Timeline of 10-20-11 accident
This is written 2 days after the fact, and it is already starting to fragment a little.
I was heading south on Mopac, going from my piano lesson at 183 and Duval to work at Ben White and S 1st Street, between 2:30 and 3 pm. I was in the left hand lane. The accident occurred right at the spot where the 2-lane exit for 1st-5th streets has split off from the other 2 lanes, but it is still asphalt all the way across. Just before, there had been a smaller slow-down of traffic, then it freed up, and then the events of the accident itself occurred. Traffic in our lane, the far-left lane, came to a near standstill. I had stopped with plenty of space to spare between me and the car in front of me. As is usual in such a situation, I glanced up into my rear view mirror, and saw him coming. I recognized immediately that he was going too fast, that he hadn't seen, that he wasn't going to be able to stop in time. In the hope of either preventing an accident, or at least making this a minor one, I pulled as far forward and to the right as I could, given the fact that traffic in front and to the side of me was stopped. I was hoping that he would see in enough time to swerve left and then allow himself to come to a stop on the left shoulder. He didn't really see in time to do that either. I pulled as far forward as I could, and braced for the impact I knew was coming. I recall the noise of the impact and then my car was spinning and I was desperately trying to control it. I registered one moment of trying to turn the car, realizing I was headed across the other lanes of traffic and seeing cars in each lane. I am honestly unsure at this point whether or not I was trying to accelerate across those lanes to get out of the way or if I was trying to stop the car with the brakes. The next flash is of turning to face that traffic as I crossed from the asphalt onto the grass on that embankment on the west (right) side. After that, I remember rolling backwards down the embankment. Not entirely remembering what was at the bottom, I stopped the car and threw the emergency brake. When I let my foot off the brake, the car started to roll again, so I braked again and pulled the emergency brake harder. Then the car stopped moving after letting my foot off the brake.
It took me a second to realize what had happened. Once I did, I saw someone pulled over and they were standing at the top of the hill yelling and asking if I was OK. I waved and did the universal OK sign. I think I tried the door then, to get out of the car. I also started looking for my phone to call 911. I had not had it in my pocket, it had been in a compartment under the stereo. I found it nestled behind the middle console and called 911. I know part of why I wanted to get 911 out here as soon as possible was that I couldn't get out of my car and I was having visions of the jaws of life and fires and such. While on the phone with the dispatcher, the police car pulled up. I told the dispatcher, and he let me go. The policeman came over to me first and checked to see if I was OK. I tried to open the door for him, to show him I couldn't get out. He then asked if I could roll down the window. I put the car back in electric on (not that I remember turning it off), and rolled down the window. First he asked if I was ok. I told him I thought so. I know I did an initial assessment and didn't seem to be in much pain, so I assumed I was OK. then he asked me if my car would start. I tried, but it would not. He said that he would call a wrecker for me, and that I should get out of my car. Then he said he had to go over there and get his (the other guy's) car because he was still blocking traffic.
I was so desperate to get out of my car, I simply climbed out the open driver's side window. While I waited for the policeman to come back, I called Dad. I knew I needed to know where to have the wrecker take my car. Dad was in clinic, so I called the back line at the office, and asked them to please pull him out of a patient room. Jacquelyn said "really?" to which I apologized and said that yes, really, I needed to talk to him now. He came to the phone, I started with "I'm OK," explained what had happened, and asked him where I should have them tow the car. I don't remember what his answer was though.
At that point a fireman came up to me and asked if I was hurt. I told him I didn't think so. He asked me to come back up the hill with him and he needed me to sign something, saying that I didn't feel that I was hurt at this time. He made certain to tell me that it didn't mean I couldn't go to a doctor later, just that I didn't feel like I needed any treatment at the scene. I agreed and signed where he indicated. By now the policeman had come back over and was asking me for my owner's manual. I think he thought that there might be some kind of reset on the fuel pump that might make it possible to start my car. when I was looking for it, which is in my glove box, I realized that I hadn't put the car in park. I did then. When he didn't find anything helpful in the owner's manual, the policeman asked me to just try starting my car again. Since I had put it into Park, it started just fine. He asked me if I could drive it up back onto the road, and then he offered to do it. I took him up on that. He backed the car up a bit, then turned it so that he could drive it across the slope rather than straight up it. I went to stand with the firemen up at the top of the hill. There was one point I was afraid the policeman was going to back it over a concrete drop-off, but he ended up not doing that. Maybe that was when the fireman asked me to sign the form.
Then the other guy came around and shook my hand and apologized profusely. He admitted that he had glanced down at his phone and not realized that the traffic ahead had stopped.
