Thank God for Seatbelts and Child Seats
Apr 15, 2007 17:28:57 GMT -5
Post by Pun on Apr 15, 2007 17:28:57 GMT -5
What a way to end our vacation! I am typing this up on my phone in the back of my in-law's van after having spent the last 2 hours dealing with police, EMT's, et. al. After driving almost 1400 miles to Florida and back over the last week, we were 90 miles from home and got into an accident.
Jennifer was driving and I was asleep in the passenger seat. The winds were pretty strong today (I was told gusts up to 60 mph), so I think a strong gust of wind caused Jennifer to veer to the median on the left. She overcompensated and jerked the steering wheel too hard to the right and lost control of the van. I woke up with her screaming and the image of an embankment coming at the front of the van. Jenn was able to turn the wheel just enough to graze the hill, but we took out a sign along the way.
The front end of the van is pretty fucked up and we lost the back bumper, but aside from that, we are fine. The airbags did not deploy and we did not roll over, so we were lucky in that regard. We were also pretty lucky there was not any traffic behind us, because things could have been even worse there.
The EMT's checked us all out and did not find anything wrong. We even called Jenn's OB-GYN, but she said as long as there were no abdominal pains, we didn't need to go to the hospital. We still have our appointment to find out the sex of the new baby tomorrow, so we will check out things then.
Anna was asleep in her car seat, which was probably for the best. She woke up after we hit the sign. She was crying more because mommy was crying, not because she was hurt. She is laughing and playing with grandma right now, though, so she seems to be OK.
All in all, things could have been 1000x worse, so to only have a totaled van is a godsend. Just goes to show why seatbelts really do save lives.
I got some pictures as the van was being pulled onto the tow truck. I will try to post them ASAP.
Jennifer was driving and I was asleep in the passenger seat. The winds were pretty strong today (I was told gusts up to 60 mph), so I think a strong gust of wind caused Jennifer to veer to the median on the left. She overcompensated and jerked the steering wheel too hard to the right and lost control of the van. I woke up with her screaming and the image of an embankment coming at the front of the van. Jenn was able to turn the wheel just enough to graze the hill, but we took out a sign along the way.
The front end of the van is pretty fucked up and we lost the back bumper, but aside from that, we are fine. The airbags did not deploy and we did not roll over, so we were lucky in that regard. We were also pretty lucky there was not any traffic behind us, because things could have been even worse there.
The EMT's checked us all out and did not find anything wrong. We even called Jenn's OB-GYN, but she said as long as there were no abdominal pains, we didn't need to go to the hospital. We still have our appointment to find out the sex of the new baby tomorrow, so we will check out things then.
Anna was asleep in her car seat, which was probably for the best. She woke up after we hit the sign. She was crying more because mommy was crying, not because she was hurt. She is laughing and playing with grandma right now, though, so she seems to be OK.
All in all, things could have been 1000x worse, so to only have a totaled van is a godsend. Just goes to show why seatbelts really do save lives.
I got some pictures as the van was being pulled onto the tow truck. I will try to post them ASAP.
