little van accident isn’t going to stop us from playing shows or making new music.

Dave Alexander (Bassist)
Sugar Red Drive
December 2009

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