Three Seconds to Life Derailment

I suggested that I was busy in a post yesterday, but the busy was compounded by a certain frightening event on Saturday. Note: This is not a pity-party, it's just a story of what happened to me.

I was housesitting/dog sitting through last weekend at a house was 5 minute drive from my home. Saturday morning I wove through sleepy residential streets to go home and make a chocolate cream pie for Sunday dinner. I wasn't in a hurry as I hovered around the 25 MPH speedlimit, thought about chocolate cream, and listened to KRCL playing 60s folk at me, then BOOM! I'm turning and screeching and blurring and adrenaling. 

I took me several beats to comprehend what happened, and my breathing became a little labored as I realized I had been in what appeared to be a pretty bad car wreck. I shoved away everything that had flown from my front seat into my lap (like my giant lap top), put my head in my hands, and asked my brain if I was hurt (a little tingling on the right cheek, a little pain in the left foot). Then I began to shake. 

After that first rush of adrenaline, my eyes were able to focus again as I saw two guys running to the front of my car, but hesitant to get too close. I got out of my car, and the very first thing I did was check to see if I had missed a stop sign. I checked four times. I was driving south to north, the other driver (an 18 year old girl) was driving east to west, when she ran a yield and T-boned my car right good. There was no signage on my south to north part of the intersection, so at least I didn't have the guilt of being at fault to deal with.

At this point there are about 15 other people there (who all oddly disappeared before the police got there), but the first thing I did was call my dad since he was only two blocks away. I then called non-emergency police, because neither of us were injured, and as I talked to dispatch my dad turned the corner. It was then that I began to sob. Isn't it weird how you can often be so stoic and practical in a crisis until someone you love shows up then you fall to pieces? 

Hilariously the two guys that had run to my car gathered up my hubcap and put it in my back seat, then one asked me if it was okay if he turned off my car, then they had a footrace back to their house.

Later an officer told me that it looked like the other driver was going at least 25 MPH, and there were no skid marks or indications that she was slowing or breaking. The only two things she said to me were, "I didn't see you," and "They should put up stop signs here." A yield is a stop for you when someone is coming, girlie. She was also coming from her grandma's house, so she was certainly familiar with the street. My personal conclusion was that she was texting, but I can never prove that, and she certainly didn't admit it. 

The crazy-lucky thing about the accident was that I didn't see her coming, not even in my peripheral, so I didn't tense up or have any fear before impact. I think that really saved me from having worse injuries and extreme soreness. I have three visible bruises: One big one all over my left shoulder and arm (probably from my seatbelt), one the size of a dime on my right calf, and one the size of an orange on my right thigh. I'm also slightly muscle-sore all over, and a bunch of skin somehow got scraped off the top of my left foot; it didn't even bleed but it still stings like nobody's business. I'm going to the doctor today to get a "just in case" assessment, but my body feels oddly fine. Because I had no terrible injuries, the worst part was the adrenaline. I don't know how people can be adrenaline junkies, because it was awful. At one point I thought I might even barf. After about an hour of the shakes, I was absolutely freezing for 3 hours, and completely exhausted for two days and I'm still running a little tired now.

As to my car, they will likely total it. Once that mid beam (?) gets bent, you can't fix it, and the car loses it's structural integrity. You bet your bottom dollar I will post any new-to-me cars I may acquire in this process. In the meantime, here are some pics of my car of 11 years after the accident.

As she pushed my car sideways, all the rubber ripped of my tire.
As my brother Dave said, "Tires don't like to go sideways."

Front view of the crash. 

Back view. Both doors popped out of their frames.

You can see the back of the yield she ran, and you can see just how far she pushed me.
I'm almost in the gutter on the  opposite side of the street.

The damage after her car was pulled away. Glad I didn't have a passenger.