Friday, March 07, 2008

Counting our Blessings!

Well, the good news is everyone's okay.

The bad news is that our car is likely totalled.

Around 4:30 yesterday, Hubby called me at the office to say that he and the girls had been in an accident. Though he said they were all fine, he also said something about H's neck hurting. I drove as fast as I could to the scene (which was less than 1/2 mile from our house), and pretty much lost it as soon as I saw the ambulances. I was expecting to see the cars and maybe some police, but the ambulance scared the hell out of me....There was basically no calming down until I reached in the car and held my girls.The story is that some idiot tried to pull out across two lanes of traffic to make a left-hand turn, despite traffic to his left being so backed up that he couldn't even tell if the path was clear. Hubby had less than 20 feet of stopping distance, so there was no avoiding a head-on collision. Luckily, he had a feeling, after seeing the traffic backed up, that somebody might just try such a thing, so he slowed down. The weather was awful, 40 degrees, rain, and blustery winds, and they'd been on their way to take E to the doctor's office because she'd woken up from her nap with a 103.8 degree fever (no. seriously. we. cannot. catch. a. break.).The guy at fault admitted his fault-to Hubby and the police officer-and some nice guy actually pulled in to help block traffic because nobody was even slowing down! There were people literally just swerving past the cop cars and ambulance (Can you tell we live in college town?).

So, they towed the car, the police took a report, and unless we get an insurance adjustor to miraculously declare that the repairs can be made for under about $1500, it's almost guaranteed they'll total the car and write us a check. A check that will be no good to us because we won't be able to drive it. We definitely won't be able to get what we had in the Lumina with whatever the insurance company pays.At the end of the day, though, I was just glad to be able to hug my husband and my kids a little bit tighter. It really could've been a lot worse. H has a mild abrasion where the seat belt strap caught her neck, but she'll be fine. She seemed most worried about the airbags not deploying (which was likely due to the lower speed).

Hubby is beyond stressed and still hasn't stopped thinking about the "what-ifs" (what if he'd taken another route? waited five more minutes to leave? etc.), which obviously doesn't do any good, but I'd probably do the same thing if I were in his shoes. I know there's a lesson I/we are supposed to learn in this, so I'm thinking about that and reminding myself that the most important thing is that everyone's okay.

If you're the praying type, though, we could use some good vibes from the Man upstairs!

5 comments:

Unknown said...

Oh how scary. I'm so sorry. I drove by an accident the other day and saw a young woman being loaded into the ambulance. I didn't even know her, and I found myself quietly sobbing for the rest of the ride home. I can't even imagine how you felt when you saw the ambulances.

I'm so glad everyone is okay and that the idiot responsible for the accident has admitted his culpability. I'm sorry about the car though. Car/money stress is ever present in our lives and I know how much it sucks. I hope you are able to find something you like just as much with the insurance money.

supadiscomama said...

I'm so glad that everyone is okay! How scary. Give your family extra hugs from the Supa Clan :)

mgm said...

Glad everyone's physically okay. I can't begin to imagine your panic when you got that phone call. I hope you can find something with your insurance money that can get the job done. I'm sending you good vibes {{here they come}}!

Amy Reads said...

Hi Academama,
Oh my goodness! My thoughts are with the Acadefamily right now.
Ciao,
Amy

Lilian said...

Wow... this must have been just so scary! I worry about car accidents all the time.