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Actor Dax Shepard recently recounted a terrifying incident from his past when he came dangerously close to losing his life. In his youth, Shepard was a passenger in a car that flipped over approximately ten times while he was resting in the back seat.
The CHiPs actor, 51, told the story during a conversation with Kaley Cuoco on the February 9 episode of his Armchair Expert podcast. While discussing people who have near-death experiences and what they felt before and after, Shepard recounted a car accident he was in during a drive from Toledo to Detroit with a friend.
Recalling the fateful night, Shepard shared, “I had to work really early the next morning, so I decided to catch some sleep in the back seat and asked my friend if he was okay to drive.” Assured by his friend that he was fine, Shepard began to drift off to sleep.
However, his rest was interrupted when he heard the unsettling sound of gravel against the side of the car. Looking up, Shepard saw his friend, the driver, slumped over in the seat as the vehicle veered off the road at a speed of 85 miles per hour.
Describing the moment, Shepard said, “The car started going sideways, and I reached over the wheel to try and regain control, but I realized it was too late.” He made the decision to lay back down as the car launched into the air, beginning its violent roll down the highway.
As the father of two daughters, Lincoln, 12, and Delta, 11, with his wife Kristen Bell, Shepard vividly remembered the harrowing experience, “In those moments, I was bracing for impact, expecting to crash into a tree.”
“I’m like, ‘We’re gonna hit a tree and that’s going to be that,’” he admitted. “And I definitely had this moment where I was like, ‘Oh, wow, I’m going to die in a second.’”
According to Shepard, even though he believed the end was near, he felt “shockingly comfortable” and a sense of “total peace” at the time. He believes his brain released a chemical that took over and allowed him not to panic.
Luckily, he and his friend managed to survive the crash relatively unscathed.
“And then we just rolled 10 times. Ended up upside down. We did not hit a tree. The car was flat. We crawled out the windows,” he added. “The whole nine yards.”