Airman to Airman: <b>Lucky to be Alive</b> Published July 30, 2014 By Kim Brumley Staff Writer Fall 2014 -- "On 20 April 2012, I was involved in a near fatal car accident. The decisions I made that night have forever changed my life and negatively impacted my career. It was a horrific experience that I am still dealing with to this day," said SSgt Richard Mahan. While going through a divorce and the rough times that followed, SSgt Mahan's friends decided to take him out for a few drinks to blow off some steam that fateful night. "The Air Force has beaten into us to always have a plan and always have a designated driver (DD)," he said. Therefore, the group was prepared and had a DD in place before heading out to the bar. Watching the Nuggets in the playoffs, the group sat at the bar drinking for a few hours before proceeding to a grand opening at a night club. After a few more hours of drinking, the DD grew tired and cut out early, so Mahan and his friend decided they would just call a taxi for a ride home. As Mahan stood in the parking lot, searching on his phone for a cab company to call, another friend came out of the bar and offered them a ride. "Reluctantly, we said, 'Yeah, that's a great idea. We'll just get a cab from your house because it's closer to base and it will be cheaper.' We regrettably got into his car, not knowing he was intoxicated." Only a few miles down the road, the driver lost control going 70 miles an hour and the car struck a brick pillar. SSgt Mahan sustained severe head injuries and was rushed to a trauma center, where a tracheal tube was put down his throat and attached to a machine that artificially breathed for him. He was then given a CAT scan to see if he was brain dead. "When I awoke the next day, I had a catheter and staples and sutures all through the left side and back of my head," he said. Mahan had been sitting in the back seat, and his friend in the passenger seat had severe head injuries, broke his back and leg, and lost a finger. "It's a miracle that any of us are alive to tell this story," said Mahan. In the days following the accident, SSgt Mahan was in and out of consciousness and could not remember any part of the wreck. The next full year, he went through cognitive therapy "to learn how to get my memory back and how to utilize my brain again." Initially, he didn't realize how serious the injuries were. "Have you heard the expression: it's hard to see the picture when you're inside the frame?" he asked. "I didn't think anything was wrong with me." After retesting at the end of the year, he could see a remarkable improvement in his cognitive skills. Through the entire ordeal, he was fortunate to have extremely supportive parents that stayed with him during his recovery process. As a newly single dad, Mahan could not have cared for his two-year-old son independently due to his injuries, but with his mother there to help, he was able to see his young son. The accident also affected his Air Force career, as he lost his Aeronautical Orders indefinitely and is now unable to perform his duties as a C-17 Loadmaster. "I still haven't flown since the accident. With this ERB, I'm probably going to be a civilian next year--I'm stratted last in my squadron because I haven't flown," he said. Although SSgt Mahan is unable to fly, he is making the most of the experience by sharing his story with other Airmen as a representative of the Airman-to-Airmen (A2A) Safety Advisory Council. The A2A council is a group of Airmen who have had an unfortunate experience or accident and are willing to brief peers in an effort to prevent similar mishaps. "You sit through these briefings and you think this is never going to happen to you," he said. Mahan admits that he, too, thought it would never happen to him because he always had a plan. He now knows that because plans change, it could and did happen to him. He said the more variables that you introduce, the more your plan is improvised, so you can't always rely on the plan you made at the beginning of the night to work at the end of the night. Mahan said that prior to the accident, "My thoughts were never toward safety. I was only concerned about getting in trouble. I didn't want to get into trouble, so I thought I just wouldn't drive. But that's completely changed. You might not get into trouble, but you could lose your life or hurt someone else. I'm lucky to even be alive."