I am no sure that I believe the guy’s story.
For this to happen, the woman would have had to release the safety of a loaded gun ( unless it was a revolver) and been poiting it at herself, at the time the guy swerved and hit the other vehicle.
Uh, they were in an accident.
It is completely possible for the gun to end up pointing at her and hit in such a way to fire, never mind if her finger was on it.
Why does everyone assume safeties are on in these stories?
I suspect alcohol may have been involved...
Not really, there are semi-auto hand guns (Glocks for instance) that have the “safety mechanism” built into the trigger. By initially squeezing the trigger the safety is released, further squeezing of the trigger, the gun will fire. If the woman had her finger on the trigger when the car swerved or collided with another, her reaction could have been to tighten her grip on the weapon to keep from dropping it, thus accidentally firing it, thus shooting herself. Speculation on my part? Perhaps but I can see this happening.