Dax Shepard Recounts Shocking Near-Death Experience: ‘I’m Going to Die in a Second’

Dax Shepard shared the story of a harrowing near-death experience he had in his youth, which he admits inspired an odd sense of calm during a dire moment.

The actor, 51, told the story during a conversation with Kaley Cuoco on the February 9 episode of his Armchair Expert podcast. The duo was discussing near-death experiences when he recounted a car accident he was in on 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. Are you good to drive?’” he explained.

The friend said he was fine, but as Shepard was dozing off in the back seat, he started to hear gravel on the side of the car. The CHiPs actor said he looked up and saw his friend “completely 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 recalled. “It’s just pine trees lining that interstate in Michigan, and 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,” he 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.’ And I definitely had this moment where I was like, ‘Oh, wow, I’m going to die in a second.’”

Despite literally rolling in the car and feeling like they were going to slam into a tree and die at any second, Shepard says he felt a feeling that was “shockingly comforting” and had a sense of “total peace.” 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 explained to a shocked Cuoco. “The whole nine yards.”