Car accident

No, it wasn't us!

We were out and about in the motorhome today, on our way to get a storage box installed on the back. We were waiting at a light, and in the intersection in front of us, there was a car accident. It was so loud and scary. Even though we were right there in the front row, it happened so fast that it was hard to make out what exactly had happened. It was clear that one of the cars had been moving very fast and that the other had turned in front of it.

The fast car skidded waaaaay over to our left, into the grass, and stopped just short of a fence. The driver and passenger, both 20-something females, both got out right away, bent double, looking injured and shocked. The passenger lay down on the footpath. Both airbags had deployed and they had clearly felt the impact.

The turning car sat in the intersection, and we sat and looked at it for a few seconds before it occurred to us that somebody could be hurt in there. I got out and ran over, and with a sick feeling I noticed the two carseats in the back. I opened the back door and the two little girls, one about 18 months old and one about 3, were both crying, but they weren't hurt. The mom was confused. Nick and I took the little girls out of the car since it was still in the middle of the intersection of a very busy road. The engine was smoking. There was oil and car parts everywhere.

By the time we got the girls to the grassy area, loads of other people had stopped. People really are amazing. Someone was directing traffic (which was already completely backed up). There were people with the fast car's occupants, getting them water and helping the passenger breathe through what she thought must be broken ribs. Ambulances were called. Luckily our motorhome came equipped with a fire hydrant because the turning car's engine burst into flames before the fire department arrived - someone was spraying them while a bunch of us were pulling the carseats and other possessions out of the smokey car in case it exploded, Hollywood-style (it didn't).

We stayed until the police arrived, not wanting to leave the scene of an accident even though we had no useful information to share. We talked about seatbelts and how if the two in the fast car hadn't been wearing theirs, they would have been thrown out of the car.

After everyone was packed away into ambulances (the mom had called someone to meet her and the little girls), we resumed our errand. The officer directing traffic wouldn't let us turn left (which I thought was a bit rude considering we could have, there was room, and we had just spent an hour there helping out, well before he showed up) so we had to turn the wrong direction. We saw that the traffic was backed up and we would have had to turn around and sit in it to get where we had wanted to go. Nick hates traffic, so there was no chance we were going to sit in it. I myself am not particularly fond of sitting in traffic on 40 degree days (that's C not F), so was happy to jump ship. We drove past miles and miles of backup.

Oh I forgot to mention that 100 meters down the road of the scene of the accident, another completely unrelated car flipped over the median. Rubbernecker? Didn't help the traffic situation. That guy was fine.

We're hoping to get that storage box tomorrow.