Oh wow that is awful. I know I guy who was alot more lucky but had a similar experience. He built this badass 69 camero is was absolutely beautiful. But he put all his money in the body and engine. When it was all said and done he had a 600+hp 454 big block with 40 year old manual steering and x4 drum brakes! He hadn't even put it on the road yet (so no tags no insurance) and decided to take it for a test spin on his road and he got going way to fast and when he hit the brakes they locked!! He wrapped it around a tree and completely totaled it. But he was fortunate to walk away unharmed other than a headache! And about 20k poorer.
