In An Instant!!

Sometimes crap just hits you in the face. When you are least expecting it something happens that grabs you by the collar, draws you close and says "PAY ATTENTION". If we are fortunate the experience is not accompanied by long-term consequences. Sometimes,  however, they do.

Yesterday was a typical busy Saturday for us. We started it with our oatmeal breakfast which has been a favorite of ours for the past several months/ Not that instant stuff; Old Fashioned Quaker Oats. Then at 8:00 I joined my fellow Kiwanians in building a wheelchair ramp. That being manual labor and something I don't usually do I took a couple of hours downtime before we went for a visit with Mom at the nursing home. Our plans for dinner at Mamacitas completed we headed toward the Texas State Campus to our favorite frozen yogurt store for desert. We never made it. From that point on the day was anything but typical!

We were sitting at the red light. The light changes to green and I start a normal acceleration. WHAM!!! We are rear ended by a car at a very high rate of speed. The impact drives us through the intersection and my car comes to a grinding stop. The first thing I do, of course, is check myself and Emma. The seat belts prevented our heads from colliding with the windshield or dashboard so we were both conscious and apparently unharmed. So my next concern is for the other driver. His car had continued on about 100 yards and he had pulled off the road. By that time he had gotten out of his car and was assessing the damaged. He didn't seem to be concerned about us at all. I called 911 and, it being San Marcos, found the accident had already been reported and a police officer was driving up. We got my car out of the roadway and the investigation begins. Meanwhile the EMS arrives and while they are checking out Emma I am checking out the behavior of the other driver. It is apparent that his day had included chemicals of some kind, probably alcohol, and that he was clearly under the influence. To confirm that another driver stopped and reported to the officer that the same vehicle was going about 70 on the access road and nearly ran her off the road a few minutes before.

While I would like to have dealt with him there my main concern was Emma and we decided that she needed to go to the hospital to be checked over good. As we were leaving in the ambulance the police were administering the field sobriety test on the other driver. Later, as I waited for Emma to return from a cat scan, the police marched him in, in hand cuffs, presumably to draw blood for evidence. The good news for us was that everything checked out fine for Emma. We are both sore today but feeling blessed that it wasn't much worse.

We all hear these stories. Many, sadly, end with people severely injured or killed. At a minimum there is property damage, significant inconvenience, and an unnecessary disruption of lives. In the case of the young man that hit us his troubles are just beginning. If found guilty of a DWI he can expect to spend a minimum of $5,000 defending himself and paying fines and court costs. He will most likely lose his privilege to drive and, if he does retain it,  his insurance rates will be astronomical. I suspect he spent the night in jail and had to call his dad to bail him out. Not a fun call to make! But all in all, he is a very lucky young man. Nobody was injured and this just may be his mulligan.Let's hope he learns from this mistake and avoids making the same one with graver consequences.

And the lessons that were reinforced for me? Those seat belts are pretty great! I love my wife and am so grateful that neither of us was injured. Another thing is that I can always count on my baby sister when I need her and hope she knows the same thing goes for her. Finally, we never know what kind of adventure is around the corner. Make each day a good day for you and someone else. It may be your last chance.