"Oh My God, No Time to Turn!": Songs Involving Traffic Accidents

Riding on my bicycle

I saw a motorcrash

A proper motorcrash

Lots of spectators

I rushed to the center

Saw the injured parents

Cuts on the children

An awful motorcrash

So dangerous motorcrash

So terribly bloody

Motorcrash

Destructive motorcrash

I took the mother

Sneaked with her secretly

All the way to my home

And nursed her gently

I put on her bandages, gave her

Milk and biscuits

She sighed pleasantly after this

Awful motorcrash

So dangerous, dangerous

Motorcrash

Motrocrash

Destructive motorcrash

Einar

That girl on that bicycle

Showed great interest

In all the motorcrashes in the neighbourhood

She look quite innocent

Björk

Then we disguised ourselves

Took a taxi to her home

When her husband answered the door

She introduced herself

He said 'Where have you been all this time?'

Einar

Believe you-me

I know what inoccent looks like

She showed great interest

After she got that bicycle

proof that bjork has always been mental (in a good way)

"this wreckage," gary numan

Also "Taking Retards to the Zoo" involves a short-bus crash doesn't it?

the parking lot was nearly empty
her car looked like a little childs toy way off in the far corner
as she trudged along she lkept her eyes on the big orange sun
that was sinking toward a dark line of trees in the distance
she wondered how much lower and fatter it would be by the time she was on the road
about halfway there, she dropped her keys on the pavement next to a faded yellow stripe
she bent down to retrieve them and then suddenly froze arm outstretched, hand open
as an overpowering sense of deja vu washed through her
the setting sun, the purple sky, the early evening smell of baked asphalt
all of it had sometime, somewhere been exactly as it was this very moment
then it was gone, she grabbed her keys and continued on her way
the car was hard to start as usual
it would like a little coaxing to make it turn over
her gearhead brother-in-law had been working on it for her
and he wasnt won to sacrifice torque or horsepower for easy starts or other such petty concerns
but that was okay, because she liked to go fast
for her, the dashed lines on the freeway were like grins of sand slipping through an hour glass
ticking away the seconds, the minutes, and the hours of her life
if she got home a few minutes early on any given afternoon it gave her a thrill
as if she had stolen a little something back from death
the motor came to life just as the tree line took its first nip at the sun
and without missing a beat she threw the car into hear and headed for the highway
the road stretched out in a thin black ribbon as straight and as far ahead as the eye could see
there was no traffic, so she pressed a little harder on the accelerator and began to pick up speed
it was that pecululiar bit of twilight when the first faint stars become visible
last night she had come this way and there had also been a slider of a crescent moon
but right now it was nowhere to be seen
she didnt care though, she just wanted to go faster
she leaned into the steering wheel and mashed the gas pedal into the floor
the stripes on the highway began to unreel beneath her in a dizzying blur
as if all those grains of sand had lost their bearings and were falling all over each other
just trying to get out of the way to make room for the next moment, or instant, or tick of the clock
and at that moment she saw the first glimmer of reflective paint, yellow and black
wafting through the late summer heat riusing off the roadway
and in the next instant she saw the barricade
a low, thick concrete wall behind the warning sign
and she tightened her grip on the steering wheel, pressed harder on the gas pedal
and fixed her stare straight ahead
and then everything went absolutely silent
and instead of a crash or a screech of tires or a scream
there was just one very loud tick of the clock

and then a crzy symphony of grinding bone and metal
bent steering wheel wrists snapping like toothpicks
broken legs flailing at weird angles as she smashed through the windshield in an explosive shower of glass and blood
and then she was flying, falling, floating, sailing through the air
an impossible arc across the night sky
until her momentum would carry her no further
and then she reached out wrapped her arms around the new moon
and disappeared beyond the horizon
while a thousand startled crows erupted and fled in every direction
from the cornfield that spread out below.

Copied without permission from http://www.theendoftheworld.org/900/spider1.shtml

"Three times dark, first in the mind.
Second on Java street, the dead car there.
The hood blown off with a BB gun.
Manuela said she saw the brakes fail.
Manuela said she saw the brakes fail.
An empty body but it still bled
Oil from the axle and it left a trail.
Ran down Java street and formed a pool.
Manuela saw the moon in there.
Manuela saw the moon in there.

I hear a rumbling.
I hear transmission grind.
I bear witness.
I have the clutch now.

Stack of tools in the Oldsmobile.
From the Motor City to the City of Dis.
They trace his travel by his credit card.
No sleep, smokes, and he's nauseous.
No sleep, smokes, and he's nauseous.
Flicks an ash like a wild loose comma.
Ash hits the oil around the pump.
Travels to the pump and the pump explodes.
Witness said he saw the car jump.
Witness said he saw the car jump."

"Everyone said that when the ambulance came
The paramedics could hear 'Free Bird' still playing on the stereo"

"When you examined the wreck, what did you see? / Glass everywhere and wheels still spinning free"

Also: "Teen Angel" by Mark Dinning
"Tonight Is the Night I Fell Asleep at the Wheel" by Barenaked Ladies

hope no one sees me in this accident
hope no one sees me in this accident
with my feet down through the floorboards
and my head through the busted glass
my face smashed against the dash
there’s no attraction like a fatal crash
and someone said it was a right i didn’t have
and someone said it was reckless u-turn
and someone said another sunday driver

let’s go see who’s in an accident
see who’s poking through the floor boards
who’s head is up against the glass
who’s face is smashed against the dash
let’s go see who’s in an accident
let’s go see who’s in an accident
let’s go see who’s in an accident

'...when you had that accident in you car...'

