I have a character who is about 7 or 8 years old when he's in a car crash. He will break his arm and black out from trauma/fear and wake up later in a hospital/ambulance. The car crashes into a concrete barrier and I've got a general idea about what will happen to the car during the crash: front driver's side totaled, windshield and some of the side mirrors smashed, etc. I need to be able to describe the accident from his point of view.
My question is, for anyone who has been in a car accident, what does it feel like from the inside? What did you hear? I've read some descriptions in books about a sound of "screaming metal" but is that an accurate description? Would you describe the sound in a different way, or are there many different kinds of sounds? What do you remember seeing/happening? I've heard that the brain will stop making memories sometimes during extreme trauma; are there things you're surprised you don't remember?
I tried searching on Google for "car crash, personal experience" but found mainly links for auto insurance companies. My own experience involves only fender-benders so I can't really apply that. I also read through the posts on this community tagged "cars" and "car accidents".
Apologies to anyone if this subject is painful/triggering. I'd appreciate any and all responses!
ETA: Thank you everyone for your amazing responses! I feel pretty bad for making everyone relive their traumatic experiences, but this has all helped me so much. I kind of...never want to get into a car again after reading all this, but at least I'll be able to write about it with much more accuracy than before.
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