car wreck
- Posted Saturday, September 17th, 2005 at 1:45 PM
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- family, friends
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- Daily life
I had a rough day yesterday. Trinity came down, which was great, and we hung out around the dorm with Ash and Jess before deciding we’d drive around Lexington a bit, for me to show her around. After that, we were going to go to David’s to watch movies. We never made it there, though, because we had a car wreck. I’m fine, she’s fine, the people from the two other cars are fine, but of course my Volvo’s smashed up. While driving down Nicholasville Road, a tan Corsica turned in front of me suddenly and I didn’t have time to stop. My nose slammed into his, spinning him around and into another car, a red Camry. The tan car was at fault anyway, because of his stupid driving, but by Kentucky law he’s at fault by default because he didn’t have a license, didn’t have insurance, and they suspect was an illegal alien anyway. He was some hispanic guy that didn’t speak English; before the cops got there, I went to ask him his name, phone number, etc., and had to speak to him en español. My Spanish teacher will be all pleased to hear I used Spanish in everyday life, I’m sure.
Dad’s been looking around for prices on replacement parts, judging from the damage he’s seen in my cell phone photos, as well as checking out other cars in case it’s pricier to repair mine than it is to get me another used car. My plans today are to go with my cousin Jay for him to look over my car and see what needs to be done.
Trin’s knees got scratched up and her finger was smashed a little bit, because of a ring she was wearing and her hand must’ve hit the dash. My arms are really bruised, especially my upper arms on the inside, from where the air bag deployed. When it happened, we were both wearing seat belts, which is why there wasn’t any serious damage to us. I would’ve been fine if the damn air bag hadn’t deployed; it’s what scratched and banged me up. Trin’s knees apparently hit the dash board. This dust from the air bag filled the air but we thought it was smoke, so we were all panicked. The doors were locked because I always keep them locked when driving, so I had to get them unlocked (by just unlocking the driver’s side door, fortunately). Then Trin’s door wouldn’t open, so she had to crawl over the seats and get out my door. I couldn’t get it into park, so I just left it in drive, but later when I was getting stuff out, it had slid up into park; something wrong with the transmission, maybe?
I called 911, Jessica, Ashlee, Scott (though his phone was busy, which led me to call Todd because I figured they’d be together), my cousin Gina, and had Trin call David so he’d know what was up. I had Gina email my parents and heard from my dad a little while later. While waiting for the cops to show up, Trin, the guy from the red car and his girlfriend, and I hung out inside the Valvoline repair shop that’d we’d crashed in front of. The Mexican guy stood out near the apartment houses which is where’d he’d been trying to turn in when I hit him. The guy from the Camry lightened the mood by cracking jokes and being sarcastic, which helped me stay cheerful. I didn’t freak out or anything, even though I was very upset about my car, of course.
My car got towed to Jessica’s aunt Sharon’s house, where Sharon said it could stay as long as I needed, which is great. Everyone’s been really helpful and supportive, to my relief. Last night as I was going to take a shower, for example, I saw Jessica and Charlotte, two girls who live in my hall, and they didn’t notice my arms at first. Jessica asked me if I’d had a good night; “No, not really,” “Did you party too hard?” “No, I had a car wreck,” “Omigosh, are you okay?” and they both ran over. I told them what happened and they were all sympathetic, which is to be expected, of course, but then later I saw Jessica when I went to brush my teeth, and she was bringing a big grocery sack to me. She and Charlotte had run around collecting candy, fortune cookies, band-aids, pain medication, cookies, suckers, Kool-Aid, and even a bag of Lucky Charms-like cereal for me, along with a note wishing I feel better soon.
The first person to actually show up to the wreck on my behalf was Ashlee, who was shortly followed by Jess and her dad, then later Scott, Todd, and Todd’s brother Brent came along. It was nice having all of them there just because it would really suck if I were alone except for the cops and the people from the other cars. Of course Trin was there as well, which was nice except that she had to be involved in the wreck to be there. Heh. Mom commented last night, “Poor Trinity! She’ll never want to come back to Kentucky.” She was seriously only here for about two hours before we had the wreck.
We weren’t going to go to the hospital but Mom was worrying and Jess said we had to, so we went to the UK Med. Center at about 8:15 last night. We didn’t get out until 11:45 because of the waiting for doctors and the waiting for Trin’s X-ray to develop (they took one of her knees). She ended up getting a tetanus shot, poor thing, but the most pain I had to endure was when they took my blood pressure, which happened twice: once when we first came in and later when a doctor saw me. The doctor (actually a third year resident, he told me) squeezed up and down my arms and each of my joints, which hurt a little bit but not as much as that dang blood pressure test. While waiting for Trin’s X-ray to come back, we were shuffled off to some cot in the middle of this area of curtained-off rooms. We were both freezing, thirsty, and hungry since neither of us had eaten since lunch time. One of the nurses saw that I had wrapped up in a spare gown to keep warm, and she fetched us heated blankets, which was awesome. We got out of there shortly afterward and Scott took us back to the dorm, where we ate, sat around online for a bit, and then went to bed.
I got a great shot of Trin this morning because I woke up before her and I’m mean. I got out a new disposable camera, since the one I’d had in the car yesterday got messed up somehow and went from having around five photos left to none–I hope it can still be developed, and snuck over to Jess’s bed, which is where Trin slept. I leaned over, hand poised on the button, and shrieked out, causing her to yell and fling her arms out, which is when I snapped the photo. That ought to be interesting when I get it developed.
Haha…no killing my best friend! Seriously though, I’m glad you guys are alright. Car accidents suck a lot. I ran a red light this weekend (on accident, I didn’t realize there was a light coming up), but no one else was on the road because it was 6 in the morning.
I so want a copy of that picture. I’ll have it framed and hang it on my wall when I get my own house someday.