0 Days Without An Accident

What would we do without elderly people on the road.

It was Sunday night and my wife, Tasha, and I were having a relaxing evening together with our dog. We decided that we wanted to watch a documentary on dinosaurs (may sound odd, but it was part of a long term dino-strategy). What goes better with a great dino-doc-flick than an ice cream Snickers bar? That's right, nothing. So off we went to my work where we happened to have some. We live about four minutes away without traffic, so, really the order was not so tall. Something most people wouldn't think twice about. Especially at 10 o'clock at night.

We were leisurely making our way to my work and were approaching our freeway overpass (I work just on the other side). Keep in mind that it had been raining all day and was continuing to do so. On the far side of the freeway I was proceeding through the green light when a car darted out in front of me, running his red light.

This is basically what I saw, recreated (except darker...rainy-er):

In an instant, my brain calculated that I did not have room to maneuver to the right. I couldn't make it to the far lane on the left, else I would have rolled the Element. So, I ended up between both lanes and launched us into the middle "river" section. I say my 'brain calculated' because at the moment above, all my conscious was calculating was, "AHHHHHHHHH!!".

If I did not correct we would have plowed into the drivers door...to a very very bad end.

When we came to a violent stop in at the bottom of the median, I asked Tasha if she was okay, mentally checked myself, then exited the vehicle to survey the damage and make sure everything was safe.

I later found out that there was an employee of the deputies office that had been waiting with the other cars at the red light and was on the phone with 911 before we had "arrived". He was letting dispatch know that the red light was taking an abnormal amount of time and that people were being impatient and running the light. Just after that, we were on the rocks.

A few people, including the deputies office employee, stopped to assist. We told them what had happened and they then questioned the man from the other vehicle, who had stopped. I soon found out that he was denying that he was even a part of the accident...which was a little infuriating. Mostly since that would have meant that he was either calling me crazy or just a really...really...really bad driver. Either way...I had percolating blood.

In the end, he was cited for running a red light and will be held responsible, my vehicle towed out of the pit of despair (suprisingly intact [the underside got it the worst and the bumper popped back out]), and we made it home in one piece. 

Tasha is feeling some residual from the crash. Her neck, back and jaw are hurting. I am doing fine. We thankfully did not bring our dog, as that could have ended up bad. We are waiting to hear back from the claims adjuster. I am thankful for how this turned out, considering how bad it could have been. Pictures of the car found after the break.

Crash Photos