Friday, September 4, 2009

Another miracle - I'm spared again

Yesterday on the way home from work I decided to stop in at Walmart (sorry Kenny) to get a couple of things. I decided to turn left from Hill Field Road in the parking lot from the North. I was heading west and the eastbound traffic was backed up clear to the light in front of the DI. The light they were all heading to had turned red again so they weren't going anywhere. On coming traffic were kind enough to leave a gap for me to turn left. There are two lanes of traffic and both had stopped and left me a gap to turn.

I started through the gap when all of a sudden BOOM! Some guy sped through the outside turn lane and hit me probably around 30 mph. He was really going fast. He hit me right on the front right corner. The impact pushed my car clear to the other side of the turn lane. We almost hit another car pulling out of the Wal-mart parking lot, but missed it by inches. I just sat in the car with my hands on the wheel for a good 30 seconds. I knew that people often react too quickly and shock settles in. So I decided to sit there, and do a very careful mental assessment and inventory of my physical state. I was unharmed. The other driver got out of his car and asked through my window if I was OK. I also asked if he was OK. Both of us were unharmed.

I was fearful that I had done something wrong, but realized that it was clearly his fault. He was speeding around stopped traffic and had gone straight through the outside shoulder which was supposed to be for turning in and out of Walmart.

My car had stopped at the impact. It struggled to start back up, but I tried moving and it sounded like an old man with a broken ankle and wouldn't move. So we both pushed it off the side of the road and onto the sidewalk. His car was able to move, but the windshield was completely shattered and both air bags deployed. It was obvious that because both cars were fairly aged, this totaled both of them.

I called 911 and within 20 minutes an officer arrived. I called Lyn Baskum's office and his assistant told me to take pictures and get names and numbers of witnesses. There were three kind people who stopped and made statements for the officer as witnesses. One of them also had a camera phone and took these images. The other driver's mother came and was kind. She didn't try to blame me and wasn't mean to her son either. She did ask him, "So did you get a ticket yet?" I didn't hear the answer, but the officer did tell me that his insurance card was expired and he would be cited for that. His mother told us that it was still active, just an expired card.

Anyhow..... I'm fine and thankful to again be alive. Although this accident was more unlikely to result in death, I was left completely unharmed and not even sore from this. My head did hit my arm, but not even bruise or soreness. Very blessed.

1 comment:

Elayna said...

Gord, I am sorry. Accidents can be very traumatic, I am glad that no one was hurt though. I still can not get off teh 7th North exit without checking my rearview mirror like 10 times. Let me know if you need help pricing cars out or anything.