Stephen King almost died in a car accident. Then he bought a car that hit him

in early 1999, he had the almost finished novel “Buick 8” in the workshop – one of its characters happens to die in a nasty car accident. The writer emphasizes that one should not look for any special symbolism in the fact that he himself almost died on the road in the same year. On June 19, 1999, he was walking near his home in Maine when a car hit him unexpectedly at around 4.30 pm.

King almost died in a car accident. He bought a car that hit him

The car – it was a 1985 Dodge Caravan – was driven by Bryan Smith. Witnesses to the accident did not notice that he was driving at excessive speed or recklessness, which the police meticulously recorded. Smith, however, had his dog in the car, which he had to calm down at one point. He took his eyes off the road for a moment, and that’s when he ran into the world-famous writer. King flew four meters away.

The hospital found that Stephen King suffered multiple hip fractures, fractured ribs and lung damage as a result of the accident. The injuries immobilized the writer for three weeks and required as many as five separate surgeries. After he had recovered a bit, he decided to buy the car from Smith that had hit him. He paid $1,500 for the ill-fated van. In an interview with the Chicago Tribune, he even said that he wanted to treat him with a jackhammer. Did he end up scrapping it at a landfill? Why? The writer rationally explained that in this way he wanted to prevent it from being bought by a fan or someone who wanted to put the car up for auction.

This is understandable, because in Stephen King’s work there is quite often the motif of cars coming to life, which then kill people with full premeditation. In “Christine”, published in 1983, he described, for example, a 1958 Plymouth Fury car possessed by supernatural powers – people died like flies around it. In 1986, King released “Maximum Acceleration” – it’s literally a movie about cars that kill people of their own accord. What’s more, King directed it himself, and although the production did not appeal to the viewers and critics, the writer did not abandon the automotive themes. In 1999, as we have already mentioned, he was just finishing the book “Buick 8”, similar themes can be found in the story “Mr. Mercedes”. By scrapping the Dodge, King definitely had to make sure the car couldn’t kill anyone.