The fact that I am able to type this right now is a miracle.
*TRIGGER WARNING* I am writing the details of a car accident.
On June 24, while driving home along Highway 14, my girls and I were in a car wreck. We had stopped for a truck turning left, and right after he had turned, we were rear-ended at pretty much full speed. I heard no brakes and remember looking in the rearview mirror and wondering why someone was swerving around me. They didn't actually swerve around me and we were struck hard. In the confusion of all that, and with airbags deployed, I didn't realize we had been thrown into oncoming traffic until I head the squeal of tires as someone slammed on their brakes. We were hit head on and spun around.
When the motion had stopped, my brain finally realized what had happened and I saw airbags all around the entire car. They were starting to deflate and I could see there was no traffic coming from either way. I calmly explained to the girls what had happened, asked if they were okay, and then told them we needed to get out of the car because we were sideways in the middle of the road. We were able to open the front doors, but L started freaking out because her door wouldn't open. I told her to just come out with us, and we got out and safely away from getting hit again. That is when the reality of what had just happened hit me.
To help me process this mentally, I have been counting my blessings; noticing the miracles that happened.
1. We were a bit bumped and bruised, but only had minor injuries. All parties fared the same, thankfully!
2. We had left the boys at home, so nobody was sitting in the back row (which, looking at the third picture, was crunched).
3. The van did what it was supposed to--it crumpled and saved us from getting crumpled. The airbags worked, the crumple zones worked for us to be okay.
4. I am still not sure how we didn't spin more after the initial hit on the back right side... but we were head on into traffic instead of side impact. The front is meant to take bigger hits than the side, and that's where my girls were sitting, so they would've been a lot more injured.
5. Physics. Energy transfer. We had just let off the brake and could move forward when rear ended, so the car moved and absorbed some of that energy into forward motion (obviously not all of it, though). In addition, we spun out when hit from the front, so energy was transferred into the spin and not just into crushing the vehicle.
6. My sister-in-law pulled up and was one of the first several vehicles waiting for the accident to get cleared. She was on her motorcycle. She told us a bit later that she had stopped on her way home from hiking by work to look for her calendar/planner, so she was running later than she planned. The amount of time she was running late was pretty close to when we would have gotten in the accident. That meant I would've been thrown into oncoming traffic, which would've been HER on her motorcycle. She was protected by the annoyance of losing her calendar. I am SO glad it was a car that was able to withstand hitting the van, and not HER on her motorcycle. Even though there was nothing I could do, I would have felt terrible.
7. This one is a bit more "first world"--I never loved my Sienna. In fact, there were a lot of things I DIDN'T like about it. I got a Sienna over an Odyssey when my old Odyssey started getting up there in miles and I wanted a reliable road trip car. Siennas tend to be more reliable in the long term, but other than that, the Odyssey was better and I missed it. The Sienna was not a comfortable road trip vehicle. Well, it was totaled, so I got to pick a new one. The White Whale (we nicknamed it that because the license plate had HCS-- high seas) was replaced by a pretty blue Odyssey. I DON'T have to check the license plate everywhere because there aren't 16 other just like it in every parking lot (SERIOUSLY. We even used to play a car game where we called White Siennas because we saw them so often. Pretty much EVERY time we drove anywhere we'd see at least one other one). I can adjust the drivers seat to where I need to be for my back. I tried several pillows and padding, but the Sienna never fit me right. The middle row has a great spot for Neptune--no awkward bump with cupholders for the extra seat to pop in. Just a few floor hooks.
And just a few days ago, I realized that my great grandmother Nana's 125th birthday was the day of the accident. I believe there are people watching over us, and I know it was NOT my time to "graduate" to the next life. In fact, this accident has helped me realize that I have some things to do, and it has made me humble myself and ask WHAT THOSE THINGS ARE. Since I'm still here, I might as well make the best of it!
