September 24, 2005
Our Protector
Darla commutes more than 35 miles one way for work each day, and I'm on the road a lot myself, so we frequently pray for safety while we drive. Those prayers have always been answered, and the Lord made sure we'd remember that yesterday afternoon.
After a month or more without any real rainfall, we had a tremendous storm yesterday afternoon in our area. It brought over an inch of rain in an hour or so. Strong wind gusts brought down numerous trees. The storm quickly passed, and I went out to get some photos of the damage. As I was out, I listened for any storm-related scanner traffic. Our fire and rescue departments were working two auto accidents, and I was headed to the scene of one of them on a back country road.
As I came around a curve in the road, I saw a Jetta coming the opposite direction in my lane. I had an embankment going up on my right, so I had nowhere to go, and my tires couldn't get much traction on the wet road. (An empty truck bed didn't help hold the tires to the road.)
The collision was inevitable, and it was quite violent.
My truck lost the front driver's side wheel and I plowed across the curve into a ditch. I put the truck in park and turned it off and got out to check on the other driver. I was afraid of what I might find.
I saw the Jetta down in a farm field, and the driver was climbing out the window. I quickly made sure she was okay, and I made sure she was the only one in the car. She didn't have a cell phone, so I went ahead and called 911 for law enforcement. Knowing the fire department was already committed, I assured the dispatcher that there were no injuries (both of us were walking around) and that I didn't think there was any fire hazard from leaking fluids. Because of that report, only a sheriff's deputy responded.
While we were there, the fire department was called to a third wreck, so I was glad we weren't diverting their resources.
Soon some nearby residents came to check on us after hearing the collision, and they were very helpful. They even gave me a ride home when everything wrapped up.
The girl was about the age of my younger brother. Considering the circumstances, she was very pleasant. She lived nearby and one of the bystanders got her husband to come down. It was her first accident ever. I'd been in a couple others, but never as the driver. Her nervous reaction, to my benefit, was to talk a lot. She told the deputy exactly what happened: she was driving too fast and in my lane on the curve. I confirmed her story, and she was eventually ticketed.
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It's funny how fast the mind can think when something bad is happening. At the point I realized we were going to hit, my brain was in overdrive.
This is going to be messy. I wonder what kind of leg injury I'm about to get. I hope I don't get pinned because I'm going to need to check on that other driver... It'll be a long rehab, but I've done it with knee reconstruction before.
It continued after the initial jolt and several feet of momentum carrying the truck down the road.
There went the front wheel. That's not good. I'm not hurt, but I'm not driving away from this. I hope the other driver is okay. I had the bigger vehicle and I don't know exactly where I hit her front end. All right, just slide off the road. That dirt mound will stop me shortly. Huh. That was kinda soft earth I just plowed through... Hmm. My airbag didn't deploy.
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Apparently the other driver must have swerved to her right at some point, because initially we were bound for a messy, full head-on collision. Instead, my truck must have ridden up her fender and come back down in a glancing blow. At some point, the wheel must have turned and the landing helped rip it off, where it went 15 feet or so to the side and stopped in the road.
The other driver's airbags never deployed either, which was a little puzzling. Her front end was damaged, but most of the damage was on the fender. The bottom corner of the driver's side windshield was broken and her left mirror was gone.
My truck was obviously worse off.
The loss of the wheel helped show that I was indeed in my lane when we collided. Some metal under truck on the left corner left a nice indentation on the asphalt and scraped the entire path as I plowed across the road into the ditch.
Not to scale
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I got home to Darla, and of course, she was relieved to see me and hear the story. I had to scarf down a meal of baked chicken and saffron rice before heading out to the local homecoming football game. I was hungry, but of course had no appetite. The food was good, and I looked forward to the leftovers (which I've since enjoyed). I wasn't wild about having to go cover such a big game in such a state, but I did my duty and went.
Turned out the home team won (which I didn't expect). It was a perfect game to write about, with the local boys mounting a large comeback, tying the game with a long field goal with seconds left in regulation. They went on to win in the subsequent overtime. Four games into the season, the team has more wins than it got in either of the last two seasons.
I also didn't expect that the stressful coverage would help me relax and get my mind off the wreck, but it did. By the end of the game, just that was enough to make me glad I'd gone.
(In an interesting aside, the deputy who worked my accident was in a sheriff's department color guard at the start of the football game. We greeted each other with familiarity, and I told him I was glad I didn't prevent him from getting to the game.)
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Considering what I know could have happened in the collision, I know the Lord was watching over me yesterday afternoon. Neither of us was really hurt. The other driver had a little blood on her neck where her seatbelt ripped the skin. I had no injuries, although I discovered a non-bloody seatbelt burn on my neck after I got home.
I may still get sore; we'll just have to see. But I know it could be worse, and I'm grateful.
Because he holds fast to me in love, I will deliver him; I will protect him, because he knows my name. Ps. 91:14
