R.I.P. The Beast ...or... Lifts are Fucking Dangerous!
I was in my first car accident ever last night, and was it a doozy! Pi and I are fine, but the truck is totaled.
We spent the day working on a project we've been helping with for two weeks, then went to the city and performed at Spin THIS! with Krissy and V, the latter of whom just came along to support K in her first performance, but since she's an amazing poi spinner we got her to burn with us, too. V had met a girl from Russia that day who is visiting SF - she's an English major and speaks perfectly, and is a wonderful girl...I had so much fun dancing to the dark beatz with them.
Pi wasn't up for getting on the road yet, so he went to lay down in the truck for a while, and K & the Russian girl left in a cab. V and I hung outside the truck and started playing with my hoop, and some kids saw us and stopped to talk and play. When they learned that we were fire dancers, they invited us to spin fire on the roof at a party they were headed to around the corner. After checking in with Pi, we went over there and burned for a fairly large audience, then chatted a while with the kids who'd brought us over - turns out this will be their first year on the playa - then went back to check on my sleeping boyfriend. He wasn't up for driving, so I offered to. I dropped V off at her place, then as I was turning the corner there was loud scraping noise as if I'd scraped against the pickup parked on the corner...but I knew I'd cleared it with plenty of room. We should have paid attention to that warning...we didn't.
Mind you, I'd never driven this thing on the freeway before, and it is not an easy vehicle to handle. The lift is huge, and the truck bounces around whenever it hits a bump, threatening to change lanes on its own. So we get up to the approach to the bridge, and I'm in the right lane, going pretty slow because of the way that the truck handles. Suddenly, the truck bounces and scrapes against the barrier on the right. I try to straighten it and keep it on the road, but it feels like it jumps over and hooks onto the barrier (which is unlikely, as the barrier was fairly tall), and won't let go...and then comes the light post. SLAM! The truck tips over onto the driver's side. Junk rains down on me. Pi and I determine that we're both fine, but he is suspended right above me, held in his seat by the seatbelt, and can't get out. I get up, breaking the driver's side window as I step on it, and manage to undo his belt, and, freed, he falls directly on top of me. Getting up, we see a couple of guys who'd stopped to help, and they and/or Pi get the passenger door open above us, and we climb out, keeping an eye on the liquid draining out from under the front of the truck. Mind you, I'm still dressed skimpy from the shows, so I make sure to grab my backpack so I can put some friggin clothes on.
The truck is a fucking wreck. The leaf springs were detached from the truck, as were two wheels kittycorner from each other. The front was caved in. The big heavy roof rack came off completely. Bridge Patrol and the CHP are on the scene directly (glad this happened by the bridge of all places, where there are emergency officials at all times). They were really nice, took our information, reassured us how lucky we were to not be hurt; said that most accidents of this sort that they come upon already have an ambulance leaving the scene with victims. I got a breathalyzer test (oooh, my first) - the legal limit is 0.08, and I came in at 0.007. It is of the opinion of one of the CHP officers that no collision like this could detach the springs like that, and that the springs loosening/detaching is what caused the truck to bounce over like that. Fortunately it happened at 4 o'clock Sunday morning, so there was no one else around...'cause it could have been SO much worse.
Pi was in shock, staring at the truck and unable to form complete sentences. He's put so much energy into this thing, and to see it wrecked obviously broke his heart. He was calling it his baby, and shed tears for its demise. He was also in shock 'cause, fuck, a rollerover is a scary thing to be in. Meanwhile, I was calm, reassuring my poor shaking boyfriend, explaining to CHP what I'd experienced the truck do, taking photos of the mess. One of the officers said that he knows who he'd want around in an emergency, indicating me. I've been told this before. Even as the accident was happening, I was okay...I experienced it, but there was no rush to it, no panic, no fear. I guarantee that it would have been otherwise had I been injured; I don't do pain well.
They righted the truck, and brought it and us over to the Palace of Fine Arts parking lot, where we were able to get our stuff out and meet up with a tow truck and a cab. We got home at 6:15am, slept for several hours, and have been up since trying to figure out how we're getting to the playa in a week. It was a good truck, huge, fun, impressive-looking...but it was also a gas-guzzling death trap. This was the second time that we were almost killed on the approach to the bridge in that thing. It's better that this happened the way it did and not on our way to the playa where something more serious could have occurred. And I'm thankful that my sweetie, though shaken, is alright.
