A Head On Collision

I like to post about positive, unusual, and uplifting things, but sometimes it's challenging to do that with some stories. Last Tuesday afternoon I did some food shopping in my wife's Subaru, since she was not feeling well.  It went very smoothly until I pulled up to a red light to make a left turn a mile from our house.

I had just arrived there when all of a sudden a small, blue Nissan appeared in my lane and hit me head on.  The picture below is our totaled car.  It's important to note that the impact was in the middle of the front of the car and not to the right where the driver should have been driving in his lane.

The best part of the story is that my chest is very sore, but okay.  The air bags all came out and our emergency call system came on and I had someone calling 911 immediately. Two people stopped to help me and one got my phone so I could call my wife.  My legs are fine and one arm had a bad cut which is healing well.  I didn't hit my head or my legs and my back and neck are okay too.

I did go to the hospital to get checked out.  In the ambulance with me was the 74 year-old man who was driving the blue car.  He seemed to be in even better shape than I was.  At first he said to someone he was hit from behind, but that wasn't true.  He then said he didn't know what happened.  You know it's never a good thing when you clearly see the entire face of a driver right in front of you.  His car also hit another vehicle after hitting mine.  It's possible he moved into his left hand turn lane and then drove right through the light into me.

Everyone I came in contact with was terrific.  They were very helpful, professional, and thorough.  The State Patrolman interviewed me in the hospital and told me that the other guy was given a ticket for running the red light.  He also said that the air bags come on when a car is going 35 mph or more.  I wasn't surprised, he looked like he was shot out of a cannon. The officer actually drove me home and I got to sit in his front seat with his computer pictured below.

Finally, our food was saved by my wife.  Some of the containers were bruised, but not as much as I was.  She had some blackberries all over the car and told me, "I got them all, except one on the ground I left it there." I had a little box of pop tarts that was open and I thought one of the bags of pop tarts had actually "popped" out of the box, but they were all there.  The best news is that the rotisserie chicken was not bruised and it tasted great the following today.

Almost a week later my chest is still sore, but improving.  I have some beautiful colors spread across my belly from the seatbelt.   The car is totaled and our claim is being processed-Geico has been terrific.  A couple of rules for everyone to follow:

1. Always wear a seatbelt

2. Never run a run light.

3. Always be very aware of your surroundings when driving.