Saturn, 1995-2002 >_
Jul. 31st, 2002 05:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
whitereflectionThis morning, as I headed out from the house, I was planning on writing a post about last night's lesson (which was cool, yet chaotic). I may yet write on it later--but for now, I should discuss the car accident that I was in this am. *flails*
I had just dropped James off at work, grabbed a bagel at Bruegger's, and was headed east on West Center Road. Traffic ahead of me was stopped by a traffic light at 120th street. I had just come to a stop--when I was *SLAMMED* into from behind, which then slammed me into the car ahead of me.
Turns out, from witnesses descriptions later, that the guy who hit me--who was driving a van for a security equiptment company--hadn't even been braking. Dunno if he wasn't paying attention, or if he was blinded by the sun, as it was bright--he hit me at a full 45 miles an hour (didn't even hear any squealing of tires or skidding to indicate he *tried* to brake), and before the chain reaction was done, the total number of cars involved in the pileup was *five*. You know what's extra freaky? All of them, *all* the other four cars were vans, minivans, or SUVs.
Imagine my little Saturn SL four-door sandwiched in, the one that took the first, hardest hit.
...yeah. So anyway, I remember being flung forward, then snapping back. There was this acrid-smelling haze in the car, like smoke--turns out it was from both air bags deploying, but at the time I panicked and thought my car was on fire, so I dove out of the car faster than I nearly ever have. Only reached in to grab my keys, and eventually insurance/registration info, after standing there a minute and being reminded that the air bags' chemical propellant cause that sort of haze and smell.
Folks called 911, and we had the firefighters, paramedics, and police out--luckily, there were no major injuries, so mostly time was spent filling out police reports, exchanging info, and signing off on paramedic aid (not to mention signing firefighter forms for the hazmat stuff they had to use to deal with car fluids). But mostly we just kinda freaked out, stood there shaking and piecing the story together. I still have a bit of trouble keeping myself from being jittery, and this happened before 8am. Yeesh.
Naturally, the first place I thought to call was work, to tell them I wasn't coming in. My buddy Anj there immediately said she was taking vacation time, and came out to help--be my ride, moral support, whatnot. I did eventually call James, but I knew he wouldn't be able to do much more than commisserate, since I wasn't bad off--we do (did) only have the one car, and he's in charge at his work right now, since his supervisor's on vacation.
But anyway, eventually everything was dealt with, and the first two cars--the ones farthest for the hits--drove off. The car who hit me, mine, and the car I was shoved into, all had to be towed by flatbed trucks. Now, when I'd been hit, despite wearing a seatbelt, I'd kind of slid under the airbag a bit (didn't help my legs were stretched out for use of the clutch and gas/brake), but my legs hit the underside of the dashboard really hard, and they majorly hurt and swelled up from the knee down. So Anj took me into an urgent medical place (one step above minor medical, one step below full hospital emergency room)--after exam and xrays, I have no breaks or fractures, but everything below midthigh is swollen and tender, and I've got some ugly, *huge* bruising. Some red, some purple, and I know the colors will get worse before better. Yeek. Walking is also really difficult, not just from pain, but because swelling and stiffness is making it really hard to bend my knees. My right leg is starting to improve, but the left leg is not wanting to work well yet.
I'm on some sort of Naproxin antiinflammatory, and I've got a generic-Darvoset thing to use for pain (I'm just holding off until later in the evening, as I know it's going to put me out in a big way). But the car...the insurance hasn't looked at it yet, but I'm damned sure it's totalled. The trunk was mashed in to the axel, the front end mashed in by about 1/3 on one side, 1/2 on the other, due to the angle I was shoved into the minivan in front of me. The body and engine damage will very, very likely be more than the worth of the car to repair. There's even some interior damage--not just from the airbags, but my momentum forward so hard, then back nearly as hard, snapped the drivers seat top/back, so when I got out, it was laying horizontally backward. And it isn't even supposed to bend in the first place. So factor that sorta repair in, too, and it's all more than both bluebook and current market sales value, I'm certain.
So I spent all morning at the urgent care place and getting my prescriptions (*hugs Anj*), and all afternoon talking to my insurance, USAA, and the insurance for the guy who hit me and started all this. Allegedly, the guy's insurance (which is actually the ins. for the company where he works, since he was driving the company van), is taking full responsibility. They'll be working with USAA to pay for my medical costs, car value costs, tow fees, hazmat costs, and will arrange for a rental car for us. Which they haven't yet done, but I'm hoping will be set up for us tomorrow. Especially since we're lucky that James' dad is able to help us with rides while he's in town--but he does leave tomorrow about mid-day.
