I live in a valley with a single road in and out. I was home after my flight and about to leave to the supermarket. My W came home with my girls, and left again just 5 minutes before me. The road is single lane each way with a 55 mph speed limit. As I came around a bend in the road, I saw four cars parked on the side. Up ahead was a car flipped over, it was my W’s car. I drove past all the cars, stopped, got out and ran to the car. The passenger side was towards me and I could see movement inside. I ran around to the driver’s side and pulled the door handle and the door opened. My W was there sitting in a dazed and confused state. She asked me how was I there? Did I see the other car?
She had no obvious physical injury and I told her to stay there because I was afraid of head or back injuries. Another man came soon after me. Eventually he said he was a Dr. and the two of us helped my W out of the car.
When the EMT arrived he started asking her questions and I realized how incoherent she was. She didn’t know what day it was, etc. They put her on an ambulance and took her to a hospital a little further away than the local one because the farer hospital took care of trauma patients.
I was an emotional mess. When the cop asked me about insurance and other information, I started to cry. I called a friend (let me call her EVE) who is both my friend and one of my W’s best friends. I asked her if she could come and take me to the hospital. She readily agreed. In fact, she told me my W was on her way to meet her and another friend (let me call her JANE) at a coffee shop to chat (about W wanting to D me).
Since it’s the only road in and out of the valley, many friends saw or quickly heard about the accident. My neighbors called me and I asked them to look in on my girls. I went home, told my girls their mom was in a car accident but was OK except she hit her head and needed to get examined. D16 and D14 took it in stride, but D11 was very upset as was I.
Our friends EVE and JANE came and took me to the hospital. On the way to the hospital they told me that I was their friend as much as my W. This was really nice of them, because as many men, I do leave much of the social planning to my W. We went into the ER and there was a lot of cops and prison guards around. Some of the patients were chained. The hospital is close to a prison and many of the trauma patients are obviously inmates or newly arrested gang members.
We found my W in the ER and she was now coherent and making sense. EVE, JANE, my W, and me were talking and joking as we were waiting on my W’s CAT scan results. We joked that my W was one of the few patients who wasn’t in chains. The results came back that there was no damage and she was discharged. She is bruised. She has a bruise where the seat belt crosses you, and she has a big bump on the top of her head. Probably because she was strapped into the seat belt and the car came to rest upside down so when she undid her seat belt she fell on her head.
While we were in the hospital the cop came. There was another car involved with an older guy who did swerve into my W’s lane. The cop said the other car hit the driver’s side rear passenger door. He said he estimates the car flipped 7 times. The other driver was in the hospital a room away from my W. It’s really amazing what the cops can discern from the physical evidence. Of course, the cop’s son goes to BJJ where my W goes. We live in a small freaking community.
She was discharged about 3 hours after the accident. My W of course thanked our friends EVE and JANE umpteen times. I felt like what about me? Later after everybody left, she did thank me.
Originally, I suspected my W was speeding and also on the cell phone. It seems this is not true, or at least if it was a contributing factor, the cops are not going to investigate. The old man swerved out of his lane and that’s what the cops are going with. I didn’t see the other car.
I felt so many different emotions. It was really upsetting to see my W so dazed and confused. To see the state of the car, I really thought she would be dead or severely injured.
As a back story, my W is driving a Honda Civic which has the Tabata air bags that were recalled. I took her car to the Honda dealer two months ago for the recall. Honda replaced the air bag detonators for free due to the recall, but it seems my car also had defective sensors not covered by the recall. The price tag was $2000 to replace the sensors. I balked at the price and didn’t have the work done. The sensors only effected the passenger side air bag. My W was angry about the car’s air bags. In fact, after the BD there was an interesting exchange between us. Her car had a slow leak in a tire and I texted her that she should get it fixed because it was dangerous to drive on a tire so low on air. Normally, I take care of the car’s maintenance, but since BD I wasn’t going to take care of her car. She replied, “Well since I have no airbags, danger is more relative.” Today the airbags saved her life. The driver’s side, and the curtain air bags all deployed. The passenger side air bag did not.
I read the above and don’t see how anybody can believe it. I wasn’t the first person on the scene, but I was the first to run out of my car once I saw it was W’s car. BTW, I have no expectation this will change anything in our sitch. My W’s discussion afterwards was all about how she felt; not that I can blame her since it was obviously traumatic for her too.
