Lax player survives accident
Mack O'Connell after his Feb. 5 accident
A Castleton lacrosse player recently walked away from what could have been a life-threating car crash.
On Feb. 5, Mack O’Connell fell asleep at the wheel of his now totaled car. O’Connell was traveling down Route 4 at 3:30 p.m. coming back from a day of skiing at Killington Ski Resort when he dosed off and woke up heading directly for the median.
He said he tried to correct the car when he started to slide on the slippery road conditions. The car then caught the dirt when he hit the median and caused it to flip.
While that car flipped, O’Connell said his seat belt failed and he was thrown from the car through the sunroof.
“Mack is so lucky to only have cuts and bruises, things could have been so much worse,” said Josh Cody, a close friend of O’Connell.
Teammates said they couldn’t believe how lucky their fellow teammate was and were just glad to hear he was okay
O’Connell described the fear of seeing the car roll under him as he was thrown into the air.
“I send myself snowboarding, but I’ve never been in the air that long,” he said. “I was so high up and moving so fast I just remember waiting to hit the ground so that I could die.”
O’Connell said he eventually landed on his feet and miraculously he had no broken bones, internal bleeding or concussion when tested in the emergency room.
That blew away the rescue personnel and doctors who treated him.
“I remember the paramedic telling me that people don’t usually survive stuff like this,” he said.
But the accident didn’t leave him pain free.
O’Connell said he did get a “gross black eye” that he was unable to see out of for three days, bruising and a four-by-three inch laceration on his back. The pain he was in was obvious as he hobbled around and sat down to be interviewed.
“The next four to five days I had felt like I had literally been hit by a truck,” he said.
Mack O'Connell's car after his Feb. 5 accident.
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