Dax Shepard Looks Back on Car Accident That Almost Killed Him: ‘I’m Going to Die in a Second’

Dax Shepard has opened up about his near-death experience when a car he was in when he was younger flipped some ten times while he was laying down 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. “It was late at night and I had to work super early in the morning, so I go, ‘Hey, I’m gonna sleep in the back,’” he began. “Are you good to drive?” Although the unidentified friend said he was fine, Shepard recalled he was beginning to fall asleep in the back seat when he started to hear gravel on the side of the car. When he eventually looked up, he recalled seeing his friend “slumped over” in the driver’s seat. “We had gone off the road and we’re going 85 and the card started to go sideways,” he explained of the horrifying experience. “I started to go over the wheel to grab [it], and there’s a moment where I knew it was just too far gone.” “I laid back down and we just launched in the air and we started rolling down the highway,” the dad of two — who shares daughters Lincoln, 12, and Delta, 11, with wife Kristen Bell — continued. “And, as this was happening, I’m waiting to just hit 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.”