I've broken a few ribs in my life, and it just knocked the wind out of me; as soon as I was able to start breathing again, I was pretty much OK, as long as I didn't sneeze, or laugh. However, I took a nasty fall down the steps from my bedroom, in the morning when I first got up--my socks slipped on the hardwood floor, just as I was getting ready to take that first step, right at the top of the stairs. I managed to catch the metal railing on the right, at the edge of the bedroom, and I hit on my ribs on my right side, towards my back. It was quite a ride. My right arm was severely bruised, from hitting the railing, and the stairs, and I was stretched out, trying to slide downstairs, and I couldn't roll, to either my right, or far enough to my left, to catch the bannister, to enable me to get my feet to catch on the stairs; my ribs (multiple) felt as if they were broken. So, not being able to do anything, I had to let go, and slide the rest of the way down the stairs. There 17 stairs on that staircase; I was counting them one bump at a time on the way down, cringing each time I did.
Surprisingly, once I was able to get up, and started breathing again, I was OK........................
That was until about 7:00PM that evening when I did something, and all of sudden, I had this level 10 pain, with cramping of my my right side, lower rib cage. After about 20 minutes of, totally out of control pain, and after 2 minutes of respite, it happened again for another 20 minutes. I decided that I needed to go to emergency--thought of 911 but I didn't want the embarassment; I was even embarassed, to have to tell anyone about falling down the steps.
I was in emergency all night, X-rays, Catscan, and lots of morphine. Just before my catscan, because I still couldn't relax my right side, they gave me a triple shot of morphine, and after that, they gave me prescriptions for some heavy duty pain pills, and muscle relaxants, and told me I couldn't leave, and had to call to have someone come and pick me up, at 5:30AM. After about 10 minutes, I told the watchdog nurse, that my ride was on its way, and I was just going to run--LOL, I could barely walk, down to the pharmacy, and she nodded OK, and so after I got my prescription filled, I just snuck on out to my car.
That was great pain medication. I felt sore every morning for a week, or so, but it wasn't bad. The medication was set up as 2 pills day for a week, one pill a day for another week, and then a half a pill for another week. The day I stopped the medication I got another sharp pain, but it only lasted for five seconds, or so. So, I was very careful to protect that area, for a couple of more weeks, and I only had a few mild tinges.
I am very careful at the top of those steps now; I leave my socks, and my bedroom sheepskin boot slippers downstairs now, and have, ever since that time.
One of the tough lessons of life.
Did you consider the danger to the other drivers on the road? Hmmm...I wonder if they could still sue you for the emotional distress of what might have happened. 
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