The Accident
I've never been in a car accident before. That kinda changed early yesterday morning.
Adem, Lauren, Justin, one of Lauren's friends, and myself had gone out to this small dive bar in Burbank that has Karaoke sometimes. We all drank varying amounts, but I was driving home so I kept it to one beer (nothing for me). Adem had about 7 shots, but wasn't terribly drunk actually. Around 1:45 Saturday morning, the bar was at Last Call and we were done for the night, so we got in to my car and drove back to Justin's, dropped everybody off except Adem and myself since I had to take him back home to Agoura. On the 101 Freeway North, right around White Oak, Adem was trying to find a song he liked on my iPod. I wish I could remember what song, or what we were talking about but then I noticed that there was a jeep or some SUV in front of me, in my lane, that seemed to be slowing down for no apparent reason. All of a sudden, they're stopped dead and their flashers are on. I brake quickly and try to swerve out of the way, but I guess I didn't turn quick enough or my skidding made me lose too much control to turn into one of the open lanes. I didn't swerve enough and the front driver's side of my car slammed into the back passenger's side of the stopped jeep, pushing them forward as my car continued to the right a little more. The next minute or so is, honestly, kind of a blur or like a flash of quick images. Thinking back on it, which I'm trying not too do too much, reminds me of something like a movie trailer, where there are quick shots of frenetic action and then black, then more quick shots, then black. I remember how quickly we stopped and then the car was filled with some kind of smoke or powder and everything had just shut off. I couldn't pull my car over to the side of the road, even. The impact had affected the hinge of my door, so I really had to shove to get it open, but I did. Luckily Adem and I were able to walk out without assistance. There was another car that stopped right after us to check if we were okay. After that there was a lot of cursing and freaking out on my part. Thankfully there were two California Highway Patrol cars there within literally moments after the accident. They stopped traffic on the freeway, and used one of their cars to push mine over to the shoulder and against the railing.
I immediately called my dad prefacing that I'm not hurt, but told him what happened and where we were. It took him a while to get to us, being at his girlfriend Karen's at the time, but he came. Meanwhile Adem and I were talking to all the different officers who showed up on the scene. I had handed my license and all of that information to Adem when I called my dad, so there was some confusion about who was driving and whose car it was, but we got it figured out. They asked us if we had anything to drink and we were both honest (although Adem just said he had "a few shots" and didn't specify that "a few" meant seven). Since Adem wasn't driving they didn't do any sobriety test with him. I said I had one beer a few hours ago, which the officer shrugged off and just had me follow his finger which was no problem. I had to go over the incident a number of times with a couple different officers, but I never spoke with or even saw the people in the other car. I asked the police and they said the other people were okay but I found it odd that they never got out of their car, and were able to drive it over to the side of the road after the accident. I'm hoping that their odd behavior was due to being under the influence of something, because apparently that will drastically change things in my favor. After a short while a tow truck showed up to take my car away, but I still don't know what happened with the other car. One of the officers gave me a collision report card, and after discussing what happened a few more times my dad and Karen showed up. Adem stayed over at our place for the night since we all just wanted to sit and breathe and he didn't have any pressing matters he needed to take care of at home.
The next morning we slept in, since we didn't get home until after 4 am. Karen, the amazing woman she is, took us all out to breakfast in the morning and then was such a rock through the whole ordeal. She's realy professional about everything so her help was invaluable when contacting the insurance company and talking to the tow truck guys. But now I've got a claim filed with my insurance company and should hear back from them by Tuesday or so. My dad and Karen are already working on getting me a rental car for the immediate time being, as well as finding an inexpensive used car, probably from Craig's list or something.
It was a horrible, scary experience but I have to be thankful for the little things, and some of the big ones too. I mean Adem and I were going at least 70 mph and hit a stopped car on the freeway and we walked away with nothing more than a few bruises and airbag burns. I've got a bruise on my left shoulder from the seat belt, my left knee from hitting some part of the dash, and a small abrasion on my right wrist from the airbag. My side of the car was the one that impacted so I got it a little worse than Adem, but he's got a nastly looking bruise/welt/thing on his face from the airbag. We could have been a lot worse off. Plus my laptop was in the backseat and that's fine (well not fine, but as good as it was before and not affected by the accident). I had a few CDs in the changer that are gone now, but they were all burned but one and that's on my computer anyways. My iPod is still alive somehow. Oh and there was some work that needed to be done on my car that we don't have to do now.
I've mostly been trying not to think about it. Going back to those moments just causes me anxiety and I start beating myself up for not doing things differently which I know I shouldn't do but can't help doing. It was tough seeing my car in the daylight yesterday, all smashed up in the front and seeing how close the impact came to where my legs were. And I really liked this car, so I it was hard having the open casket funeral for her. I never really called my car by a name, but I did name her River since she was blue. I had wanted to get a license plate that said "(Hands)S OFBLU) with a frame saying "Two by Two, Hands of Blue" and had just been thinking about doing that again with my unemployment at tax money. As hard as it was for me, I think it was even harder on my dad who had to see how close it was and had to think about how he almost lost me. He's been trying to comfort me and tell me we'll work through it and tell me how I have so many people around to help me, but I can see how scared he still is. I know we can work through it, but it's going to be very hard getting past this.
