Dead man walking
I totalled my car today.
I didn't just total my car. I hydroplaned, my back wheels slid out from behind me, I struck one wall, bounced across the road to the other, drove up the divider , did a roller coaster flip, and landed on the roof.
I then unbuckled my seatbelt and crawled out through the shattered window, staring in disbelief.
Every firefighter there told me I should be dead. By virtue of the other accidents I've seen, I should be dead. All the EMTs, paid and volunteer, who were either called to the scene or stopped on their way past, said I should be dead. Even doing 25 or 30 like I was, it took 3 seconds for it all to be over, me upside down on the parkway with spitting out blood and crawling through broken glass because I knew I had to book it away from that car in case the battery went. Grabbed my medical bag from the back and bandaged my leg.
What bothered me the most, I think, and what has me feeling like I want to curl up in my room and sleep for a year, is that my father has decided that I just took the curve at 50 or whatever and rolled the Jeep by virtue of it being an SUV going too fast driven by a reckless kid. Forget that the car would be more evenly squashed, thats what he's decided. Because he drove past and didn't see any skid marks. Then there's my mother, and that's a whole extra ball of wax.
Spent four hours at NSUH Manhasset. Felt fine till we left and I spoke with my father, as per above ridiculosity.
If I had been doing 50 I would actually be dead. Doing 25 or 30 or whatever and wearing a seatbelt saved my life. Be real.
So now that my second near-death experience in the span of five years is done, I really don't know where I'm going to go from here.
I had no less than an engine and a tower ladder full of FDNY firemen staring at me like I was Death incarnate. Telling me how I should be out cold inside that car, not walking around trying to grab my PS2 and my racquetball gear. How lucky I was.
Luck would be getting home at 11 AM instead of 4 PM. Luck would be no hospital wristband, and being able to blow my nose and drink from a cup. Luck fucked me, prudence saved me.
Wear your goddamn seatbelts, assholes, or I'll fucking kill every last one of you. Goodnight.