General Update:
On Sunday, April 18th, I was driving on the 405 freeway in southern California from work to my cousin's house. I'd gotten a flat tire a few days before and had put the spare on, and hadn't had a chance between the two jobs to go and get the busted one fixed. I was in the far right hand lane (since spare tires don't like freeway speeds) but was stuck behind a really slow driver, was hungry and wanted to get to Jesse's house faster. I started to change lanes so I could pass the guy in front of me and saw another car racing up behind me. Startled, I swerved to miss him and started to lose control of the car. (I think that's what fishtailing is? when your butt starts to swerve from side to side?) To compensate for the car spinning to the right, I panicked and turned the steering wheel all the way to the left. I cut across four lanes of freeway doing what was essentially a pretty big U-turn and had almost completely turned to face the other direction when I hit the barrier in the middle of the freeway. Luckily, I did not hit anyone else and after I smashed into the barrier I was pretty much all the way in the shoulder on the left hand side of the freeway, so I was out of traffic.
There was a moment of real panic right after it happened, my glasses had flown off of my face and the airbag deployed and smelled like smoke, so I thought my car was on fire as I was blind. As I fumbled for my glasses I called my cousin, since I was right at his freeway exit, and told him what had happened. He said later that the connection was terrible and he couldn't quite tell what I was saying, but he heard the tone of my voice and decided to put on his shoes anyways. I called Mom, who told me to call Allstate. (I also found my glasses.) I called Allstate and had just gotten through all of the automated menus and was talking to a real person when I saw a fire truck pull up in the shoulder of the freeway and the firemen come over to ask if I was ok.
The firemen gave me a cursory examination there, checking for whiplash, broken ribs, etc. I had a bloody nose from the airbag (which had pretty much stopped bleeding by the time I got out of the car) and some pretty gnarly bruises from the seatbelt (especially around my collarbone, I'd been wearing a necklace and the seatbelt had pressed it against my skin) but otherwise I was fine. I hadn't blacked out during the crash, my seatbelt had held me in place so I didn't get knocked around too bad, and I told them I didn't feel like I needed to go to the hospital. Honestly, aside from the bruises, I felt pretty normal physically, just a little shaky. The police came to shove my car to the other side of the freeway where a tow truck could get to it, the police officer walked me across the freeway to his car where I gave a statement (and since he was holding my arm it felt bizarrely like holding a grown-up's hand while we crossed the street). After that they dropped me off at a Denny's right off the freeway, where I called Jesse again and told the cops that they didn't need to wait with me, my cousin lived 10 minutes away and would be there soon.
Jesse was my knight in shiny armor all night. He let me panic and cry in the car, then bought me dinner and took me to his place to spend the night. He gave me his bed and slept at his girlfriend's house, and when I was still awake at 1am and went out for water, Jesse's roommate Kevin was home to give me a hug and talk to me until I felt better enough to go to sleep. I spent a week bumming rides off of people and taking the bus, playing phone tag between my parents and the insurance agency, but overall was fine. I told my coworkers that I might need their help with the heavy boxes from our coffee orders, but otherwise was pretty ok. Mom and Dad were also fantastic, and last Saturday (6 days after the crash) were already looking for a car for me. They found one, Nina drove it down on Monday and then flew back home on Tuesday. I felt a little ridiculous that she was doing all of that for me, but Dad pointed out 1) this is what parents are for, and 2) she probably wanted to make sure I was ok and this was a pretty convenient way of doing it. My new car is a 2000 Jetta with 60,000 miles on it, stick shift (which I am over the moon about) and red. I feel a little guilty being so excited about having a new car, but then I remind myself that seeing the good in a bad situation isn't the most selfish thing I could be doing right now. My bruises are almost all gone, my car runs great and life is settling back to normal. Ish. I flinch a lot worse than I used to when people cut me off or surprise me, but I'm not too scared to drive or anything.
Anyways, just generally updating. Hope everyone else is doing well.
There was a moment of real panic right after it happened, my glasses had flown off of my face and the airbag deployed and smelled like smoke, so I thought my car was on fire as I was blind. As I fumbled for my glasses I called my cousin, since I was right at his freeway exit, and told him what had happened. He said later that the connection was terrible and he couldn't quite tell what I was saying, but he heard the tone of my voice and decided to put on his shoes anyways. I called Mom, who told me to call Allstate. (I also found my glasses.) I called Allstate and had just gotten through all of the automated menus and was talking to a real person when I saw a fire truck pull up in the shoulder of the freeway and the firemen come over to ask if I was ok.
The firemen gave me a cursory examination there, checking for whiplash, broken ribs, etc. I had a bloody nose from the airbag (which had pretty much stopped bleeding by the time I got out of the car) and some pretty gnarly bruises from the seatbelt (especially around my collarbone, I'd been wearing a necklace and the seatbelt had pressed it against my skin) but otherwise I was fine. I hadn't blacked out during the crash, my seatbelt had held me in place so I didn't get knocked around too bad, and I told them I didn't feel like I needed to go to the hospital. Honestly, aside from the bruises, I felt pretty normal physically, just a little shaky. The police came to shove my car to the other side of the freeway where a tow truck could get to it, the police officer walked me across the freeway to his car where I gave a statement (and since he was holding my arm it felt bizarrely like holding a grown-up's hand while we crossed the street). After that they dropped me off at a Denny's right off the freeway, where I called Jesse again and told the cops that they didn't need to wait with me, my cousin lived 10 minutes away and would be there soon.
Jesse was my knight in shiny armor all night. He let me panic and cry in the car, then bought me dinner and took me to his place to spend the night. He gave me his bed and slept at his girlfriend's house, and when I was still awake at 1am and went out for water, Jesse's roommate Kevin was home to give me a hug and talk to me until I felt better enough to go to sleep. I spent a week bumming rides off of people and taking the bus, playing phone tag between my parents and the insurance agency, but overall was fine. I told my coworkers that I might need their help with the heavy boxes from our coffee orders, but otherwise was pretty ok. Mom and Dad were also fantastic, and last Saturday (6 days after the crash) were already looking for a car for me. They found one, Nina drove it down on Monday and then flew back home on Tuesday. I felt a little ridiculous that she was doing all of that for me, but Dad pointed out 1) this is what parents are for, and 2) she probably wanted to make sure I was ok and this was a pretty convenient way of doing it. My new car is a 2000 Jetta with 60,000 miles on it, stick shift (which I am over the moon about) and red. I feel a little guilty being so excited about having a new car, but then I remind myself that seeing the good in a bad situation isn't the most selfish thing I could be doing right now. My bruises are almost all gone, my car runs great and life is settling back to normal. Ish. I flinch a lot worse than I used to when people cut me off or surprise me, but I'm not too scared to drive or anything.
Anyways, just generally updating. Hope everyone else is doing well.