Once my car was on the road, the policeman turned it off and got out. he asked us to start fishing out driver's licenses and proof of insurance. There were two other cars pulled over ahead of us, and he needed to go check them out, and do some other things, I am not sure what. I never found out if those other cars were people willing to be witnesses or if the sudden stop we caused had resulted in a smaller fender-bender of their own. Then the cop came and took our licenses, checked to see that our proof of insurances was good, and gave us forms to fill out, with our contact info and the information of our insurance agencies. He said we would swap these to file a claim as appropriate. I walked around my car once, and the cop had to remind me not to stand on that side or to stand in between my car and his car because if one of the oncoming cars wasn't entirely in control, I might get hurt. I used my hood as a surface to fill out the form on.
He ran our licenses, and I started calling around to figure out what I was going to do. I caled the office to ask them to finish off my work for me that day because I wasn't going to be coming back. I called Michael at Phoenix Motorworks, to ask him if I could have my car towed there/ leave it there for now. The policeman had pointed out that my car was still driveable, so I decided to drive it to phoenix myself and just leave it there for the time being. Michael wasn't there, so I asked the guy to have him call me back. Then I called Lisa and asked her to come and get me at phoenix. (GranJan's surgery had finished maybe an hour before, and I really didn't want to freak out my mom.) During this time, the other guy had gone through 2 cigarettes. He was also acting like he was in severe pain, kept very gingerly cradling his arm and not using it, and bending over like he was in severe pain. I asked him if he was ok, what had happened. He said that he had had his left arm up on the windowsill of the car when the airbags went off. The firemen were still there, so when he had walked away, I pointed out to one of them that I was pretty sure the guy's arm was broken. The fireman agreed, but told me that even though he had strongly suggested that the guy get his arm looked at, since this guy was a grown man, the fireman couldn't make him go to the hospital or anything.
When the policeman came back to get our forms, he told the firemen that everything seemed under control and they could go on as they needed. It was then that I noticed they had parked the firetruck to block the right-hand lane so that traffic was directed away from us. At this time they left. The policeman brought us back eachother's forms. he had written in some information, like his name and officer number, the exact location of the accident, and the case number for the accident. He had also written on the one he gave me with the other guy's info on it that the other guy had received a citation for failure to maintain a clear distance. I noticed when he handed us back our driver's licenses that the guy's license was vertical, meaning that he was at most 22 years old.
Also the officer said something at some point to the other guy about how his damage was definitely making the car non-functional, but most of my damage was cosmetic. I also took 2 pictures of the damage to the other guy's car while we were waiting for the officer to process our licenses and paperwork.
The policeman asked me if I still wanted a wrecker. Since my car did drive and we were very close to Phoenix anyway, I declined. When I did, he said I could go ahead and leave. He walked out into the right lane a bit to direct traffic around me to allow me in once I had climbed into the driver's seat through the passenger door. (I knew that door worked because I had opened it to get to my glove box.) I drove the short distance to phoenix, and did not even bother parking in the front. I just pulled my car around the back and parked it next to the red Volvo. As I was climbing out of the passenger door again, Michael returned my call. I told him that I had just been in a really big accident and had driven my car this far and could I please just leave it here for now. He said sure, and then said he would come down the hill to have a look. He seemed pretty impressed with the damage, and strongly encouraged me to be checked out by a doctor myself. I told him I would. Then I grabbed my purse, piano books, and computer out of the foot of the front passenger seat, gave michael the key, and headed up the hill with him to the front. I told him that someone was coming to get me as we spoke. Lisa actually called as we were heading up the hill, to tell me she had mis-judged and had pulled into a shop one or two doors down instead, and was waiting for me there. Michael gave me some advice about telling the other guy's insurance company about all the work we had just put into the car because that would affect what they decided to do with it. Then I went over to Lisa's car and climbed in. She took me home and was nice to me and supportive while I quietly freaked out.
When we got home, I told Mom what had happened, even though Lisa had asked me if she could tell my mom when I had called her, which I had said she could. I gave mom the details and quietly freaked out some more. Then I had a huge bowl of ice cream. Lisa encouraged me to file the claim then. I had to call Zara, my agent, first to ask if Dad needed to be handling the claim since the car was still in his name. She had clocked out but had not left the building, and was willing to talk to me once the receptionist had explained the situation. She wasn't sure how the other guy's insurance company would handle the different names between owner and policyholder, but she did know that I was the one who needed to file the claim.
The rest of the evening, I filed the claim, took a nap, and then went out to dinner with my mom and dad at Phil's Ice House, when I gave them both the details about what had happened.
