At 6:25 p.m. Monday, Carl Ottowell opened his eyes and was face to face with a metal guardrail. Flames danced from his car’s engine.
Luckily, his head was still attached to his body.
Ottowell, 53, had just blacked out and crashed his 2005 Buick on Governors Hill Road in Oxford. The guardrail pierced the front window, harpoon style, and smashed into the driver’s seat, barely missing his head.
The end of the guardrail peeled back the car’s roof like a can opener.
It’s a miracle Ottowell survived.
“I have a good guardian angel,” Ottowell said.
Ottowell, an Oxford resident, doesn’t remember everything about the crash. Complications from a recent surgery caused him to lose consciousness, he said.
He remembers seeing a rock in the road and swerving left, into the opposite lane.
Then he hit the gas instead of the brakes, smashing head-on into a guardrail near 20 Governors Hill Road.
Ottowell says woke up to flames. The engine had caught fire in the crash.
His first and only thought was to “just get the hell out of there,” Ottowell said.
Ottowell wasn’t feeling strong that day by any means. He still had 42 staples holding his chest together after a surgery. Two suction bulbs were still attached to his stomach, to drain excess blood and fluid.
Yet Ottowell was able to crawl out of the driver’s side window.
As nearby residents came to his aid and helped him out of the burning vehicle, he left a trail of blood on the side of the car. But it could have been much worse.
Oxford Fire Chief Scott Pelletier said when he arrived at the scene, Ottowell was outside of the car with only minor injuries. Neighbors were trying to put out the car fire with their own fire extinguishers.
Oxford Resident State Trooper Sgt. Dan Semosky said Ottowell was “very, very lucky.”
“It’s amazing,” Semosky said. “There was very serious damage to the vehicle. The operator is very lucky that he wasn’t more seriously injured.”
Ottowell’s reaction was surprisingly understated, considering the photos showing a giant guardrail on his Buick’s headrest.
“I was kind of scared,” Ottowell said.
No tickets were issued.
