FormerHangie
En-Route
On Monday, I was heading back from Ocala, Fl, to Atlanta. I'd been moving my mother's possessions out of her assisted living apartment into a storage unit, as it's unlikely she'll be well enough to live on her own again. It had already been a long day when I headed northward at 3:30, getting on I-75 at the US 27 entrance ramp. I had barely gotten up to speed when it started to rain, hard. I backed off a little and gave myself some space as the visibility had gotten rather limited, and almost immediately I could see that traffic had come to a standstill, so I got on the brakes. I was having to brake a little harder than I would have liked, but nothing too extreme, but I immediately questioned whether the folks behind me were going to get stopped. In a situation like this, as soon I get my rate of braking established, if there's time available, I glance up in the mirror to see who is behind me and how close he is. On this occasion, I see a 1 ton Ram pickup towing a stock trailer, I can see he's on the brakes but his rig looks like it's getting a little jiggy on him, so I'm expecting an impact.
I'd rehearsed in my mind many times what to do in a situation like this: Left foot on the floor, push myself moderately into the seat, as soon as I get stopped put my head against the headrest and drop my hands to the bottom of the steering wheel, hold on loosely, and close my eyes, and wait for the impact. This is the first time in 40 years of driving that I needed it. About two seconds after getting stopped, maybe less, I hear a loud BANG! and can feel glass shards in my lap. I open my eyes and can see that the driver's window had shattered and the side curtain airbags had deployed. Because I can't see past the airbags, I don't know what's next to me, but figure it would be wise to stay in the car for a few more seconds just in case we're not through crashing. I can also tell that other than my left ear is ringing that I'm not injured, so I get out. Next to me is a black Chevy Malibu with heavy damage, and in the driver's seat there is a young woman talking on her phone in a very animated manner. I also see a white Honda in the leftmost lane that is badly mangled, and the occupants had gotten out and are standing by the guardrail. I can also see the truck and trailer, they've gone off the right side of road and are stuck in a shrubby area, with the truck jackknifed. Fortunately the trailer is empty. I go over to see if they are injured, but they are not, but the passenger says that part of the seat jabbed him in the side and that he was sore. Also stopped in the left lane, but in front of me, is a white SUV with minor bumper damage, and more confusingly, on the right side of the road behind me is another sedan, and a wrecker. I'm trying to figure out how he got here so quickly. There are a number of people out of their cars talking on their phone, but I'm not one of them, the airbag deployment has my ears ringing and I can't hear very well.
While we're waiting for the police, a few of us start kicking debris out of the way so that there's at least a path for one vehicle to start getting through. We get enough broken plastic and glass moved to get one lane going and continue to wait for the police. about 15 minutes go by and still no police, so I call 911. My hearing is still not very good, and there are trucks going by a few feet away so I can barely hear him. I tell him where we are and how long it's been, but am having the hardest time hearing him. The phone gets quiet, and I realize he's ended the call. Finally, about 10 minutes later, an unmarked car drives up and a state trooper gets out. He starts checking for injured,and then a second one pulls up. This one pulls out some rubber cones and stops traffic. Someone starts sweeping the debris off of the roadway and another wrecker appears, then a whole fleet of them. After talking to each of us, the trooper asks me if my car will move. It does and they ask me to put it on the left shoulder. One wrecker removes the black Malibu that was alongside my car, the white Honda pulls onto the left shoulder, and the troopers open two lanes of traffic. The wrecker drivers descend on the truck and trailer, and start pulling it out of the woods, while those of us with broken cars wait. It takes the wrecker drivers quite a while to pull the truck and trailer out of the woods, and then they all leave to work another accident, leaving us there. At this point we're probably an hour and a half from when this occurred.
While I'm waiting, I start talking to some of the other drivers. It turns out that there were three separate incidents: the truck and trailer going off into the bushes, the white Honda reareending the SUV, and the black Malibu rearending the wrecker that had been sitting on the shoulder and then bouncing into my car. Speaking of my car, the driver's door does open and close, sort of, but is badly beaten up. The outside mirror is gone, the window is shattered, and the side curtain airbags are hanging down from the windshield to the back glass. The seatbelt no longer works, and there's some damage to the rear door on the driver's side as well. The trooper asks me if I need a tow, and I say yes. If I lived nearby I would have driven home, but I'm not interested in trying to drive 400 miles in a car with no window, a door that may or may not close, the airbags hanging down and the seatbelt not working - plus who knows what else.
Finally more wreckers appear. They hook up all the other cars and haul them away, leaving me there. The trooper comes by, gives me a bottle of water, and tells me that the towing company didn't send enough wreckers because one of the other drivers said he didn't need a tow, then realized that he did, and since I was the farthest one down the road and the damage wasn't obvious, they left me there without asking if I needed towing. He gave me his name and phone number, and the number of another towing company that he had called, then asks me if I need anything else. I don't, so off he goes to another accident.
So, there I am, standing in the center median of I-75 with a broken car, no arrangement for a place to sleep or a way to get home. There's no air service out of Ocala, and the only bus available is Greyhound, which I'm not wanting to experience. Doesn't matter, they only leave once a day in the morning, and the next day's bus is full. I can get a flight out of Gainesville, which is about 40 miles away, but it's already 6:00 and the last flight is at 7:45, and I'm still stuck on I-75. Finally a wrecker arrives, at 6:15, only two and a half hours since the accident. I'd been up since 6 AM, got a rental truck, drove it an hour, helped load it from a third floor apartment, drove it an hour and a half, unloaded it into a storage locker, drove 45 minutes to return the truck, and then got in a crash. I missed both breakfast and lunch, and I had a headache and a stiff neck from the crash and airbag deployment.