I was heading south on Mopac, going from my piano lesson at 183 and Duval to work at Ben White and S 1st Street, between 2:30 and 3 pm. I was in the left hand lane. The accident occurred right at the spot where the 2-lane exit for 1st-5th streets has split off from the other 2 lanes, but it is still asphalt all the way across. Just before, there had been a smaller slow-down of traffic, then it freed up, and then the events of the accident itself occurred. Traffic in our lane, the far-left lane, came to a near standstill. I had stopped with plenty of space to spare between me and the car in front of me. As is usual in such a situation, I glanced up into my rear view mirror, and saw him coming. I recognized immediately that he was going too fast, that he hadn't seen, that he wasn't going to be able to stop in time. In the hope of either preventing an accident, or at least making this a minor one, I pulled as far forward and to the right as I could, given the fact that traffic in front and to the side of me was stopped. I was hoping that he would see in enough time to swerve left and then allow himself to come to a stop on the left shoulder. He didn't really see in time to do that either. I pulled as far forward as I could, and braced for the impact I knew was coming. I recall the noise of the impact and then my car was spinning and I was desperately trying to control it. I registered one moment of trying to turn the car, realizing I was headed across the other lanes of traffic and seeing cars in each lane. I am honestly unsure at this point whether or not I was trying to accelerate across those lanes to get out of the way or if I was trying to stop the car with the brakes. The next flash is of turning to face that traffic as I crossed from the asphalt onto the grass on that embankment on the west (right) side. After that, I remember rolling backwards down the embankment. Not entirely remembering what was at the bottom, I stopped the car and threw the emergency brake. When I let my foot off the brake, the car started to roll again, so I braked again and pulled the emergency brake harder. Then the car stopped moving after letting my foot off the brake.
It took me a second to realize what had happened. Once I did, I saw someone pulled over and they were standing at the top of the hill yelling and asking if I was OK. I waved and did the universal OK sign. I think I tried the door then, to get out of the car. I also started looking for my phone to call 911. I had not had it in my pocket, it had been in a compartment under the stereo. I found it nestled behind the middle console and called 911. I know part of why I wanted to get 911 out here as soon as possible was that I couldn't get out of my car and I was having visions of the jaws of life and fires and such. While on the phone with the dispatcher, the police car pulled up. I told the dispatcher, and he let me go. The policeman came over to me first and checked to see if I was OK. I tried to open the door for him, to show him I couldn't get out. He then asked if I could roll down the window. I put the car back in electric on (not that I remember turning it off), and rolled down the window. First he asked if I was ok. I told him I thought so. I know I did an initial assessment and didn't seem to be in much pain, so I assumed I was OK. then he asked me if my car would start. I tried, but it would not. He said that he would call a wrecker for me, and that I should get out of my car. Then he said he had to go over there and get his (the other guy's) car because he was still blocking traffic.
I was so desperate to get out of my car, I simply climbed out the open driver's side window. While I waited for the policeman to come back, I called Dad. I knew I needed to know where to have the wrecker take my car. Dad was in clinic, so I called the back line at the office, and asked them to please pull him out of a patient room. Jacquelyn said "really?" to which I apologized and said that yes, really, I needed to talk to him now. He came to the phone, I started with "I'm OK," explained what had happened, and asked him where I should have them tow the car. I don't remember what his answer was though.
At that point a fireman came up to me and asked if I was hurt. I told him I didn't think so. He asked me to come back up the hill with him and he needed me to sign something, saying that I didn't feel that I was hurt at this time. He made certain to tell me that it didn't mean I couldn't go to a doctor later, just that I didn't feel like I needed any treatment at the scene. I agreed and signed where he indicated. By now the policeman had come back over and was asking me for my owner's manual. I think he thought that there might be some kind of reset on the fuel pump that might make it possible to start my car. when I was looking for it, which is in my glove box, I realized that I hadn't put the car in park. I did then. When he didn't find anything helpful in the owner's manual, the policeman asked me to just try starting my car again. Since I had put it into Park, it started just fine. He asked me if I could drive it up back onto the road, and then he offered to do it. I took him up on that. He backed the car up a bit, then turned it so that he could drive it across the slope rather than straight up it. I went to stand with the firemen up at the top of the hill. There was one point I was afraid the policeman was going to back it over a concrete drop-off, but he ended up not doing that. Maybe that was when the fireman asked me to sign the form.
Then the other guy came around and shook my hand and apologized profusely. He admitted that he had glanced down at his phone and not realized that the traffic ahead had stopped.
