Now what do I do, who do I call, what needs done? Call 911, call Dad? We were west of Burlington. How do we get home from here? I don't know. I've never had to go through this before. As I was struggling with my thoughts, a police car pulled up in front of me on the side of the road and turned on his red & blue lights. An answer to prayer. He did not get out of his car for a bit so I finally got out and started walking towards his vehicle. Then he got out and started towards me. As we met in the headlights, he asked me if I had hit it too. I told him if he was talking about a dead deer in the middle of the road, I sure did hit it. The police officer was a Burlington city policeman on his was home from a training day in Denver. He pulled around to park behind me to be a warning to traffic. He called in the incident then told me help was coming. Pretty soon an ambulance pulled up because of the blood, it needed to be called. One EMT took the ladies in the van to the ambulance to check out the forehead and for warmth for them. I stayed in the van, walked around it looking at damages, praying with gratitude that we were all safe, that I did the right thing by hitting it head on instead of swerving and most likely rolling the van. Another EMT and the police officer went back to pull the critter off the road. One of them told the ladies that they did not find its head, for what that means I do not know. Soon the ambulance took the other 4 ladies into Burlington to the Love's/Hardies store to wait in warmth for me and for a ride home.
Throughout all this my cell phone showed it had no service. The other ladies phones worked. I used one of them to call Dad and they all called their spouses. Later I used the police officer's cell phone to call Dad again to find out what to do with the van. We decided to leave it sit on the side of the road and we'd come out the next day to haul it home. I filled out all the information on the accident report. The odd (funny) thing when doing this was that the insurance card in the van was expired. Dad is always so adamant about getting the sticker on the car tags and putting the registration papers and current insurance cards in the vehicle. For this insurance card to have expired 6 months earlier is very unlike Dad. The insurance was the same and the officer must have found verification that the insurance was current.
As the patrolman was interviewing me initially it went something like this:
PO: Were you the driver?
Rose: Yes
PO: Your age?
Rose: 60
PO: The ages of your passengers?
Rose: 61, 70, 71, & 87
PO: Have you been drinking?
Rose: Yes, I have a Diet Pepsi in the cup holder. (What was I thinking? I don't suppose I was at this point.)
PO: Drinking alcohol?
Rose: No
PO: When was your last drink of alcohol?
Rose: 21 years ago
PO: So I guess that means you are borderline (Grin)
PO: Have you been using Marijuana?
Rose: No, never even tried it in college.
PO: Meth? Cocaine? Other illegal drugs?
Rose: No. We are just traveling home from attending the Mormon Temple today.
PO: I suppose I know the answers to the rest of my questions but I have to ask.
Rose: That is fine. I have nothing to hide.
I don't suppose he has had an interview like this with a nearly old lady on the side of the road before. I hope my unthinking responses are not the most stupid he has ever had. I feel for the guy.
The highway patrolman took me to town to meet the other gals in the caged backseat of his patrol car. That was another first. When he opened the car door for me to get out, he asked me if I had any questions for him. I asked if I was getting a ticket. He said there was nothing to ticket me for. I did everything right. That made me feel better.
Within a couple minutes of me arriving at Love's and before I could even buy a Diet Pepsi one of the ladies husband was there to pick us up. When we headed home he went the wrong way and we drove by where the accident happened. There was what seemed like a very long smear of critter on the road. It must have taken a bit for it to work its way out from under the van. The accident happened around 7:30 and I finally got home close to midnight. My cell phone did not even work when I got home and was at Mom & Dad's before going to my own house. When I got out of the vehicle in front of my house, the cell phone began dinging and I had several texts and voicemails. I do not know why it did not work earlier and what made it work as I was walking up to my house. Another strange thing of the adventure.
The next day, my brother, Kevin, was coming out to help Dad work on a project but the project they worked on was getting the van home from the side of the interstate road. I rented a U-Haul dolley and Dad & Kevin used Derrick's Dodge pickup and brought the car home. It started right up and they drove it onto the trailer. Looking over the van showed only a few little things. There was a little crack in the bumper by the front park light. The oil was leaking out because the filter was bent and the seal was broken. There was a little water leaking from the radiator because is was pushed back towards the engine a bit which also caused a line of some sort to be pushed back that went to the A/C unit. There was a small spiderweb crack in the upper passenger windshield the the police officer said he thought a foot flew up and hit it. There was a lit of blood on the front bumper by the license plate but did not hurt the plate or grill and there was blood and fur on the back tailgate. Dad said there was a "lot of meat" packed in under the van. My brother-in-law, Steve, ordered the parts and did the repair work on the van. Since Dad only carries liability insurance we did not need to have the airbags replaced. The dash and steering wheel from where the airbags deployed have been repaired and look a little like Frankenstein's head but it works. It is better than duct tape.
Let me tell you a little bit about airbags. When they go off it is a surprise. There is an explosion and smoke that rises from them. I had expected the 'powder' that I've heard of in the past but there was none of that. The police officer was surprised that the airbags deployed as they did because of the type of impact we had. My sunglasses were laying on the ledge by the speedometer above the steering wheel and they were still laying there afterwards. I was hit in the chest and in the legs by the airbags. I was unaware there were airbags in the footwell of the driver side. At first my belly hurt just under my breasts and not sure if that was from the airbag or the seat belt and shoulder harness. I also noticed that the back side of my left hand hurt and my legs hurt below the knees. None of that was bad but I may have been somewhat numb. I did not feel the cold either. The next day was when I began to notice things. The impact from the airbag hit my hand and even bent one of the prongs on my ring nearly flat. No wonder there was a bit of a bruise. There was a nice bruise on my belly but the worst was on my legs. That airbag really smacked both legs as I had both feet on the brake pedal when the bag blew. The under dash cover for the airbag must have been what hit me. The airbag did not look like it came out any further than the cover did. I had horribly deep bruises on the inside of my legs just under the knees. There was a large, deep lump there as well. In fact it is 2 months later and there is still a bit of a lump and some discoloration on my left leg. Don't fool yourself--airbags HURT! I know they save lives as well.
Warning & Advice:
ALWAYS, ALWAYS WEAR YOUR SEATBELT.
DO NOT swerve when you see an animal on the road. Hit it head on if necessary. That alone can save your life.
Rose