We got the car to the wrecker's yard and unload it. The wrecker driver drops me off in part of town that has multiple hotels, and I snag a room. I have a sister who lives not far from Gainesville, Fl, and works as an RN at Shands Medical Center. She's working 7 PM to 7 AM that day, so I arrange a ride with her to the airport for Tuesday morning. I book a flight on Delta for midday, and finally can relax.
I really hope never to have to do any of that again.
I'd rehearsed in my mind many times what to do in a situation like this: Left foot on the floor, push myself moderately into the seat, as soon as I get stopped put my head against the headrest and drop my hands to the bottom of the steering wheel, hold on loosely, and close my eyes, and wait for the impact. This is the first time in 40 years of driving that I needed it. About two seconds after getting stopped, maybe less, I hear a loud BANG! and can feel glass shards in my lap. I open my eyes and can see that the driver's window had shattered and the side curtain airbags had deployed. Because I can't see past the airbags, I don't know what's next to me, but figure it would be wise to stay in the car for a few more seconds just in case we're not through crashing. I can also tell that other than my left ear is ringing that I'm not injured, so I get out. Next to me is a black Chevy Malibu with heavy damage, and in the driver's seat there is a young woman talking on her phone in a very animated manner. I also see a white Honda in the leftmost lane that is badly mangled, and the occupants had gotten out and are standing by the guardrail. I can also see the truck and trailer, they've gone off the right side of road and are stuck in a shrubby area, with the truck jackknifed. Fortunately the trailer is empty. I go over to see if they are injured, but they are not, but the passenger says that part of the seat jabbed him in the side and that he was sore. Also stopped in the left lane, but in front of me, is a white SUV with minor bumper damage, and more confusingly, on the right side of the road behind me is another sedan, and a wrecker. I'm trying to figure out how he got here so quickly. There are a number of people out of their cars talking on their phone, but I'm not one of them, the airbag deployment has my ears ringing and I can't hear very well.
While we're waiting for the police, a few of us start kicking debris out of the way so that there's at least a path for one vehicle to start getting through. We get enough broken plastic and glass moved to get one lane going and continue to wait for the police. about 15 minutes go by and still no police, so I call 911. My hearing is still not very good, and there are trucks going by a few feet away so I can barely hear him. I tell him where we are and how long it's been, but am having the hardest time hearing him. The phone gets quiet, and I realize he's ended the call. Finally, about 10 minutes later, an unmarked car drives up and a state trooper gets out. He starts checking for injured,and then a second one pulls up. This one pulls out some rubber cones and stops traffic. Someone starts sweeping the debris off of the roadway and another wrecker appears, then a whole fleet of them. After talking to each of us, the trooper asks me if my car will move. It does and they ask me to put it on the left shoulder. One wrecker removes the black Malibu that was alongside my car, the white Honda pulls onto the left shoulder, and the troopers open two lanes of traffic. The wrecker drivers descend on the truck and trailer, and start pulling it out of the woods, while those of us with broken cars wait. It takes the wrecker drivers quite a while to pull the truck and trailer out of the woods, and then they all leave to work another accident, leaving us there. At this point we're probably an hour and a half from when this occurred.
While I'm waiting, I start talking to some of the other drivers. It turns out that there were three separate incidents: the truck and trailer going off into the bushes, the white Honda reareending the SUV, and the black Malibu rearending the wrecker that had been sitting on the shoulder and then bouncing into my car. Speaking of my car, the driver's door does open and close, sort of, but is badly beaten up. The outside mirror is gone, the window is shattered, and the side curtain airbags are hanging down from the windshield to the back glass. The seatbelt no longer works, and there's some damage to the rear door on the driver's side as well. The trooper asks me if I need a tow, and I say yes. If I lived nearby I would have driven home, but I'm not interested in trying to drive 400 miles in a car with no window, a door that may or may not close, the airbags hanging down and the seatbelt not working - plus who knows what else.
Finally more wreckers appear. They hook up all the other cars and haul them away, leaving me there. The trooper comes by, gives me a bottle of water, and tells me that the towing company didn't send enough wreckers because one of the other drivers said he didn't need a tow, then realized that he did, and since I was the farthest one down the road and the damage wasn't obvious, they left me there without asking if I needed towing. He gave me his name and phone number, and the number of another towing company that he had called, then asks me if I need anything else. I don't, so off he goes to another accident.
So, there I am, standing in the center median of I-75 with a broken car, no arrangement for a place to sleep or a way to get home. There's no air service out of Ocala, and the only bus available is Greyhound, which I'm not wanting to experience. Doesn't matter, they only leave once a day in the morning, and the next day's bus is full. I can get a flight out of Gainesville, which is about 40 miles away, but it's already 6:00 and the last flight is at 7:45, and I'm still stuck on I-75. Finally a wrecker arrives, at 6:15, only two and a half hours since the accident. I'd been up since 6 AM, got a rental truck, drove it an hour, helped load it from a third floor apartment, drove it an hour and a half, unloaded it into a storage locker, drove 45 minutes to return the truck, and then got in a crash. I missed both breakfast and lunch, and I had a headache and a stiff neck from the crash and airbag deployment.
We got the car to the wrecker's yard and unload it. The wrecker driver drops me off in part of town that has multiple hotels, and I snag a room. I have a sister who lives not far from Gainesville, Fl, and works as an RN at Shands Medical Center. She's working 7 PM to 7 AM that day, so I arrange a ride with her to the airport for Tuesday morning. I book a flight on Delta for midday, and finally can relax.
I really hope never to have to do any of that again.
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