Tuesday, July 25, 2006

Miraculous escape

I got up as usual this morning and got ready to head to the office. The second time tea excercise (since the milk split the first time) and awake child delayed my heading out. I reasoned with my little one that I will be back in the evening to pick her up from school and gently patted her back and smoothened her hair. She was satisfied soon but wanted to bid goodbye from the garage. She gave me a warm hug and friendly smile and said bye. I drove the usual route to work ... the traffic was moving at regular freeway speed. Just as I merged from one freeway to another and had driven a mile, I saw a black car hit another car (I don't even remember the other car color now). This was the first time I witnessed an accident and it was just 2 cars ahead of me. I was in the left most lane (3rd lane) of a 3 lanes freeway. The accident had occured in between the first and the second lane. The traffic in the first too lanes immediately came to a halt. I noticed that the cars in my lane were still moving so I just moved on. I could hardly think ... I was too confused and I was still seeing as the events were unfolding. The impact of the accident was so bad that it left the black car spinning and within fraction of second, the black car headed towards the 3rd lane. It must just a hairline of a distance by which I missed and the the black car ended up hitting the car behind me ... there was a loud thud. I was completely shaken. My mind stopped thinking. I looked at my rear mirror and noticed that all 3 lanes were now blocked and mine was the last car to move ahead of the accident scene. The next thing that occured to me was to call 911. I was concerned about the safety of the drivers involved in the accident. But I had never ever called 911 and was apprehensive about it. But I boosted my courage and dialed 911. A heard a "Hello" and I started reporting "I just witnessed an accident on freeway ..." only after a slight pause did I realise, it was an automated recording that was playing on the other end. I was too shocked to even feel stupid. Soon a real person picked the phone on the other end.
Here is what our conversation sounded:
She: Hello California Highway Patrol
Me: M'am, I just escaped an accident on freeway XYZ
She: Which direction
Me: (trying to think hard ... I was shocked to recollect which direction I was headed) : North bound
She: Where ?
Me: Near ABC... Exit PQR
She: Tell me the details
Me: I just escaped the accident and I am concerned about the drivers involved
She: If you don't give me details, we can't dispatch our crew.
Me: I just told you the exit ... I have no more details.
She: What colour were the cars involved?
Me: I am not sure. Pls send someone though
She: OK. Thanks for calling

I am not sure, if it was OK or not for me to call 911... but in any case I did. It took me a few minutes to get back my composure. The traffic updates kept me glued to the radio set the rest of the drive to work. I only hope everyone is safe.

6 comments:

Unknown said...

What a luck!! Drive safely!

PRIDERA said...

I have been definitely lucky today

micromysore said...

phew !! scary .. got to learn defensive driving ..

Shyam said...

Fortune favour's the brave!
If you weren't brave and if you had pressed brakes, .....????

One think we might want to learn from DMV is "how to avoid crashes?" OR, "safety tips on crashes". This is similar to demo given on aeroplane for "in case of emergency" - This is "Just in case...".

PRIDERA said...

Thanks for visiting Micromysore. You cannot get into defensive driving either ... surely I would have been hit had I pressed the brakes.


Totally agreed Shyam ... what has been haunting most is that the car behind me was at no fault as well ... and was hit hard by the spinning automobile. Its so scary to imagine that driver's state !

Shruthi said...

Whew! That was close! Glad you are fine... and hope that the others are ok too.