"Thunder Road" Robert Mitchum (He left the road at 90; that's all there is to say. The devil got the moonshine and the mountain boy that day.)

"You know the papers told of how you lost your life, oh yeah
The party, the party and the fatal crash that night
Well the race along the highway, oh the curve you didn't see
When you're riding in that long black limousine"

Tsk you lot...

"We took your daddies car / and crashed into a tree . . . "

"Kiss them for me.....I may be delayed"

A man in my shoes runs a light
And all the papers lied tonight

...Well, from there on down it just wasn't real pretty
It was hairpin county and switchback city
One of 'em looked like a can fulla worms
Another one looked like malaria germs.
Right in the middle of the whole damn show
Was a real nice tunnel, now wouldn't you know?

Sign said clearance to the twelve-foot line
But the chickens was stacked to thirteen-nine.
We shot that tunnel at a hundred-and-ten
Like gas through a funnel and eggs through a hen
And we took that top row of chickens off
Slicker than scum off a Louisiana swamp.
Went down and around and around and down
Till we run outta ground at the edge of town.
Bashed into the side of the feed store in downtown Pagosa Springs.

The Smiths - "There Is A Light That Never Goes Out"

Whiskey and glass all together
Was mixed with the blood where they lay
Death played her hand in destruction
But I didn't hear nobody pray.

They all hit the gas in a dash for position
Bobbing and weaving and flashing their highbeams
Flipping the bird and screaming obscenities
A murderous hoard hell-bent on Saturday

And so they continued, westbound and into the sun
Law and decorum constraining nary a one
By then it was devil-may-care
Not one even vaguely aware
That they'd come all the way to the Delaware Water Gap

How had it happened? They had all missed their exits
How had it happened? Was it some kind of vortex?
In they all went, bumper to bumper
Faster and faster, no sign of a trooper
In they all went, like sheep to the slaughter
Bankers and carpenters, doctors and lawyers
And in they all went, families in minivans
Reagan Republicans, weekend militiamen
They followed the river, and rounded the bend
Between Minsi and Tammany and into their destiny

"Carroll County Accident" was a 1968 country hit for the great Porter Wagoner. It was written by Bob Ferguson, senior producer at RCA and won Country Music Song of the Year in 1969. Check this out:

Carroll County's pointed out as kinda square.
The biggest thing that happens is the county fair.
I guess that's why it seems like such a big event,
What we all call the Carroll County accident.
The wreck was on the highway just inside the line.
Walter Browning lost his life and for a time,
It seemed that Mary Ellen Jones would surely die.
But she lived long enough for her to testify.
Walter Browning was a happy married man,
And he wore a golden wedding ring upon his hand.
But it was gone nobody knew just where it went;
He lost it in the Carroll County accident.
Mary Ellen testified he flagged her down,
Said he was sick and could she drive him into town.
No one even doubted what she said was true,
’Cause she was well respected in the county, too.
I went down to see the wreck like all the rest,
The bloody seats, the broken glass, the tangled mess.
But I found something no one else had even seen,
Behind the dash in Mary's crumpled up machine,
A little matchbox circled by a rubber band.
And inside the ring from Walter Browning's hand.
It took a while to figure out just what it meant,
The truth about the Carroll County accident.
By dark of night I dropped the ring into a well,
And took a sacred oath that I would never tell,
The truth about the Carroll County accident.
’Cause the county ordered dad a marble monument,
I lost him in the Carroll County accident.

The title is a reference to the (at times, fairly gruesome) advertisment campaign for the Transport Accident Commission, which advises people to stop speeding, drink driving etc.

The guy who slagged the football team -
Those yobs were not for him
Turns into a real estate agent
Who believes in discipline;

That guy who's the first to use cocaine,
The wild boy breaking free,
Ends up in a court of law
As a prosecuting QC;

Remember the school captain? -
Success was a matter of time;
I can hear her now as she screams,
'Greg! You missed the stop sign!'

Forget Snoop Doggy Dogg
Forget ol' Ice T
The true word out on the street
Is produced by the TAC

What good's the use of striving?
As life's road in front unravels
We get to do the driving
But don't choose the direction we travel.

Do your homework, or wag for weeks
And graffiti the Dandenong line;
It don't matter when you hear that scream:
'Greg! You missed the stop sign!'

Some time in the next hundred thousand years
A comet's gonna wipe out all trace of Man -
I'm banking on it coming before
My end of year exam.

The rich kid becomes a junkie
The poor kid an advertiser
What a tragic waste of potential -
Being a junkie's not so good either.

Your folks struggled hard for what you've got,
You are the fruit of their vine;
But who cares what you sow when what you reap
Is: 'Greg! You missed the stop sign!'

Bought a car just the other day
Man could that baby run
But you know what they always say:
There's always a better one.
Got a tumour in my brain
Its creeping to my lungs
And I've searched around in vain
Can't find me a better one.

Hardwired into everyone's head
Is the person they're gonna be
Growing up ain't a matter of choice
It's a matter of wait and see.

And so kids, yeah, you can do it!
You can do your best
Girls can do anything
You can pass the test

I'm OK, you're OK,
We're all right, we're fine
I thought I saw a semi-trailer
Greg! You missed the stop sign!