Three friends that were two seconds from death with one breathtaking story

By Alex Cosmer

It was a cold winter night with the spirits high for three friends who just arrived at Applebee’s in Leominster, Mass. They just came from a hockey game and were meeting two others to grab a quick dinner.

At 10:30 pm the dinner table was surrounded with laughter. But by 11 p.m. their car was full of screams.

The two groups of friends parted ways to go to their cars. Mike Farwell and Dave Damato got into Jim O’Donnell’s new Ford Explorer. They were cracking jokes while arguing over who deserved the front seat of the car.

Mike lost. He wound up in the back.

As the SUV headed down the dark road, the trees overlapped forming a tunnel.

Soon the only light on the road was from Jim’s headlights.

The downhill straight shot began to become windier and windier. They flew past the 35 mph sign going 40.

Mike grabbed his seat belt and was trying to find the slot to lock it in to. As he frantically began to try to put the seatbelt in, the car began to slip. Mike’s stomach sank.

“Oh shit….. Oh shit oh shit oh shit,” Jim screamed.

Mike gave up on the seat belt. He tucked his head under his arms, bracing for impact.

There was a screeching sound of crushing metal as the car hit the tree.

Mike bounced off the back of the passenger seat, landing on the center console.

“Is everyone okay?,” Mike said.

“Yea,” came voices.

As the three pulled themselves out of the car, neighbors who heard the crash rushed to their aid.

Mike was standing off the side of the road when he looked down.

There was blood on his shirt and jeans. He felt what appeared to be blood on his face. Where was it coming from? He wondered.

He felt his face. His nose felt mushy. He looked down. His white sneakers were dotted with blood.

The three teens stared at the car. The tree was holding the flattened car up. The glass stayed intact as smoke from the air bags crept though the splintered car.

The car, they later learned, had slid on black ice and went, head on, into the tree.

“This is a popular place for an accident,” one neighbor later told them. “They really should put up a guard rail.”

One neighbor called the police. An ambulance arrived minutes later.

Dave and Mike were brought to the hospital where they were released later that night.

He spent the night at Jim's house

"My head was pounding," Farwell said.

The three later returned to the garage where the car was towed to collect some things left behind.

The car was in worse condition than they expected.

"It looked like a wedge of cheese," Farwell said. "That's when I realized I could have died."