Everyone knows by now that driving may be harmful in a virtually limitless variety of methods. You will get crashed into by one other automobile, have a ladder fall off the again of a truck in entrance of you, have a tire blow out for no cause, you generally is a fireplace truck close to a Tesla, and many others. Sadly, there’s a brand new method for driving to wreck you, and sadly for the Tulsa, Oklahoma band Cliffdiver, they came upon what it was on a latest drive from their hometown to Vegas.

The band set off from Tulsa tremendous enthusiastic about this primary journey of their new, far more luxurious tour van, solely to have all of it go very, very flawed roughly an hour in. In accordance with guitarist/vocalist Matt Ehler, all the pieces was going easily till out of the blue there was “an unlimited BOOM sound that seemed like a cannon being fired as all the entrance of the van crammed with glass shards and mud” from the motive force’s aspect window being impacted by one thing.

Instantly after, he observed that bassist Tyler Rogers was lined in blood and that blood was spraying out of his neck. As terrifying as that’s, Rogers’ being the motive force meant that his foot matted the fuel pedal when he misplaced consciousness, and the van started to speed up. Ehler labored to get his foot off the pedal and take management of the steering wheel, however Rogers being belted in made this tough.

Finally, Ehler was capable of basically sit in Rogers’ lap and convey the van to a cease so they might start administering first support to Rogers. Band members within the again shouted directions on what to do for first support and the way to apply stress to the wound whereas one other referred to as 911. Fortunately the band was proper subsequent to a mile marker making the van straightforward to search out.

Emergency providers arrived promptly and loaded Rogers into an ambulance, throughout which era he briefly regained consciousness, a lot to the band’s reduction, and was taken to a close-by hospital for lifesaving surgical procedure. The medical doctors estimated that he had misplaced upwards of two liters of blood. For reference, the human physique holds round 5 in complete (or roughly 1.25 gallons).

The sheriff who got here to research stated that a big damaged chain hyperlink discovered lodged in Rogers’ neck seemingly got here from a failed load-bearing chain on a passing semi-truck. When the chain failed underneath pressure, the hyperlink shot off at extraordinarily excessive velocity, and Cliffdiver’s van had turned out to be within the flawed place on the flawed time.

Fortunately, luck was on Rogers’ aspect as a result of, because of his bandmates’ fast considering and first support, he was capable of make it to the hospital alive regardless of a puncture to his carotid artery and lacerations to his jugular vein, in addition to neck fractures. The percentages of his survival had been extremely low, however he was moved out of the ICU and into restoration lower than 24 hours after surgical procedure, and it looks as if he’ll make a full restoration with no mind injury from the blood loss.

Naturally, with this occurring, the band has needed to cancel reveals, and Tyler Rogers might be unable to work for a while, so the band has arrange a GoFundMe web page to assist together with his medical bills. We’re positive it’d be appreciated if you wish to chip in a couple of dollars or purchase Cliffdiver’s music on Bandcamp.