Editing Stephen King (section)

=== {{anchor|Car_accident_and_thoughts_of_retirement}}Car accident and aftermath ===
On June 19, 1999, at about 4:30&nbsp;pm, King was walking on the shoulder of [[Maine State Route 5]], in [[Lovell, Maine]]. Driver Bryan Edwin Smith, distracted by an unrestrained dog moving in the back of his minivan, struck King, who landed in a depression in the ground about 14 feet (four meters) from the pavement of Route 5.<ref name="UKOnWriting">{{cite book |last1=King |first1=Stephen |title=On Writing: A Memoir |publisher=[[Hodder & Stoughton]] |year=2000 |isbn=0-340-76996-3 |location=London |author-link1=Stephen King}}</ref>{{rp|206}} Early reports at the time from Oxford County Sheriff deputy Matt Baker claimed King was hit from behind, and some witnesses said the driver was not speeding, reckless, or drinking.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.liljas-library.com/accident.html|title=King's accident|publisher=Lijia's Library|access-date=December 3, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050307182428/http://www.liljas-library.com/accident.html|archive-date=March 7, 2005}}</ref> 

However, Smith was later arrested and charged with [[Reckless driving#Maine|driving to endanger]] and aggravated assault. He pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of driving to endanger and was sentenced to six months in county jail (suspended) and had his driving license suspended for a year.<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2000/oct/01/stephenking.fiction1 | title=The writer, the accident, and a lonely end | work=The Guardian | date=October 1, 2002 | access-date=March 11, 2020 | archive-date=October 18, 2020 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201018165249/https://www.theguardian.com/books/2000/oct/01/stephenking.fiction1 | url-status=live }}</ref> In his book ''On Writing'', King states he was heading north, walking against the traffic. Shortly before the accident took place, a woman in a car, also northbound, passed King first followed by a light blue [[Dodge Ram van|Dodge van]]. The van was looping from one side of the road to the other, and the woman told her passenger she hoped "that guy in the van doesn't hit him".<ref name="UKOnWriting" />{{rp|206}}

King was conscious enough to give the deputy phone numbers to contact his family but was in considerable pain. He was transported to Northern Cumberland Hospital in Bridgton and then flown by air ambulance to [[Central Maine Medical Center]] (CMMC) in [[Lewiston, Maine|Lewiston]]. His injuries—a collapsed right lung, multiple fractures of his right leg, scalp laceration and a broken hip—kept him at CMMC until July&nbsp;9. His leg bones were so shattered that doctors initially considered amputating his leg but stabilized the bones in the leg with an [[external fixator]].<ref>Rogak, Lisa. [https://books.google.com/books?id=c8EIvHkg4EYC&pg=PA204 ''Haunted heart: The Life and Times of Stephen King''] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180326102742/https://books.google.com/books?id=c8EIvHkg4EYC&pg=PA204 |date=March 26, 2018}} at [[Google Books]]. Retrieved September 27, 2010.</ref> After five operations in 10 days and [[physical therapy]], King resumed work on ''On Writing'' in July, though his hip was still shattered and he could sit for only about 40 minutes before the pain became unbearable.<ref name="UKOnWriting" />{{rp|216}}

King's wife got in touch with his lawyer to purchase Smith's van, reportedly to prevent it from appearing on [[eBay]]. He recalls: "When I was in the hospital, mostly unconscious; my wife got a lawyer who's just a friend of the family...And she got in touch with him and said, buy it so that somebody else doesn't buy it and decide to break it up and sell it on eBay, on the Internet. And so he did. And for about six months, I did have these, sort of, fantasies of smashing the van up. But my wife – I don't always listen to her the first time, but sooner or later, she usually gets through. And what she says makes more sense than what I had planned. And her thought was that the best thing to do would be to very quietly remove it from this plane of existence, which is what we did."<ref name=":Craft"/>