Adem, Lauren, Justin, one of Lauren's friends, and myself had gone out to this small dive bar in Burbank that has Karaoke sometimes. We all drank varying amounts, but I was driving home so I kept it to one beer (nothing for me). Adem had about 7 shots, but wasn't terribly drunk actually. Around 1:45 Saturday morning, the bar was at Last Call and we were done for the night, so we got in to my car and drove back to Justin's, dropped everybody off except Adem and myself since I had to take him back home to Agoura. On the 101 Freeway North, right around White Oak, Adem was trying to find a song he liked on my iPod. I wish I could remember what song, or what we were talking about but then I noticed that there was a jeep or some SUV in front of me, in my lane, that seemed to be slowing down for no apparent reason. All of a sudden, they're stopped dead and their flashers are on. I brake quickly and try to swerve out of the way, but I guess I didn't turn quick enough or my skidding made me lose too much control to turn into one of the open lanes. I didn't swerve enough and the front driver's side of my car slammed into the back passenger's side of the stopped jeep, pushing them forward as my car continued to the right a little more. The next minute or so is, honestly, kind of a blur or like a flash of quick images. Thinking back on it, which I'm trying not too do too much, reminds me of something like a movie trailer, where there are quick shots of frenetic action and then black, then more quick shots, then black. I remember how quickly we stopped and then the car was filled with some kind of smoke or powder and everything had just shut off. I couldn't pull my car over to the side of the road, even. The impact had affected the hinge of my door, so I really had to shove to get it open, but I did. Luckily Adem and I were able to walk out without assistance. There was another car that stopped right after us to check if we were okay. After that there was a lot of cursing and freaking out on my part. Thankfully there were two California Highway Patrol cars there within literally moments after the accident. They stopped traffic on the freeway, and used one of their cars to push mine over to the shoulder and against the railing.
I immediately called my dad prefacing that I'm not hurt, but told him what happened and where we were. It took him a while to get to us, being at his girlfriend Karen's at the time, but he came. Meanwhile Adem and I were talking to all the different officers who showed up on the scene. I had handed my license and all of that information to Adem when I called my dad, so there was some confusion about who was driving and whose car it was, but we got it figured out. They asked us if we had anything to drink and we were both honest (although Adem just said he had "a few shots" and didn't specify that "a few" meant seven). Since Adem wasn't driving they didn't do any sobriety test with him. I said I had one beer a few hours ago, which the officer shrugged off and just had me follow his finger which was no problem. I had to go over the incident a number of times with a couple different officers, but I never spoke with or even saw the people in the other car. I asked the police and they said the other people were okay but I found it odd that they never got out of their car, and were able to drive it over to the side of the road after the accident. I'm hoping that their odd behavior was due to being under the influence of something, because apparently that will drastically change things in my favor. After a short while a tow truck showed up to take my car away, but I still don't know what happened with the other car. One of the officers gave me a collision report card, and after discussing what happened a few more times my dad and Karen showed up. Adem stayed over at our place for the night since we all just wanted to sit and breathe and he didn't have any pressing matters he needed to take care of at home.
The next morning we slept in, since we didn't get home until after 4 am. Karen, the amazing woman she is, took us all out to breakfast in the morning and then was such a rock through the whole ordeal. She's realy professional about everything so her help was invaluable when contacting the insurance company and talking to the tow truck guys. But now I've got a claim filed with my insurance company and should hear back from them by Tuesday or so. My dad and Karen are already working on getting me a rental car for the immediate time being, as well as finding an inexpensive used car, probably from Craig's list or something.
It was a horrible, scary experience but I have to be thankful for the little things, and some of the big ones too. I mean Adem and I were going at least 70 mph and hit a stopped car on the freeway and we walked away with nothing more than a few bruises and airbag burns. I've got a bruise on my left shoulder from the seat belt, my left knee from hitting some part of the dash, and a small abrasion on my right wrist from the airbag. My side of the car was the one that impacted so I got it a little worse than Adem, but he's got a nastly looking bruise/welt/thing on his face from the airbag. We could have been a lot worse off. Plus my laptop was in the backseat and that's fine (well not fine, but as good as it was before and not affected by the accident). I had a few CDs in the changer that are gone now, but they were all burned but one and that's on my computer anyways. My iPod is still alive somehow. Oh and there was some work that needed to be done on my car that we don't have to do now.
I've mostly been trying not to think about it. Going back to those moments just causes me anxiety and I start beating myself up for not doing things differently which I know I shouldn't do but can't help doing. It was tough seeing my car in the daylight yesterday, all smashed up in the front and seeing how close the impact came to where my legs were. And I really liked this car, so I it was hard having the open casket funeral for her. I never really called my car by a name, but I did name her River since she was blue. I had wanted to get a license plate that said "(Hands)S OFBLU) with a frame saying "Two by Two, Hands of Blue" and had just been thinking about doing that again with my unemployment at tax money. As hard as it was for me, I think it was even harder on my dad who had to see how close it was and had to think about how he almost lost me. He's been trying to comfort me and tell me we'll work through it and tell me how I have so many people around to help me, but I can see how scared he still is. I know we can work through it, but it's going to be very hard getting past this.