Well Shit...RIP Amanda
I can't even begin to describe the multi-level suck-i-tude we're all feeling right now.
Basically my brother got into an icky hit-and-run car accident this morning. In short a red truck in the lane next to my brother's lost control and veered in front of his vehicle. After slamming the breaks to avoid hitting the guy, my brother's car hydroplaned, spun out of control on the freeway (it was raining heavily) and bonked into the truck and ricocheted off into the sunrise. The impact was so bad, car wouldn't start after that incident. Fortunately, two really kind Samaritans helped push my brother's car off the freeway and onto the shoulder.
Meanwhile, the asshole who swerved in front of my brother and caused this accident in the first place decided tear down I-35 and try to get away. WTF? What a moron! First off this is Thanksgiving weekend, so there were tons of people on I-35. Secondly, practically everyone has a cell phone so as this prick was speeding past a whole string of eyewitnesses, a bunch of which who were probably itching to go home as well, there was a lovely chorus of phone calls to 911 in rapid succession. In fact, by the time the police and ambulance reached my brother, a cop car had already caught the idiot in the truck who tried to run away.
As you can see my brother looks okay, but the car certainly doesn't.
He was struck in such a way that he whacked his head into the windshield, but aside from a mild headache, my brother appears to be physically sound. He's pissed off as hell of course. We're guessing the dude ran because had no insurance, which sucks balls, but we've got to thank God in the fullest for seat belts. It's a miracle that no one really got hurt. We're still waiting on more info...
Emotionally this has been taxing for us. I mean, we just lost out dad. To think we almost lost JBro is something too difficult to process at the moment. "Amanda" was my brother's first car and it was a generous gift from my dad. He received it his first year of college with the rationale being that since he commuted a bit he needed a reliable car. As he you can he was a very excited
Fast forward to today and Amanda is now a gnarled heap of twisted metal.
T, my mom, and I joined my brother at the wreckage yard helping him carry off his personal belongings. The freezing cold rain came out relentlessly stinging us repeatedly. That along with the grey over cast skies didn't help anyone's demeanor as we all dealt with this in our own ways. T was of course, was feeling thankful my brother was fine and joining in on cussing whenever we recounted the asshole who took off from the accident scene. My mother resorted to fretting and affectionate nagging wanting to be helpful, but really just getting into my brother's way.
I of course sulked quietly and took photos, my fingers barely able to press the shutter, it was cold out.
I focused on the damage trying to imagine how the impacts happened.
I fixated on the patches of red paint from the truck permanently fused into the surface of my brother's Acura. It had no business being there. Its brash red was adding insult to injury, flaunting itself, commanding attention like blood.
I was struck by how organic Amanda now looked post accident. Her smooth and symmetric lines were now marred by crinkles and blisters and cracks. She could not hold onto all her components. Her entrails were now exposed.
Soggy, wet and dejected we drove home in T and I's modest blue Nissan feeling tired and worn out trying to figure out the best scheme to get my brother back home to Dallas. I sat in the front with my brother's CDs balanced on my lap feeling oddly calm. I asked God to send good karma down to those who helped my brother. I sat back, feeling thankful that T and I were home when my brother called, that we had a functional car, that my brother wasn't hurt and did have insurance, that the accident happened close to home...it could have been so much worse.
Basically my brother got into an icky hit-and-run car accident this morning. In short a red truck in the lane next to my brother's lost control and veered in front of his vehicle. After slamming the breaks to avoid hitting the guy, my brother's car hydroplaned, spun out of control on the freeway (it was raining heavily) and bonked into the truck and ricocheted off into the sunrise. The impact was so bad, car wouldn't start after that incident. Fortunately, two really kind Samaritans helped push my brother's car off the freeway and onto the shoulder.
Meanwhile, the asshole who swerved in front of my brother and caused this accident in the first place decided tear down I-35 and try to get away. WTF? What a moron! First off this is Thanksgiving weekend, so there were tons of people on I-35. Secondly, practically everyone has a cell phone so as this prick was speeding past a whole string of eyewitnesses, a bunch of which who were probably itching to go home as well, there was a lovely chorus of phone calls to 911 in rapid succession. In fact, by the time the police and ambulance reached my brother, a cop car had already caught the idiot in the truck who tried to run away.
As you can see my brother looks okay, but the car certainly doesn't.
He was struck in such a way that he whacked his head into the windshield, but aside from a mild headache, my brother appears to be physically sound. He's pissed off as hell of course. We're guessing the dude ran because had no insurance, which sucks balls, but we've got to thank God in the fullest for seat belts. It's a miracle that no one really got hurt. We're still waiting on more info...
