Less Than a Blink

Sometimes life is crazy busy and there are so many interruptions that I begin a post and then can’t get back to it for hours, days or even weeks. I eventually get discouraged and just scrap the piece of work. This one is too important to scrap. I’m starting this post on February 17th, just after lunch. If I have to leave my desk, I will add another time stamp.

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My grown daughter came to visit over the weekend when January ended and February began. It was a wonderful visit! We played games, cooked amazing food, talked and laughed. My son came to visit for about half the day on Friday and for a little while all three of my babies were together, playing Monopoly, laughing and bickering. A lovely and rare event.

On Saturday we had a wonderful dinner with extended family at a local restaurant. We sat and talked long after we had finished eating. The waiter kept smiling, sighing and moving the ticket pad around the table until we finally caught on and decided to continue the visit at our home.

Hubby, Makayla, Kiddo and I piled into our little Fiat. The conversation was light and fun as we were driving home.

Hubby was driving and slowed to a crawl to make a left turn. I was laughing at something one of the girls said when my peripheral vision caught the faintest blur of a speeding black car barrelling towards the driver’s side of our Fiat. Hubby must have seen it too because he stomped the brakes.

From my perspective, seeing the blur of the car, feeling the slight jerk of the brakes followed by the sharp jolt of the impact as the black car struck the front end of our Fiat, all happened in the same instance. Our car rocked. Hard. For the briefest of moments I thought it might roll over onto the passenger side, but it stayed upright.

Miraculously, no one was injured. I checked on the girls as Hubby got out of the car and said, “Call 911”. I pushed on my door, but it wouldn’t open. The impact had warped the entire front end and the front fender was blocking my door. The door did open though, with a bit of force.

The car that hit us went airborn very briefly after skimming across the low front end of the Fiat and then spun into the ditch several hundred feet away. The driver was hitting the gas, spinning tires and trying to leave, but his car was stuck. It had rained hard the day before and the mud was still deep. Hubby approached the black car and told the guy, “You need to shut the car off and get out” and then turned to walk back toward us.

The driver of the black car climbed out the window and started charging towards Hubby and was obviously ready for a fight. I yelled out and Hubby turned to face the guy. It was obvious that this young man was intoxicated and under the influence of drugs. Most likely meth due to the rage and madness in his eyes. He got so close to Hubby’s face that their noses almost touched. This guy was screaming and cussing and begging Hubby to fight him. A lot of what he said was incoherent rambling about him having a “life you couldn’t ever know!” He never threw a punch though.

I was proud of Hubby for keeping his cool. I did not keep mine. I kept trying to get between them. I was screaming at the guy to back off and showing my red-neck roots.

Eventually, the cops arrived and things cooled down. The other driver was arrested for DUI.

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I had to leave my desk and was not able to return to this post until Tuesday, February 18th.

Since the wreck, I have had a lot of time to think about what happened and how it happened.

A blink lasts between 0.1 and 0.4 seconds.

It was determined that the intoxicated driver was traveling around 90mph when he ran the stop sign and hit our Fiat. The passenger side of his car hit our car along the front end, in front of the tires, shearing off the front end of the Fiat, including the radiator.

If the site of the impact on the Fiat were 5 inches further back and had hit the and axle, or even 23 inches farther back and hit the door, there would have been injuries or fatalities.

A vehicle traveling 90mph moves about 7.92 inches in 0.005 seconds. Less than a blink.

If the timing of the accident had been altered by less than a blink, we could all be living a different life, or have no life at all. All of us, including the intoxicated young man that hit us.

If Hubby had hit the brakes 0.005 seconds later or if the black car had accelerated just that much more, or if anything, anything at all, had happened to alter the timing of this accident, it could have been devastating.

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I had to leave my desk again and have returned on Thursday, February 20th

Twenty days after the wreck I am still having difficulty wrapping my mind around the fact that we were saved because the sequence of events occurred EXACTLY as they did.

0.005 seconds. Less than a blink.

I am not a fan of organized religion and I view “God” very differently than most. I cannot stop thinking that we are all alive because some force of energy in the universe decided in that microscopic moment in time that we SHOULD be alive.

I am so very thankful that we are all still together in this life. I understand that we never get to decide when we or those we love “pass on” but I wasn’t ready to be separated from my family just yet. We have so much more to do, so much more love to give one another. I hope we all manage to remain together for many years to come.

When I’m driving or riding along in the passenger seat, I scrutinize every vehicle at every intersection. Kiddo watches other vehicles on the road now and gasps or jumps when they do something she wasn’t predicting in her mind. Makayla had a nosebleed after she returned home to Richmond on Tuesday. The ER doctor said it was most likely due to high blood pressure following the wreck. Hubby, as always, seems unfazed other than being thankful that we weren’t hurt.

I have no doubt that in time, we will recover from the mental and emotional trauma.

What about the other guy? Well, he was arrested at the scene of the accident for DUI. The police report indicates he was under the influence of alcohol and that a drug test was performed. The results of the drug test are not available on the report. He spent about 12 hours in jail before bonding out.

His wife arrived at the scene of the accident and told us they have five children, one of them disabled. She did acknowledge that he has a substance abuse problem, but did not disclose his drug of choice. I hope for the sake of his family that he comes to his senses and decides to get help for his addictions. They need a husband and a father they can rely on. That being said, I am angry. I am angry that he chose to get behind the wheel and drive while intoxicated. He placed his life, our lives and the lives of anyone else on the roads he traveled that day in danger. He could have left those five children without a father and his wife to raise them alone. He was selfish and that makes me angry.

Addiction is evil.

I am thankful for the freedom to write about this and share it with all of you.

It’s all about freedom!