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Contrary to a friend's thought -
I am NOT armed with a screwdriver wondering where to start! |
Wie geht's?
Me? Yeah - good thanks. Although I did have a serious car accident this week. The good news is that I walked away from that wreck unscathed apart from a sore chest (seatbelt impact) and sore nose (who knows - steering wheel or airbag or a flying object - definitely some plastic fragments and glass got in there).
Given the state of the car, people have said how lucky I am to survive it.
But I don't think it was luck.
The events of 5th July, 2022 will stay with me forever, I suspect.
Here's what happened...
I was driving from Hastings to home in Takapau, on State Highway 50. It was dark and there was some light rain. I was travelling the speed limit (100kph).
I had been driving for 50 mins and was 2 mins from home.
I came off a long straight and started a left turn down a small decline when I had a premonition something was in my way on my side of the road. It appeared to be stationary. There were no lights showing so my split second thought was that it was an animal, but then, a nano-second later, it seemed to be something else.
I swerved hard to the right to avoid whatever it was.
Feeling myself launch violently forward, various things happened immediately that I have no recollection of (airbags going off, seat belt tightening over my chest, making impact at 100 kph to something solid, coming to a stop).
My first thought - I'm alive. Then - oh shit! I'm facing oncoming traffic (the impact had shunted me across the road). So I pushed the door as hard as I could and got out and walked to the grass verge.
Turns out I'd hit a truck trailer fully laden with square bales of baleage, being towed by a tractor.
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A similar rig to this but with another layer of bales, night time,
wet, stationary, and no lights. So it looked to me like this... |
The driver approached me full of apologies. I kept saying, "You had no lights on! Where were your lights?"
A car from the Takapau end of SH 50 came around the corner towards me, slowed and stopped. The headlights showed my driver door. Needing to phone Jacky, I went back to the car and found my wallet and phone on the floor covered in a fine layer glass and debris. I got my umbrella out of the back of the car (it was raining remember), and grabbed a couple of face masks because my nose was bleeding inside and out. I tried to grab my ipod but it dropped into the car somewhere (I've since found it at the wreckers yard).
I wandered to where the trailer was and squatted down and waited.
Then all sorts of things started happening all at once kind of - I phoned Jacky, the employers of the driver arrived - offering me shelter in their ute, traffic banked up on both sides, the siren in Takapau went off calling the volunteer fire brigaders, the police arrived, Jacky arrived somehow getting past all the banked up traffic, the ambulance arrived, the fire brigade arrived...and everyone wanted to know what had happened.
Feeling kind of embarrassed I did my best to answer their questions, but I didn't mean to cause all this ruckus. As a school principal, I have no problem being the centre of attention at work, but I don't like fuss generally. Ordinarily, I prefer to stand back. But now - none of that was possible.
As my body went into shakes and the shock waves hit me, the paramedics checked me out.
It was all going well - I could remember the morning before school, morning tea and what I was doing periods 3 to 6. But I had a blank from 9.00 until 10.30.
For the life of me I couldn't tell the paramedics and Jacky what I'd done during that time.
As I was searching my brain for this information a member of the public brought me my glasses. They had flown a few metres away from the wreckage through the broken windscreen and were somehow found in the grass. Amazing.
So, following the paramedics recommendation - off to ED I went. Back to Hastings, at night, in a car. Not what I wanted. Along the way I realised I'd supervised two students doing resubs and completed the admin on them. But it was too late.
At ED I was met by my lead Campus Administrator - he was amazed to see me walking and talking! I was less surprised to see him - care and compassion is one of our key values and we live it in our organisation!
ED policy of seeing car accident victims inside 10 minutes meant I was heading home soon afterwards having being checked out with an ultrasound and told I was, as I'd told them, fine.
It's been a few days now and already it all seems like scenes from a movie.
I've relived it a few times in my head (especially that night and next day) and I've had to repeat the events a lot - to family, friends, parents at school, and the police. That's helped - because, it's taken on scenes from a movie status. Writing all this down now is also cathartic.
Turns out neither the trailer or tractor were registered, the lights had never worked on the trailer. And he was stationary because he had slowed down to make a left turn into a lay by.
Again - I don't think I was lucky.
It was all supposed to happen to me, I think, to spare the women behind me. She was in an older model low slung saloon, my car was a sturdy, new CX5, so higher than a saloon, with all the modern safety features.
I fear the outcome would have been dramatically different for her.
My swerve to the right saved my life (straight on and I'd have ended up underneath the trailer, swerve to the left and all the energy hitting the trailer would have killed me), the airbags and seatbelt made sure I was as safe as possible, my quick thinking to exit the car as soon as poss potentially saved me as well.
The other thing people have said - you had an angel looking after you. To which I've replied - actually, at least two and I've thanked them!
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| Swerve right saved me. |
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| Swerve left and I'm goneburger |
In the end no one was killed or even seriously injured. The split second anger at the injustice of it all has long gone. I'm fine and I've moved on.
Plus, if I didn't know it before, I really know it now - I have a lot of people around the world who care for me! So many kind people have reached out to see how I am and if I needed anything - including my work colleagues and employers, my family and friends all over the place. Thank you team!!
Turns out neither the trailer or tractor were registered, and according to the farmer, the lights had never worked on the trailer. And he was stationary because he had slowed down to make a left turn into a lay by.
I've been a little off in my thinking since that night - can't think of a name or a word at times, and I think I've repeated that last paragraph a bit further up. To the question - did you black out at all? I've answered, "I don't think so", but my brain was travelling at a 103kph and then it stopped really abruptly, and that can't be a good thing.
Other questions you may be asking: no, my life did NOT flash before me, and it didn't take place in slow motion - I had no time to think as I rounded the corner doing a 103kph and as headlights picked up an object, beyond a split second reflex action (no time to hit the brakes even, so no dramatic skid marks).
My family reaction? After the initial shock/horror, was that it will certainly make for a good blog post!
Love and peace - WNP
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