Crashing Cars

On Thursday, I got into a car accident on my way to pick up Rocky from school.  I was driving about 45 mph in the westbound lane when a Hyundai, coming from the eastbound lane, decided to make a left turn in front of me.  I saw the car inching out as I approached and said out loud, "what are you doing?  Please stop."  I laid into the horn and instead of stopping, the car decided to pull out just a few feet in front of me.  There was nothing I could do but brace myself for impact.  

As I tightly held the steering wheel and stomped on the brake, I heard a loud crash and saw a bunch of white smoke.  My air bag deployed.  By the time I realized where I was and the car had come to a stop, I was in the furthest most right hand lane, which was 2 lanes away from where I was originally.  The car I hit was thrown over the curb onto the grass about 100 yards behind me.  

I usually manage to stay very calm in high stress situations and pulled my car into the USPS parking lot nearby to avoid any further accidents.  Then, I ran over to check on the other car's driver.  She and her passengers were bawling as they got out of the car and talking on cell phones.  They couldn't even get off the phone when I asked them if they were OK and whether or not they needed an ambulance or tow truck.  

I walked away from the crash with chemical and friction burns on my hands from the air bag and jittery nerves, but am doing well.  The other driver and her passengers are fine too.  

There's a salt preservative used with air bags to keep them from disintegrating which seared itself into my skin.  My hands felt like a rug burn times one thousand, then dipped in salt water.  There was nothing the paramedics could do other than tell me to scrub my hands with soap and water to get the preservative off.  Washing my hands was tremendously painful.  They're still in pain today, but much better.

Day Two

One of the toughest things about this crash was the feeling of being alone.  Life still goes on and kids need to be picked up, so while I'm sure Jared wanted to stay with me, he grabbed the car seat and went to get the kids.  All I wanted to do was go home and crawl into bed.  Instead, I had to be a grown up and deal with the police, drop off my car at the body shop, talk to the insurance companies, and rent a car.  Over four hours later, I had to drive myself home past the site of the accident.  

I'm still feeling anxious, but honestly, have nothing to complain about because I was very lucky.  First of all, I walked away with minor injuries.  Secondly, the kids were not with me.  Finally, there was no on-coming traffic as my car drifted through the other lanes.  It could have been much worse.

If all goes as planned, I'll find out what's going to happen to our family workhorse, my wonderful MDX, on Monday.  I am ready to move forward and put this whole thing behind me.