Whatever your Christmas Eve has been and your Christmas will be, just remember: you’re not in the hospital with the flu/pneumonia (except Beth – Sorry!), and you’re not in the ER with your spouse and two young kids – each of you being checked due to your car hydroplaning, spinning off the freeway and *through* a sturdy large sign pole. Full story below.
Merry Christmas!
As we are heading off the freeway via the exit ramp to the airport to pick up Mom and Michael, I see a chunk of ice just almost on the side of the road, and I wonder “How can there be ice on the road?”. Then I think, “Wait, is that really ice?” As I turn my head back to look, I see what might be a car… off in the ditch… and something else… “It’s wrong.” the alarm in my head tells me.
So I try to be careful as I not too quickly slow the car down and pull over. Put on the hazards, and semi-cautiously back up in the break down lane to not quite where I saw the car. I tell Amber to wait in the car while I go see what’s going on. In the rain. In my church boots and coat. At least I had an umbrella.
Definitely a car, blinkers on, facing the freeway, can’t tell if this is an old accident or new. I walk around the end of the guard rail, which is now bent wrong, and find I have to step over/around a thick pole that used to hold up – I don’t know what, but more than just an exit sign. As I get closer to the car, it’s actually a SUV that’s back end is about 1 foot deep in water and mud, and is missing the outer half of the driver side door – while closed – as well as the entire door window.
The driver is in it, blood spattered all over his face, the rest of the door hugging the side of his body. There are three in the back seat. They tell me they just called 911, and thank me for stopping. Clearly the two adults are only holding it together because there are two young kids in the car. Both are responding well to me though, as in holding conversation just fine. They try to briefly explain that they hydroplaned and it happened so fast and the car veered off the road. The driver talks about how his face must be bad especially his eye. I tell them I used to be an EMT, my certification has expired. But I’ll give them a quick once over if they want. As I do, I tell them what more will be evaluated when the ambulance arrives. I give the driver/father a EMT-B eye exam because he was worried he had gotten glass in it – I don’t see any problems and his eyes both dilate properly and in unison. The blood is dripping in from his nose/forehead. He says he’s wearing a contact, so that’s probably making things worse for him. The mother is most worried about the baby in the rear facing car seat, who’s acting fine, because the window above him broke too (he was on the driver’s side). I tell her that side of the car is in water, so I have to come in from this side (the passenger side), but I’ll check what I can. The 2-ish year old on the passenger side also seems fine, other than completely not sure what emotion to be feeling, and asks me to fix the car. I tell him I don’t work on cars, only people. I reassure them all as best I can. Mother is in the middle seat, but isn’t wearing a seat belt. I later wonder if she moved back there from the front passenger seat after the accident to calm the kids. The father is on the phone now with someone – likely their destination folks from the way he’s talking. The woman on the other end of the call must not be understanding him as he repeats himself twice, so saying three times that they are going to the hospital and the car is … whatever, he’s getting louder and sounding angrier each time. “Calm down” I say from the back. The mother tells him to let her talk to her, and takes the phone. The father looks back at me and much more calmly says something about it having a speaker phone, that doesn’t appear to be working.
The police car, lights and sirens on, goes flying by on the freeway. The father honks and calls after them using strong but not swear words (because that will help how?). I tell them I’m going to go back up to do the ambulance dance. Once I climb back up to the freeway exit ramp, I call 911 to tell them the police just drove by. They ask if I’m on the side of the road with hazards on, I say yes, they put me on hold, then come back and say the police have been told to turn around and come back. I go to my car and check on Amber and reassure her. Then I go back to the spot on the side of the freeway above where the car is down in the ditch hardly visible. When I see the lights from the coming ambulance, I turn on the flashlight on my iPhone and start waving it in the air at them. They don’t go flying by. I stay back on the freeway and let the Paramedics to their job, just say to the first one out that the driver doesn’t look good, and to the second one that there are two kids in the back. The cops go by in the opposite direction. I go tell Amber we’ll be able to leave after I talk to the police, then I head back to my spot. The police get back to us, they get out an both head right for the SUV. I wait until one of the cops sees me, we head to my car. “No, I didn’t see the accident, I came afterwards.” He takes my info. He thanks me for stopping, says something about it being a good thing I did, and asks God to bless me. A couple minutes later they say I can go.
That poor family. Christmas Eve in the ER, with a likely totaled car on the side of the freeway. I’m pretty sure they’re all going to be fine, the father definitely was the most hurt, I have no idea how much his leg/side is damaged. But I still wonder and hope for them.