I must admit that I have limited driving experience compared to somebody whom is older than myself (and one who has taken specialized driving courses), and probably would have reacted differently if I had that experience. But I have taken a defensive driving/sport course via a very close family friend. I have driven my SVX towards the edge of the envelope... Powering sliding around corners, peeling out, etc etc (I don't drive like that all the time though. I have actually only done that once). I have driven more powerful cars than the SVX I owned. I have never been in any accident before, nor have I had any tickets. However, I don't think any kind of training could have prepped me for the person that suddenly showed up in my lane. When driving at night, and you see headlights coming around a corner, you expect a car to come around a corner just as every other car has ever come around a corner before... In their lane, both safely for themselves and for others.

I also find it a little upsetting for it to be assumed that I was going about 70-80 mph upon impact. Of course I'm not going to think "Oh crap, I'm gonna hit a tree... How fast am I goin?" and then proceed to look at the speedometer. Shear logic shows me this: My typical driving speed on that road is around 35-40 mph (depending on how much of a hurry I'm in). The time that it took for me to panic and then impact the embankment could not have been anything more than one second at most. A more reasonable time to assume is about half of a second. I know the acceleration capabilities of my car better than anyone (especially with the performance parts and filters that I put in it just about two weeks ago). My car could have gained about 10-15 mph, depending on the time frame we're talking about, and depending on whether or not it went into power mode. That puts me at about 45-50 mph... And being a physics student that has analysed car accidents, this doesn't seem unreasonable. Just to let you know my reasoning behind my assumed speed, hotshoe.

A little more detail on the scene for all those that are wondering:

The corner on which this occured is fairly blind... difficult to see around, in other words.

The embankment is at about an 80-degree angle to the ground. It is composed of fairly soft soil. I didn't run into it at any kind of perpendicular angle (obviously). Also, I did not hit any trees head-on. I nicked the first tree on the front passenger-side corner (I can tell because a small amount of bark is missing from the tree). The second tree that I hit was also not a head-on collision. I hit it with the same spot on my car, only a little more directly (I can tell because there is more bark missing from this tree, as well as a little chunk of the tree trunk).

The 300 feet of sliding was a rough approximation. It is probably between 200 and 300 feet (closer to 200, now that I think about it more), but I'm not entirely sure.

The third tree that I hit and that caused me to flip back over is just speculation. I have not seen the condition of the tree, nor could I see my car hit it. However, this is what the CHP officer speculated (and seems to make sense... There's really nothing else to have flipped me back over).

...I'll be back to type/say more later, as school is about to end.