We spent the day working on a project we've been helping with for two weeks, then went to the city and performed at Spin THIS! with Krissy and V, the latter of whom just came along to support K in her first performance, but since she's an amazing poi spinner we got her to burn with us, too. V had met a girl from Russia that day who is visiting SF - she's an English major and speaks perfectly, and is a wonderful girl...I had so much fun dancing to the dark beatz with them.
Pi wasn't up for getting on the road yet, so he went to lay down in the truck for a while, and K & the Russian girl left in a cab. V and I hung outside the truck and started playing with my hoop, and some kids saw us and stopped to talk and play. When they learned that we were fire dancers, they invited us to spin fire on the roof at a party they were headed to around the corner. After checking in with Pi, we went over there and burned for a fairly large audience, then chatted a while with the kids who'd brought us over - turns out this will be their first year on the playa - then went back to check on my sleeping boyfriend. He wasn't up for driving, so I offered to. I dropped V off at her place, then as I was turning the corner there was loud scraping noise as if I'd scraped against the pickup parked on the corner...but I knew I'd cleared it with plenty of room. We should have paid attention to that warning...we didn't.
Mind you, I'd never driven this thing on the freeway before, and it is not an easy vehicle to handle. The lift is huge, and the truck bounces around whenever it hits a bump, threatening to change lanes on its own. So we get up to the approach to the bridge, and I'm in the right lane, going pretty slow because of the way that the truck handles. Suddenly, the truck bounces and scrapes against the barrier on the right. I try to straighten it and keep it on the road, but it feels like it jumps over and hooks onto the barrier (which is unlikely, as the barrier was fairly tall), and won't let go...and then comes the light post. SLAM! The truck tips over onto the driver's side. Junk rains down on me. Pi and I determine that we're both fine, but he is suspended right above me, held in his seat by the seatbelt, and can't get out. I get up, breaking the driver's side window as I step on it, and manage to undo his belt, and, freed, he falls directly on top of me. Getting up, we see a couple of guys who'd stopped to help, and they and/or Pi get the passenger door open above us, and we climb out, keeping an eye on the liquid draining out from under the front of the truck. Mind you, I'm still dressed skimpy from the shows, so I make sure to grab my backpack so I can put some friggin clothes on.
The truck is a fucking wreck. The leaf springs were detached from the truck, as were two wheels kittycorner from each other. The front was caved in. The big heavy roof rack came off completely. Bridge Patrol and the CHP are on the scene directly (glad this happened by the bridge of all places, where there are emergency officials at all times). They were really nice, took our information, reassured us how lucky we were to not be hurt; said that most accidents of this sort that they come upon already have an ambulance leaving the scene with victims. I got a breathalyzer test (oooh, my first) - the legal limit is 0.08, and I came in at 0.007. It is of the opinion of one of the CHP officers that no collision like this could detach the springs like that, and that the springs loosening/detaching is what caused the truck to bounce over like that. Fortunately it happened at 4 o'clock Sunday morning, so there was no one else around...'cause it could have been SO much worse.
Pi was in shock, staring at the truck and unable to form complete sentences. He's put so much energy into this thing, and to see it wrecked obviously broke his heart. He was calling it his baby, and shed tears for its demise. He was also in shock 'cause, fuck, a rollerover is a scary thing to be in. Meanwhile, I was calm, reassuring my poor shaking boyfriend, explaining to CHP what I'd experienced the truck do, taking photos of the mess. One of the officers said that he knows who he'd want around in an emergency, indicating me. I've been told this before. Even as the accident was happening, I was okay...I experienced it, but there was no rush to it, no panic, no fear. I guarantee that it would have been otherwise had I been injured; I don't do pain well.
They righted the truck, and brought it and us over to the Palace of Fine Arts parking lot, where we were able to get our stuff out and meet up with a tow truck and a cab. We got home at 6:15am, slept for several hours, and have been up since trying to figure out how we're getting to the playa in a week. It was a good truck, huge, fun, impressive-looking...but it was also a gas-guzzling death trap. This was the second time that we were almost killed on the approach to the bridge in that thing. It's better that this happened the way it did and not on our way to the playa where something more serious could have occurred. And I'm thankful that my sweetie, though shaken, is alright.