If you’ve been dreaming about car accidents, according to professional dream interpreter Lauri Loewenberg, it’s likely that something in your life has come to a sudden (and potentially messy) stop. As she explains, “Cars take us places, they move forward, so they usually represent something in progress and moving forward, whether that’s a relationship, career project, or a health goal.”

So for the car to crash, then, represents a sudden ending—or perhaps an extended pause—on whatever that situation is in your real life. But it can also relate to literal accidents or mistakes you’ve made, with Loewenberg noting that if you “wrecked” something in your life, it would make sense to dream of wrecking your car.

And sometimes, she adds, our dreams can be a reflection of our emotional state as well. In some cases, car crash dreams can also be connected to an energetic or emotional “crash” you’re feeling in your life (i.e. feeling burned out or exhausted).

That said, here’s a deeper dive into more specific scenarios, depending on what exactly happened in your dream.