Lucky to be alive

When driving a car, be safe, be thoughtful. Don’t make a mistake that could haunt you for the rest of your life.

I came across a car accident last night at Redwood and Main – the fire truck and paramedics were on the scene and looking at the two cars involved. I assumed the ambulances had been there and taken away the victims.

As I walked around and took photos of the carnage, I observed three men at the side of the road talking. I asked them what had happened.

It turned out that two of these men were in the red car that was turning left onto Redwood Avenue from the southbound lane on Main Street. The other fellow was driving the white car northbound on Main. The light was green for both but the driver of the red car admitted it was his fault. They were all very lucky.

Two weeks ago, a friend named Sallie and myself were on our way out to visit her friends, Alan and Joanne at their house in Selkirk for supper. As I signalled to turn left from Highway 8 north onto Highway 67 west, we were only about a mile away from our destination. I started to turn left. The next thing I knew we were hit on the left and spun around a few times. Just when we thought it was over, we were rolling backwards and slammed into the van that hit us which was now across the highway.

The force of the impact was so hard that my seat back broke and my glasses ended up in the back seat. A few people rushed to our car and asked if we were okay and said what a dangerous and stupid thing the driver of the other vehicle did. The other driver came to our car saying how sorry she was. We were very lucky.

Had I turned a little more, I probably would not be writing these words right now.

It’s quite amazing what happens in these circumstances. After we stopped, we both got out of the car. I walked around the vehicles taking pictures. By the time I got halfway around the accident scene, I started getting very dizzy.

A woman came up to me and asked how I felt. I told her and she told me to “sit down, you’re in shock.” I was just shaking.

Then, the paramedics attended to me. That’s when I started to feel the pain – my whole left side was sore, my back and neck hurt and my head, which must have hit the steering wheel, was pounding.

When I got up to walk to the ambulance, I got very dizzy again and could hardly walk on my left leg. The paramedics strapped me to a board and rushed me to the Selkirk Hospital about 15 minutes away.

Sallie was quite shaken up but didn’t go to the hospital. She chipped three of her teeth and her left side was also aching. We were very lucky.

Strapped to the board in excruciating pain, I tried meditating. It took about three hours before they X-rayed my spine and neck. Everything looked okay, nothing broken. But when the doctor felt my neck in a few spots – OUCH – he decided to do a catscan. Again everything looked normal. I was released from the hospital after seven hours.

Two weeks later my ears are still ringing. I’ve had lots of headaches and dizzy spells and my back and neck are still very sore. The chiropractor seems to be helping. It’s been a real emotional roller coaster. Talking and thinking about that day and how close we were to even more serious injury, or worse, still shakes me up. Indeed, the emotional scars are sometimes worse than the physical scars.

Six people walked away from two different accidents over the course of two weeks – six very lucky people. The three fellows I talked to last night were very shaken up, as were the three of us two weeks ago.

It’s very scary out there. You can be the safest and most careful driver, but all it takes is one wrong move, one little mistake on someone else’s part, and you could be seriously hurt. Think about this next time you’re in a hurry to get somewhere. If you’re late, so what, better late than never, as they say.

People do make mistakes – but who wants to make a mistake that could cost someone’s life. Would you be able to live with that? I know I wouldn’t. Slow down! Arrive alive!