I've even heard I can get a letter from my department chair with what time I lose from work, and how much my hourly wage is, and file it with his insurance to pay for my lost time (perhaps even Anj's) so we might not have to take sick or vacation time. I have to work on that yet--but it should work out ok. I also have to get the impound lot where the Saturn was towed to, to release the car to USAA agents so they can tow it to their own facilities for inspection.
So...in short, I'm hurting, but ok. I might have to stay home tomorrow, but I'm seeing how that goes--it depends on how I feel tomorrow am. The antiinflammatory and pain med should help--and I've been instructed to ice my legs today and tomorrow, and use heat starting Friday.
The Saturn, though...I'm damned sure I'll be playing taps for the thing. Which means that once things are settled, we will probably have to be shopping for a replacement car. I offer thanks to various deities, though, as well as to seat belts and air bag makers, that I'm not having to handle worse, like major injuries, or worse than that. Yet again, I am a *DAMNED* lucky person.
Man, the more I think about it, the weirder I feel. You had to have looked at it from the side like I did, seeing how mashed the Saturn was, how damaged the SUVs all were, and realizing that, for the most part, we're all basically fine--and it so could have gone a different way. Seeing the main compartments of the vehicles so basically intact, while the fronts and back ends were so mangled--especially the Saturn's...holy cats. Like I said, damned lucky.
I may end up getting pictures, which we'd do for our own sakes to give us a bit of extra proof when dealing with insurances, but I might post 'em. Dunno why, but...well, this is the worst accident I've ever been involved in, and...it's like I need to have recorded somehow "Look how bad this was, and look at how fine I am, after it all." A bit of a 'badge' of sorts, and a bit of a reminder that perhaps there's a reason to have faith in *something* out there after all.
*extrahugs* and love to you all--just thought it worth saying. (Um, and Kea, this might influence my plans for Wichita next weekend--we will probably still have the rental, and I'm not sure if I'll be able to do an out of town trip with it. Not sure yet. Or how up to a extended drive I'll be--I think I may have to keep you posted over the next several days. *sighs*))
I had just dropped James off at work, grabbed a bagel at Bruegger's, and was headed east on West Center Road. Traffic ahead of me was stopped by a traffic light at 120th street. I had just come to a stop--when I was *SLAMMED* into from behind, which then slammed me into the car ahead of me.
Turns out, from witnesses descriptions later, that the guy who hit me--who was driving a van for a security equiptment company--hadn't even been braking. Dunno if he wasn't paying attention, or if he was blinded by the sun, as it was bright--he hit me at a full 45 miles an hour (didn't even hear any squealing of tires or skidding to indicate he *tried* to brake), and before the chain reaction was done, the total number of cars involved in the pileup was *five*. You know what's extra freaky? All of them, *all* the other four cars were vans, minivans, or SUVs.
Imagine my little Saturn SL four-door sandwiched in, the one that took the first, hardest hit.
...yeah. So anyway, I remember being flung forward, then snapping back. There was this acrid-smelling haze in the car, like smoke--turns out it was from both air bags deploying, but at the time I panicked and thought my car was on fire, so I dove out of the car faster than I nearly ever have. Only reached in to grab my keys, and eventually insurance/registration info, after standing there a minute and being reminded that the air bags' chemical propellant cause that sort of haze and smell.
Folks called 911, and we had the firefighters, paramedics, and police out--luckily, there were no major injuries, so mostly time was spent filling out police reports, exchanging info, and signing off on paramedic aid (not to mention signing firefighter forms for the hazmat stuff they had to use to deal with car fluids). But mostly we just kinda freaked out, stood there shaking and piecing the story together. I still have a bit of trouble keeping myself from being jittery, and this happened before 8am. Yeesh.
Naturally, the first place I thought to call was work, to tell them I wasn't coming in. My buddy Anj there immediately said she was taking vacation time, and came out to help--be my ride, moral support, whatnot. I did eventually call James, but I knew he wouldn't be able to do much more than commisserate, since I wasn't bad off--we do (did) only have the one car, and he's in charge at his work right now, since his supervisor's on vacation.