Once my car was on the road, the policeman turned it off and got out. he asked us to start fishing out driver's licenses and proof of insurance. There were two other cars pulled over ahead of us, and he needed to go check them out, and do some other things, I am not sure what. I never found out if those other cars were people willing to be witnesses or if the sudden stop we caused had resulted in a smaller fender-bender of their own. Then the cop came and took our licenses, checked to see that our proof of insurances was good, and gave us forms to fill out, with our contact info and the information of our insurance agencies. He said we would swap these to file a claim as appropriate. I walked around my car once, and the cop had to remind me not to stand on that side or to stand in between my car and his car because if one of the oncoming cars wasn't entirely in control, I might get hurt. I used my hood as a surface to fill out the form on.
He ran our licenses, and I started calling around to figure out what I was going to do. I caled the office to ask them to finish off my work for me that day because I wasn't going to be coming back. I called Michael at Phoenix Motorworks, to ask him if I could have my car towed there/ leave it there for now. The policeman had pointed out that my car was still driveable, so I decided to drive it to phoenix myself and just leave it there for the time being. Michael wasn't there, so I asked the guy to have him call me back. Then I called Lisa and asked her to come and get me at phoenix. (GranJan's surgery had finished maybe an hour before, and I really didn't want to freak out my mom.) During this time, the other guy had gone through 2 cigarettes. He was also acting like he was in severe pain, kept very gingerly cradling his arm and not using it, and bending over like he was in severe pain. I asked him if he was ok, what had happened. He said that he had had his left arm up on the windowsill of the car when the airbags went off. The firemen were still there, so when he had walked away, I pointed out to one of them that I was pretty sure the guy's arm was broken. The fireman agreed, but told me that even though he had strongly suggested that the guy get his arm looked at, since this guy was a grown man, the fireman couldn't make him go to the hospital or anything.
When the policeman came back to get our forms, he told the firemen that everything seemed under control and they could go on as they needed. It was then that I noticed they had parked the firetruck to block the right-hand lane so that traffic was directed away from us. At this time they left. The policeman brought us back eachother's forms. he had written in some information, like his name and officer number, the exact location of the accident, and the case number for the accident. He had also written on the one he gave me with the other guy's info on it that the other guy had received a citation for failure to maintain a clear distance. I noticed when he handed us back our driver's licenses that the guy's license was vertical, meaning that he was at most 22 years old.
Also the officer said something at some point to the other guy about how his damage was definitely making the car non-functional, but most of my damage was cosmetic. I also took 2 pictures of the damage to the other guy's car while we were waiting for the officer to process our licenses and paperwork.
The policeman asked me if I still wanted a wrecker. Since my car did drive and we were very close to Phoenix anyway, I declined. When I did, he said I could go ahead and leave. He walked out into the right lane a bit to direct traffic around me to allow me in once I had climbed into the driver's seat through the passenger door. (I knew that door worked because I had opened it to get to my glove box.) I drove the short distance to phoenix, and did not even bother parking in the front. I just pulled my car around the back and parked it next to the red Volvo. As I was climbing out of the passenger door again, Michael returned my call. I told him that I had just been in a really big accident and had driven my car this far and could I please just leave it here for now. He said sure, and then said he would come down the hill to have a look. He seemed pretty impressed with the damage, and strongly encouraged me to be checked out by a doctor myself. I told him I would. Then I grabbed my purse, piano books, and computer out of the foot of the front passenger seat, gave michael the key, and headed up the hill with him to the front. I told him that someone was coming to get me as we spoke. Lisa actually called as we were heading up the hill, to tell me she had mis-judged and had pulled into a shop one or two doors down instead, and was waiting for me there. Michael gave me some advice about telling the other guy's insurance company about all the work we had just put into the car because that would affect what they decided to do with it. Then I went over to Lisa's car and climbed in. She took me home and was nice to me and supportive while I quietly freaked out.
When we got home, I told Mom what had happened, even though Lisa had asked me if she could tell my mom when I had called her, which I had said she could. I gave mom the details and quietly freaked out some more. Then I had a huge bowl of ice cream. Lisa encouraged me to file the claim then. I had to call Zara, my agent, first to ask if Dad needed to be handling the claim since the car was still in his name. She had clocked out but had not left the building, and was willing to talk to me once the receptionist had explained the situation. She wasn't sure how the other guy's insurance company would handle the different names between owner and policyholder, but she did know that I was the one who needed to file the claim.
The rest of the evening, I filed the claim, took a nap, and then went out to dinner with my mom and dad at Phil's Ice House, when I gave them both the details about what had happened.