A Canadian gal living in Britain with 3 men and a dog. Wine helps.

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Saturday, July 30, 2005

So Grateful to Be Alive

Thursday evening Andy and I were heading home after seeing a movie. We were laughing and smiling over the comedy (Wedding Crashers) we had just seen, when Andy said to me 'Look at that car!' (or something very similar). I only had a second to see it bounce off the opposite curb some feet ahead of us on the opposite side of the road before hurtling towards us at breakneck speed. It all seemed to happen in slow motion, but yet very quickly. Neither of us had time to say anything before it crashed straight into the front of our car, passenger side on. We both heard a massive bang before the lights went out.

I opened my eyes and immediately tried to speak to my husband. I cannot begin to explain the terror in my heart that he could be seriously injured, or worse - dead. I tried to speak but as my sternum had taken a whack, I couldn't get any air into my lungs. By this time Andy was fighting his way out from under the airbag and was asking if I was alright - he kept repeating 'Jody speak to me' and I thought I was but evidently not loud enough for him to hear. Andy got out of the car and hurriedly tried to get me out. It took a few more moments but eventually I crawled across the driver's seat and got myself out and into my husband's arms.

A blond girl was standing there waiting and as soon as she saw me came running and crying. She had been walking down the path and had seen it all happen. I dread to think of that car jumping that curb rather than ricocheting off it... she could have been killed. She kept repeating that there was no way she thought we were getting out of that car.

I finally crossed the road and took a look around. I think my heart nearly stopped when I saw our car and the car that had hit us. There was a boy sprawled on the ground - after it had hit us he was thrown from the vehicle before it went through a heavy wooden barrier before stopping. A man was asking if we were ok - he had been in the car behind us and had managed to stop before our car was driven back into his with the force of the impact. Luckily, he and his three women passengers were fine. He was going around taking statements from other witnesses as he was absolutely wild at the havoc these racers had just caused. I think we were all still in a bit of shock. My Jeans were torn at the knees and were wet down the inside legs. It took me a moment to realize I had wet myself during the accident. I have actually experienced first hand that your bodily functions really do shut down when your body goes in to shock. It must have happened upon impact cause God knows I didn't have time to be frightened. How different to actually experience it, when you've explained it numerous times. It wasn't exactly something I was embarrassed about - not at that point in my life.

Andy had used someone's mobile to ring his dad and the next thing I knew, Dave was walking towards us... he couldn't believe the sight he was being met with. I raced to him crying. He was so relieved to see we were ok. I then went and sat down on the curb with the girls from the cab to await the paramedics. Naturally they had to tend to the more injured party - the boys who had caused the scene. The first thing I noticed when the paramedics reached Andy and I was the amount of blood on their rubber gloves and clothes... it was at this point that I went from being so angry at those idiot boy racers to hoping they weren't dead. However I will say, that as relieved as I am they are not dead, better them than us. If we had been killed Andy's three children would have been left fatherless.

I won't go into all the details that followed. We were eventually taken by ambulance to A&E (I was on a stretcher) and after the obligatory chest x-ray and examinations, we were released by 3:30 a.m. I will say though on a lighter note, just so you can all believe that we really are fine - when the nurses had to take my top and bra off to place the little pads on me for the heart monitor, I joked that although I was hoping for a little 'action' that night, that wasn't what I had been thinking of!

We are very battered and bruised, we have no car, but we are intact and alive. There had to have been an angel with us that night - something. I thank God every day that we were both wearing our seatbelts. There have been so many times when Andy hasn't strapped up while just driving around town and I will be eternally grateful that this was one night he was. Never again will I not buckle up. Never. We have constantly been thinking of all the what ifs but we musn't do that anymore, we did what was right and because of it we are still here.

The article in the local paper yesterday headlined 'Three cars in resort horror crash' (Cleethorpes is a resort area). Too right. Let's hope the police patrol this area in future, or put up speed cameras to try and slow down these idiot boy racers. Sadly, they are everywhere - in every county, in every country, and I fear they will never learn.

The love and support we have received from everyone has been fantastic. Its so reassuring to have such wonderful friends and family.


Our Car (Its hard to tell the windsheild is all cracked)

Both cars have obviously been written off...


Their car

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