Aftermath of the Wreck

It was quite sudden. The weather had been really, really bad when we went to pick up Connor from school...raining hard, a bit windy. It slackened a bit as we escorted him (under our umbrellas) across the street to our Honda. As we headed towards Connor's swim lesson, we debated about whether we should even go. I had been feeling broody and melancholy for most of the day, and really thought that maybe we should just stay home for once. As we rolled past the Junior High, a white SUV pulled out of that school and over into our lane, almost hitting us.

We honked, they swerved, and everyone was fine. I thought "See...maybe we really should stay home today." But the weather was still clearing up, still raining but not nearly as badly as before, so we decided to continue onward.

As it turns out, this was a colossal mistake.

We turned down a busy road, between the local Sam's Club and Best Buy, and were only a couple of blocks away from our destination...when a young fellow and his girlfriend made a left turn directly into our path. No time to dodge, no time to swerve, only time to stomp on the brakes as hard as humanly possible and hope for the best for about 1/4th of second.

You know, I can't even recall exactly what the impact sounded like. I search my memory, and there's just a blank where that sound should be. Hm. I remember that I had actually pushed up out of the seat with both hands (I wasn't driving) and was somehow holding my legs up towards the dashboard in some kind of crazy attempt to brace myself. Yes, I realize the foolishness of such acrobatics, but I didn't have time for a more well-thought out plan of action.

We hit them directly in the side of their vehicle. The jeep rode higher than our Honda, so we hit them in the lower part of the car, which probably saved the passenger's life. We slammed to a stop, and they swerved out and away from us from the force of the impact.

I looked around and checked on everyone...I was ok so far, Connor was already squawking in the back seat "We had a wreck...and we SURVIVED!!" so I knew that he was probably OK, and Christina was shocked and wide-eyed but otherwise seemed fine as well. It took a few seconds to regain my bearings, and then I figured I needed to check on the other guys. I could see that the girl in the passenger seat was crying, and the driver, a young guy in his late teens or early 20's, had come out to check on us as well. So far, so good...no major injuries. Connor somehow slammed his face into the padded back of Christina's seat, but didn't even get a bloody nose for his trouble, and we had nothing to speak of.

So then began the process of calling the police, exchanging insurance information in the rain, watching all the tow-truck drivers flooding the area (really, it was like we were bleeding in the water during shark season) and then finally realizing that we needed to get out of the car and find a safer place to wait.

Connor had somehow changed into his swimsuit in the backseat after the wreck. Whether this was his way of dealing with the sudden shock, or he just thought that we'd still be getting him to swim class on time, I'll never know. But we walked over to sit in one of the tow trucks until everything was sorted out. When he finally saw how badly the Honda had been damaged (honestly, the pics don't do it justice...the front end looks about a foot shorter than I remember), he broke down and cried. Hard. 10 minutes later he was tugging my sleeve. 'Dad...I have to pee!' Pretty resilient, that one. He's playing video games with his mother now. All good.

The young driver was very apologetic and quickly asserted that the wreck was his fault. 'I wasn't paying attention...I didn't even see you guys, I'm sorry.' He cooperated fully with us and with the police, and I don't harbor any ill will towards the guy. I've been on that end of an accident, and if he's anything that resembles a decent human being inside, he's thinking that life absolutely sucks right now. He could have killed us. And he knows it. Some of the tow truck drivers loudly voiced their opinions that he should be clapped in irons and hauled away by the police, but hey, stuff happens. Looks like it was just our turn today.

Officer Terry Thurman, future Harris County Constable and a member of our fabulous Jade Mountain team, was kind enough to come right out and make sure that everyone handled everything properly, and then he drove us home. The other drivers insurance will be taking care of everything.

The fact that we're all OK (and so are the other guys) has made this a lot easier to handle. I'm disappointed, sure, but so very glad that everyone's alive and well. No one's in the hospital with life-threatening injuries, and no one's dead. In light of that fact, I just don't care about the car. A car is just a thing. It has no soul, no life, no spirit. Heck, I can RUN to work if need be...my school's only 5 miles from home, and I could use that as additional conditioning. Or I could ride Dad's scooter. Not in the rain, though, not in the rain.

But the lives of my family are worth a million cars. A billion. I'd walk my feet bloody before I'd spare any emotions for a car over them. So tonight, we we're going to sit at home and be grateful for the days we have together. And we're going to bed early...I think we all could use some rest after such an eventful day.

Here are the pics we've got so far...this is the side of the Jeep.



Not a whole lot of damage there. Oh, the rear window of the Jeep was shattered as well, but that was it. Sorry for the blur, but there was a drop of water on my phone's camera lens, and I didn't know it.

Here's a few shots of the Honda.



Again with the blur...these are NOT action shots. Here's a closer shot of the front end of the car. I'm upgrading my phone tomorrow, by the way. Maybe then I can take decent pics for a change.



And here it is, loaded onto the tow-truck, headed to wherever totaled cars go to die.