So after several moments of shock i managed to find my phone and call curtis. "CALL THE POLICE!" is what he told me. So i called 911 and they told me an ambulance and police cars were on the way. When they finally got to the crash-zone (seemed like forever) they asked me if i could move my car off to the side of the road. I was in shock and couldn't do anything but cry. So the paramedics helped me out of my car and then put me in the ambulance and had the cop drive my car off to the side of the road. They checked my blood pressure and made sure i didn't have any neck or back injuries. (and i can now say i have VERY healthy blood! that's what the paramedic told me.... ) the Paramedic who was helping me kept pulling really stupid jokes trying to make me feel better and to help me stop crying. Eventually all his "it's ok.... you can fix your car" talk got into me and i settled down.
I called curtis and he came over to pick me up, since my car is not driveable anymore. It was leaking all sorts of transmission fluids, and we think it's probably totaled. This whole accident really was, well, an accident! i don't think i was driving more than 15 or 20 mph, but i guess that's all it takes to completely ruin your car.
It's been a few hours now since the incident, and im starting to come back to the real world. at first my body was pumping with so much adrenaline and shock that i couldn't believe anything was happening and i just kept telling people, 'im fine, im fine.' Now the pain is starting to come, i have a feeling i'm going to be sore for quite a while. I was so scared that everyone would be mad at me for crashing my car (silly me). Everyone has said "we're just glad you are safe!" Things could have been much worse and i'm glad things aren't too bad.
So my car..... Got pretty bent up. It now lives at cascade collision repair (can you believe they charge 121 dollars to go from maceys to cascade? that's like..... less than 200 yards!)
It's a good thing i was wearing my seatbelt. I really think it helped hold me back away from more airbag damage that could have been done.
But the other guys car..... Only had a few scrapes and dents.
Hopefully, i'll never, EVER have another one of these again. Getting hit in the face with an airbag does not = fun. And just so you know (because i'm sure everyone is dying to know) Airbags are STINKY! They smell like burning hair and plastic, and i feel like i stink now too. I suppose i could go change my clothes.... but i'm getting so tired now and just want to lay down and take a nap.
In other... not so exciting news...
I went to the quilt shop hop with my mom and i'm so excited to make the quilt from all the patterns we got!
I'm making some really cute yo-yo projects for the family reunion this weekend (bring your dollars!)
and i found a quilt book i want to buy...... but it costs 15 dollars and i'm too cheap to spend that much on a book. Maybe i'll find some dollars burning a hole in my pocket one day and go get it.
4 comments:
Yeah it's good you were wearing your seatbelt! It helped way more than you know. Seatbelts in most cars (Including your Mazda 6 there) have 2 features that people just don't realize exist -- seatbelt pretensioners and load limiters. The first thing is a little pyrotechnic charge (LIke the one in the airbag) in the seatbelt winder-upper mechanism. When your airbag deployed, so did this pretensioner...that literally tightened the seatbelt against you and pulled you into the seat.
Then the load-limiters kick in, that just means that where the seatbelt mounts to the car, it's actually designed to slip a little and destroy itself so that you don't get too much pressure from the seatbelt.
So it's a bunch of crazy things all working against each other to keep you safe! The seatbelt tugs you into the seat so you don't hit the airbag, the pretensioners slip a little so the seatbelt doesn't crush you, and then the airbag pops out so that if you travel far enough forward you hit it instead of the wheel.
Anyway, car crashes suck, but -- like everyone else said -- be glad you're safe, and realize that, even in a medium crash like this, you came out much better than you would have maybe 15 years ago.
(All these parts of the car that destroy themselves is part of why cars are 'totaled' so easy these days too. If your car is not totaled, the airbags will obviously have to be replaced, and the seatbelt probably too)
I'm glad you're safe too, and sorry about your car. That bites.
Ryan,
what an interesting bit of information! glad to know my car is, well was, equipped with such fancy seat belts to help keep me safe!
No fun. That is my worst fear. I feel bad you had to go through that. I'm glad you're not too banged up. I hope things get sorted out with your car.
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