Emotionally this has been taxing for us. I mean, we just lost out dad. To think we almost lost JBro is something too difficult to process at the moment. "Amanda" was my brother's first car and it was a generous gift from my dad. He received it his first year of college with the rationale being that since he commuted a bit he needed a reliable car. As he you can he was a very excited
Fast forward to today and Amanda is now a gnarled heap of twisted metal.
T, my mom, and I joined my brother at the wreckage yard helping him carry off his personal belongings. The freezing cold rain came out relentlessly stinging us repeatedly. That along with the grey over cast skies didn't help anyone's demeanor as we all dealt with this in our own ways. T was of course, was feeling thankful my brother was fine and joining in on cussing whenever we recounted the asshole who took off from the accident scene. My mother resorted to fretting and affectionate nagging wanting to be helpful, but really just getting into my brother's way.
I of course sulked quietly and took photos, my fingers barely able to press the shutter, it was cold out.
I focused on the damage trying to imagine how the impacts happened.
I fixated on the patches of red paint from the truck permanently fused into the surface of my brother's Acura. It had no business being there. Its brash red was adding insult to injury, flaunting itself, commanding attention like blood.
I was struck by how organic Amanda now looked post accident. Her smooth and symmetric lines were now marred by crinkles and blisters and cracks. She could not hold onto all her components. Her entrails were now exposed.
Soggy, wet and dejected we drove home in T and I's modest blue Nissan feeling tired and worn out trying to figure out the best scheme to get my brother back home to Dallas. I sat in the front with my brother's CDs balanced on my lap feeling oddly calm. I asked God to send good karma down to those who helped my brother. I sat back, feeling thankful that T and I were home when my brother called, that we had a functional car, that my brother wasn't hurt and did have insurance, that the accident happened close to home...it could have been so much worse.
Labels: car, emotionally drained, family, JBro, Thanksgiving, wreck
posted by cchang at 10:29 PM
9 Comments:
I'm glad your bro is physically OK. About ten years ago, my Dad was on the way to work and was hit by some senile delinquent driving with no license or insurance -- swerved over from the other lane and hit head on. Dad had an ankle injury, and was shaken up a lot, but not too bad.
The actual settlement against the estate of the perpetrator was meager.
There should be a special painful purgatory reserved for people who do not have liability insurance.
Cindy,
I'm so glad your brother is okay. A car is just a car, but a brother is hard to replace!
Glad to hear that Johnny made it out alive without any serious injury. The car absorbed most of the energy of the crash. It's as if the car sacrificed itself to save your brother. :)
Given how crunched up the car looks, it's amazing your brother came out OK. He's not one of those super-healer invulnerable types like on Heroes, is he? ;-)
Seriously, I was in a van roll-over once. We spun around four times and I walked away from it. So I know how much accidents shake people up emotionally. To this day, I'm a far more skittish driver than I once was.
p.s. Is that your wedding ring in that shot with the CD's? Jeez, it looks big!
OH wow. I am so sorry to hear about that!! I am so glad Jbro is ok, though...that could've been a lot worse.
You know how I feel about red trucks...geez.
Thanks everyone.
I'm still waiting to hear back from Bro regarding the dude who hit his car. Basically he's filing a claim against him but as for a settlement, I have no idea what the outcome will be. I agree TVK, that individual will have to settle for a special piece of hell later on...
Is anyone else as surprised as I am that the front air bag did not deploy? We're all wondering if that was overlooked at the last inspection. Had it gone off, my brother wouldn't have bonked his head.
Mentok, that's awful you were in a roll over accident (incidentally Shawn's brother was in one not too long ago. What is with car accidents lately?) but amazing you didn't get hurt. I don't know what an accident like that would do to me....I'm nearly phobic of driving as is. There's also the issue with the other dudes on the roads. *I* trust my driving, but I don't trust other people to be as careful.
On and as for the ring...that was my 5 yr. anniversary gift. The diamonds are a little over 1.5cts total which isn't enormous, but given that I wear a size 4 ring, it looks big. Thanks for noticing though. :)
airbags only open up in a direct colision im told, that one was on the right front. im actually glad it didnt open up, i woulda broke mynose!
Whoa! Bad scene. So glad JBro is OK, please encourage him to at least get on record that he went to see a dr. This will have an ENORMOUS, GIGANTO bearing in the case the guy who hit him doesn't have insurance, and JBro is forced to collect from his own insurance company. Trust me. I found this out the hard way. DOUBLE PLUS GOOD that you took photos--my sis took photos of truck/me after I got hit by a drunk driver, and it made a $12,000 difference in what my own insurance company finally awarded me. Call if you want more gory details...
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