Car Wreck

I was seriously contemplating not blogging about this, but I think if I do it will help me get some of the feelings I have been having out in the open and away from me.

Last Thursday, a week ago, Lisa, the girls, and I were on our way home from a doctor appointment. We were all in high spirits and really excited for the day. I was admittedly going slightly over the speed limit. I usually do go 5-10 over on the freeway anyways. We were going along when traffic slowed down to almost a complete stop. I slowed down with traffic. Things started to go again so I took my foot off the brake and next thing I know the car in front of me hit their brakes really fast and I didn't have enough time to stop.  I ran right in the back of her. Two other cars and I pulled off to the side of the road. Lisa jumped out to talk to the other drivers while I made sure the girls were ok. They were scared, but fine. Lisa comes back and says the other two drivers didn't think there was a bunch of damage so they just wanted to leave, but Lisa said no, we need to get a police report and a tow truck for my sister's car.  My front end was all banged up and all my coolant had poured out. The car I hit had a dent in the bumper but she wanted to leave too.  Anyways, we called and got a police officer on the way and in the mean time the first car left. I am still not quite sure why.

After I finish checking on the girls I go check on the other driver. She was sitting in her car, crying really hard. She said her neck hurt really bad. So I told her we would have the officer check it out when he got there.  Anyways, the officer ended up calling in an ambulance and she got hauled away on a stretcher. The officer lectured me twice about not going the speed limit, even though I was only going 15 ish when I actually hit her. He was saying things like going faster might have only saved you a few seconds of time, but that other driver might have to get her back fused and she will be remembering this for the rest of her life.

Great. Thanks.

 I am already feeling guilty enough putting my kids and sister in danger and sending the other driver to the hospital in an ambulance. I need that guilt too. 

 We just got the final decision from the insurance company. The car is going to be totaled. (The car doesn't look that bad. I guess you could call it a bunch of internal bleeding.) So not only did I cause all those problems the day of, and I don't have a car to drive for a while, and now we have to go buy another car. It totally screws up our financial plan we had in place. I feel like everything has just completely gone down the hole the last couple of weeks. 

I guess I should try and look at the bright side. No one in my car was hurt. I have heard that the other driver will be fine. Just a little whiplash.  We have good insurance, so that will cover most of it. But I still have this horrible guilt and embarrassment. 

Lisa says we were on the traffic cameras. I saw the helicopter fly over head. You know everyone always slows down to see the accident. You just have to apparently. I guess it was a great show at morning rush hour traffic to see the other driver getting taken to the ambulance in a stretcher .  Yea....

One cute thing though. The evening after the accident, Will came home from work and Naomi saw him pull into the driveway. She said, "Hey mom! It's dad! Remember when he came and rescued us from the big bump?" Adorable. I am not sure if she knows exactly what happened.