But anyway, eventually everything was dealt with, and the first two cars--the ones farthest for the hits--drove off. The car who hit me, mine, and the car I was shoved into, all had to be towed by flatbed trucks. Now, when I'd been hit, despite wearing a seatbelt, I'd kind of slid under the airbag a bit (didn't help my legs were stretched out for use of the clutch and gas/brake), but my legs hit the underside of the dashboard really hard, and they majorly hurt and swelled up from the knee down. So Anj took me into an urgent medical place (one step above minor medical, one step below full hospital emergency room)--after exam and xrays, I have no breaks or fractures, but everything below midthigh is swollen and tender, and I've got some ugly, *huge* bruising. Some red, some purple, and I know the colors will get worse before better. Yeek. Walking is also really difficult, not just from pain, but because swelling and stiffness is making it really hard to bend my knees. My right leg is starting to improve, but the left leg is not wanting to work well yet.
I'm on some sort of Naproxin antiinflammatory, and I've got a generic-Darvoset thing to use for pain (I'm just holding off until later in the evening, as I know it's going to put me out in a big way). But the car...the insurance hasn't looked at it yet, but I'm damned sure it's totalled. The trunk was mashed in to the axel, the front end mashed in by about 1/3 on one side, 1/2 on the other, due to the angle I was shoved into the minivan in front of me. The body and engine damage will very, very likely be more than the worth of the car to repair. There's even some interior damage--not just from the airbags, but my momentum forward so hard, then back nearly as hard, snapped the drivers seat top/back, so when I got out, it was laying horizontally backward. And it isn't even supposed to bend in the first place. So factor that sorta repair in, too, and it's all more than both bluebook and current market sales value, I'm certain.
So I spent all morning at the urgent care place and getting my prescriptions (*hugs Anj*), and all afternoon talking to my insurance, USAA, and the insurance for the guy who hit me and started all this. Allegedly, the guy's insurance (which is actually the ins. for the company where he works, since he was driving the company van), is taking full responsibility. They'll be working with USAA to pay for my medical costs, car value costs, tow fees, hazmat costs, and will arrange for a rental car for us. Which they haven't yet done, but I'm hoping will be set up for us tomorrow. Especially since we're lucky that James' dad is able to help us with rides while he's in town--but he does leave tomorrow about mid-day.
I've even heard I can get a letter from my department chair with what time I lose from work, and how much my hourly wage is, and file it with his insurance to pay for my lost time (perhaps even Anj's) so we might not have to take sick or vacation time. I have to work on that yet--but it should work out ok. I also have to get the impound lot where the Saturn was towed to, to release the car to USAA agents so they can tow it to their own facilities for inspection.
So...in short, I'm hurting, but ok. I might have to stay home tomorrow, but I'm seeing how that goes--it depends on how I feel tomorrow am. The antiinflammatory and pain med should help--and I've been instructed to ice my legs today and tomorrow, and use heat starting Friday.
The Saturn, though...I'm damned sure I'll be playing taps for the thing. Which means that once things are settled, we will probably have to be shopping for a replacement car. I offer thanks to various deities, though, as well as to seat belts and air bag makers, that I'm not having to handle worse, like major injuries, or worse than that. Yet again, I am a *DAMNED* lucky person.
Man, the more I think about it, the weirder I feel. You had to have looked at it from the side like I did, seeing how mashed the Saturn was, how damaged the SUVs all were, and realizing that, for the most part, we're all basically fine--and it so could have gone a different way. Seeing the main compartments of the vehicles so basically intact, while the fronts and back ends were so mangled--especially the Saturn's...holy cats. Like I said, damned lucky.
I may end up getting pictures, which we'd do for our own sakes to give us a bit of extra proof when dealing with insurances, but I might post 'em. Dunno why, but...well, this is the worst accident I've ever been involved in, and...it's like I need to have recorded somehow "Look how bad this was, and look at how fine I am, after it all." A bit of a 'badge' of sorts, and a bit of a reminder that perhaps there's a reason to have faith in *something* out there after all.
*extrahugs* and love to you all--just thought it worth saying. (Um, and Kea, this might influence my plans for Wichita next weekend--we will probably still have the rental, and I'm not sure if I'll be able to do an out of town trip with it. Not sure yet. Or how up to a extended drive I'll be--I think I may have to keep you posted over the next several days. *sighs*))