Saturday, March 21, 2009

I survived

Last night I was in a car accident. I entered the 5 freeway going North at the Dana Point PCH on-ramp. There was some debris in the acceleration lane. It was pretty big. I doubt I was traveling faster than 50mph because my car has been having transmission issues and does not accelerate very fast. I swerved left to avoid it moving into the next lane. My car started to fishtail (I think i hit the debris). I turned right to try to compensate and started into a spin-out that ultimatly lead my car to the curb and off the road and onto its roof. The passenger side window shattered and the roof above my daughter crushed in a bit. A flood of roadside dirt and sand flowed into the car's ceiling. I immediately unbuckled my seat belt. I think that is when I hit my head and got a scrape. I looked for a way out. I kicked open the driver side door, unbuckled my daughter and helped her out. I unbuckled my youngest son and helped him out. I crawled out and gathered them together. We hugged and prayed thanking God that we survived. The moment I stood from our prayer a man from a white pick-up truck was standing ready to help. He called the California Highway Patrol and I called my wife. She and my older son were in the other car. They turned the other car around and headed back to pick us up. It was not more than a few minutes and CHP arrived and started taking a police report. He had some sort of an accent. My body was pumping adrenaline. My knees were shaking. My daughter had a small cut from the glass on her right hand. I got the keys from my ignition and opened the trunk to get my first aid kit. It fell open and everything dropped out - except the spare which was bolted in place. Needless to say I was not thinking all that clearly. I did eventually remember to remove my son's blanket and my dad's hat from the car. My registration and insurance fell adjacent to the driver side door. Rather convienient for when the officer asked for them. The tow truck showed up and started preparing to roll the car back to its wheels. The rear axle was bent from where the driver side rear wheel hit the curb. There was some fluid streaming from the upside down hood. A few minutes after the tow truck arrived, my wife arrived. I sent the kids to her while I walked around with the CHP officer trying to piece together the accident details. The debris that looked like the size of a giant sea turtle was no where to be found. We did find a flattened box (the size of a case of 8-1/2" x 11" paper) and a trash bag (large size). There were a couple of skid marks and a large chunk from a tire that I thought may have been from my car. I don't think my car left any skid marks because we were spinning not skidding. I placed all the paper work (insurance, registration, card from the CHP) in the Book of Mormon that fell out of my trunk. There wasn't much else to do. The towing company flipped the car back on its wheels. We called our insurance company and left for an emergency room. We decided against a hospital emergency room and went to an urgent care. Unfortunately the urgent care closest to my house does not accept adults after 8pm. It was there that I visited the restroom and saw what the nurse saw. I had a blotch of dirt from the crown of my head to my jaw. It went around my left eye and into my left ear. I washed up as best I could and called my wife to take me home. I figured that I could go to Hoag Hospital's Emergency room later. While at home I received a call from a neighbor. She called by accident, but helped answer some of my questions; she is a nurse. I called Hoag to see how busy they were. They were out of beds. I figured that would get better care here at home than waiting all night for a bed at Hoag (just for evaluation).

Podcast with some architecture content...

https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/chris-ganiere