It's an unbelievable crash that have many stunned that the driver walked away OK. Police say it happened just before seven this morning. 29-year old Paul Peterson dozed off at the wheel, clipping a truck on the side of the road. The car rolled into a ditch, splitting into two pieces.
Peterson walked away from the crash with minor injuries, and no one else was injured.
Police say he was wearing his seatbelt and this crash is a stark reminder for drivers getting on the road: the importance of wearing seatbelts.
"I shouldn't be here, I shouldn't be here at all," Peterson tells TV6.
But he is here today, laughing and joking around with his family, all thanks to a seat belt.
"Honestly once it hit I just felt like I didn't feel anything," he says, "I didn't feel any pain, I didn't feel the impact; it just kind of happened."
With his car totaled, he says the experience is something he'll never forget.
"I felt like I was spinning, and I felt the wind go through the car, but I had my eyes closed so I didn't know what was going on," Peterson says.
With just a few bumps and scratches, he walked away from this accident nearly scot free.
"When the car stopped, I opened my eyes and the car was just wide open, and I unclipped and walked out," he says.
"All I got is some facial swelling and a knuckle that's swollen and a bum elbow and that's it," he says of his injuries.
Even police are stunned.
"This is some of the most severe damage we've seen to a vehicle with a person actually able to get up, walk around and talk to everybody," Trooper Jason Wilson of Illinois State Police says.
"That gentleman, if he was not wearing his seatbelt, there's no doubt in our minds he would've been severely injured if not fatally injured," Wilson says.
Police say a decision that just takes a split second can save a life.
"This isn't about a fine, this isn't about us just wanting to force a law onto somebody, it's simply that seatbelts save lives period," Wilson says.
For Paul Peterson, he's learned his lesson, and he hopes others will too.
"If I didn't have my seat belt on, I wouldn't be here right now," he says.
