Jacques Cousteau led an extraordinary life, producing 120 documentaries, writing over 50 books and winning three Oscars for his feature films about the undersea world. That only occurred because of crashing his father’s Salmson roadster, due to his headlights suddenly going out, when in the hairpins of the Vosges Mountain, racing to attend a friend’s wedding in 1935

driving up the mountain at night, without warning, the headlamps suddenly cut out.

The accident that ended his aviation career left him in a hospital with twelve broken bones, his left arm in five pieces and his right completely paralyzed.

To recuperate, he took up swimming to rebuild strength in his injured arms

In 1950 a member of the Guinness brewing dynasty agreed to lease the Calypso, a former Royal Navy minesweeper, to Cousteau for a symbolic one Franc per year.

Cousteau also invented the first shark cage, the underwater scooter (made famous by the Bond film, Thunderball) and field tested the first proper diving watch, the Rolex Submariner, with a rotating bezel to help divers’ time their ascents and avoid the dreaded ‘bends.’ Cousteau is also credited with building the world’s first decompression chambers.

https://www.motorpunk.co.uk/articles/car-crash-made-jacques-cousteau/

I thought I'd posted this years ago, as I remember the story quite well, and found it fascinating at the time.. but since I couldn't find a trace of a previous post about it, here is it.