My fifth one was Friday morning, on the way to work, when I got rear-ended as I was stopped in traffic. Again. Accidents 3 and 4 were pretty much the same, and they've all come within the last five years.
My first was as a passenger in high school. We had six people piled into a tiny Honda Civic hatchback - the driver, three in the back (including me), and two sharing the passenger seat by having one sit on the floor. We were going past an elementary school letting kids out when some dumb woman pulled out of the school right in front of us. Everyone in the back seat was fine except minor bumps (and I didn't even have that), but the people up front got banged up pretty good, and the car was totaled.
My 2nd was a similar accident - I had right of way at a two-way stop, dumb woman left a stop sign right in front of me. This one was quite a bit worse, though, since it wasn't a school zone. The limit was 50, and I was actually compliant, since I had just turned onto the street a short way ago and was still getting up to speed. My car was destroyed, and apart from various minor injuries from the airbag deployment (these things are not as soft as they look in slow-mo, and I had a number of issues, including golf ball-sized welts on each wrist, to prove it), I had back pain that limited my activity for at least six months.
What I took away from all of these is that it doesn't matter how good, smart, or safe a driver you think you are, because other people will do stupid things and put you in situations you can't escape. You'd better be prepared to be in an accident every time you get in a car - everyone seated correctly, belts on, car in good working order, etc.
