Randy Shaver says he's lucky to be alive after 'terrible car accident'

Longtime KARE 11 news anchor Randy Shaver says he is lucky to be alive after being involved in a car crash in the Twin Cities on Tuesday.

"I was in a terrible car accident on Tuesday afternoon on my way to work. To be truthfully honest, I'm lucky to be here," Shaver explained Thursday morning during an appearance on Twin Cities radio station 93X.

There is no information about the crash on the Minnesota State Patrol's public website, but Shaver says it happened in the Maple Grove area on Interstate 694/94 amid rainy conditions when his Ford Thunderbird was clipped by a semi driver.

"I was driving in the rain on 694/94 just west of the Weaver Lake exit and I was in the far right lane and a semi truck tapped my fender of my Thunderbird and sent me into a spinout. I was going 60-65 (mph) and I crashed into the guardrail on my passenger side," Shaver said.

"I'm so lucky that I didn't hit anybody else on my trip across four lanes of traffic. I was lucky a guardrail was there because I could've tumbled down a hill. I've walked away with kind of a sore neck and a couple of scratches, but other than that I'm just damn lucky to be here."

Shaver said he crashed into the guardrail with enough force that the front end of the car was stuck under the guardrail. The car is a total loss.

"I just remember thinking, 'Oh my car.' As dumb as that sounds, this is our vacation car. This is the car my wife and I take on all our road trips. This is the car that for the last 10 years have just loved jumping in and going on these two-week car trips and seeing things. I knew that it was done at that point," he said.

Shaver sat on the side of the road until a good Samaritan stopped. Shaver had a chuckle about thinking the person who stopped was a doctor because he was wearing medical scrubs, but that wasn't quite the case.

"I looked on his chest and it said 'pet hospital,'" Shaver laughed. "But he was so nice to have stopped."

The driver of the semi was not injured, Shaver noted.

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