Yesterday on the way home from church we were rear-ended at a red light. It was early afternoon and the kids were sleepy. The drive had been peaceful up till that point. We were on Parmer, which is like a freeway with a 60 mph speed limit. The other driver smashed into us, careened into a sign and finally came to a rest in the median. Jonathan was driving, and I turned my head to check on Corinna who had just fallen asleep when BAM! Our car lurched forward into the intersection. Jonathan was able to safely pull it to the right side of the road about 150 yards from the intersection. The impact turned the back glass to powder and the kids jolted awake screaming and crying.
We are OKAY. Mostly.
Melissa hurt her hip and had a mild bloody nose, Matthew complains today of some neck stiffness, and Jonathan and I are both a little sore too. I think I pulled a muscle in my neck due to having it craned to the side when the impact happened.
The other driver left in an ambulance. We hope and pray she is okay. We saw her get out of the car, but we could not cross the busy road. Just minutes later, EMS pulled up and she was whisked away. We don't have any other details.
A good Samaritan saw the accident with her kids and pulled over to help us. She stayed with us until the EMS and police arrived and then took our older three children back home. The kids were pretty traumatized and were glad to get back to the house to Grandma and Grandpa Ellis. Unfortunately Jonathan's parents couldn't pick us up because Jonathan's car only seats 2. Someone in a white shirt and tie from the stake saw us and pulled over. He asked if there was anything he could do, did we need a ride, and were we by chance Mormon? At that point I had already called a friend and he was on his way, but it was nice that so many good people were looking after us.
The kids are already putting in their feature requests for a new car. Mainly they are interested in a DVD player. Today we picked up a behemoth SUV rental car since the company was out of minivans. The good news is the other driver's insurance is covering the cost of the rental. The bad news is they only cover it until the car is "fixed" or declared a total loss. The agent said that our car would likely be declared a loss tomorrow so after that the rental cost is on us until we can find another car.
2 comments:
Oh awful! I'm so sorry to hear this! I can totally empathize... although mine was at a much slower speed. You poor people. *hug* I hope all of the injuries go away quickly and you don't have any lingering physical issues or trouble with insurance. I wonder if the other driver was drunk. Thinking of you...
Thanks. So far we seem to be recovering nicely. We were all prepared to go to battle with the other driver's insurance, but they gave us a fair replacement price on the Honda. The police report is sealed for the first 30 days after an accident so we won't know any more details until then.
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