So, yesterday, I was driving back from a job-training seminar in downtown Indy in our Hyundai Sante Fe and was rear ended by an un-insured, no-license-having mope (I love that word). Yes, it's a gas hog and we have considered replacing it with a minivan despite my initial resistance to that idea, but all in all I really like driving the Sante Fe. But now the vehicle's fate hangs in the balance as we await the assessment of its damage.
I was driving in a less-prosperous area of Indianapolis, near the Indianapolis Speedway, in the Katrina-induced pouring rain at 2 ish in the afternoon. As I approached an intersection, I heard emergency vehicle sirens. Being a substantially more aware driver since the birth of Clare, I slowed down, as did the other drivers coming into the intersection, despite the green light. I saw the ambulance coming from my left and stopped, watching to make sure all the other cars coming into the intersection had stopped too. However, I didn't think to check my rear-view mirror to see if anyone behind me was stopping too. Good thing. At least that's what people keep telling me. Because if I had seen the car barrelling at me from behind, I would have likely tensed up in anticipation of the hit and probably suffered more muscle injury. I had no warning he was going to hit me either; I did not hear squealing brakes. He just plowed right into me probably at 35-40 miles per hour.
That doesn't seem very fast, but given the condition of both of our cars, I guess it was fast enough. At first, I sat in the middle of the intersection for 30 seconds or so, where the impact relocated me. The ambulance passing through the intersection saw the whole thing. I saw the passenger EMT looking at us as they drove by and watched her radioing in the accident. In the meantime, the other drivers, being generally good-natured and sympathetic in rain-drenched traffic, started honking at me to move out of the intersection. The driver who hit me turned right and I panicked, thinking he was going to take off on me before the police came. So, I started the vehicle, which forturnately worked, and limped behind him as I listened to the horrible grinding noise coming from the back of the car.
The guy, a mid 20's black male with a bandana on his head and jeans hanging off his rear, exited his 80's era , sedan-style car, which had little left of it's front end. He asked me if I was okay as he limped over. I said yes, but didn't ask him if he was okay. The only thing I said to him was ,"didn't you hear the sirens?". He said, "no m'am (he called me m'am the whole time)...it was wet out there". He then proceeded to tell me that he didn't have insurance and his license was suspended. In fact, he said, "I left my license and my wallet at home". Great, I thought.
A firetruck pulled up and a fireman asked if we were hurt. I did a short self-assessment: no bleeding, no broken bones. So I said "no, but I think I might be a little whip-lashed". He said they were going to leave then and police would be coming soon. I was pretty hopped up on adrenaline and shaking. I got back in the car and started looking for all the typical vehicle-related documents in the glove box and called Jerry. He was not immediately available, so in my frenzied mode, I started calling random numbers in his office until I got someone who I told to find him for me. He said he'd call the insurance agent and be on his way.
The cop, a female, pulled up as I was finishing my conversation with Jerry. She again questioned us about our physical health and asked for all of our legal documents. The guy, Curtis I think his name was, told the officer about his plight. She took his name and went back to her car to write up whatever they write-up, leaving us standing in the rain. Curtis hung around my car door and I started calling people. I called Jerry back on his cell phone and called my boss; I just didn't want this guy to talk to me. But he kept talking. He halfheartedly apologized and said things like "I gotta get me a whole new car" and more notably, "I got cash, about $130.00, I can give you, but that's all I got". Yeah, $130.00 should cover the damages.
The cop came back and I was standing there, soaked to the skin by now, and she tells him his license is "suspended with a prior" and that she has cited him. I was initially flabbergasted that he wasn't going to be taken to jail, but having a job in that field, I also realized that it was common to just issue a summons for traffic offenses such as these. But I was still mad. In my opinion, the guy had no business being on the road. The cop gave me my instructions and Jerry pulled up. We went ahead to the dealership we asked the tow-truck driver to take the poor, injured vehicle to. We got even more soaked going back and forth from place to place at the dealership. We rescued our personal belonging from the car, and removed Clare's relatively brand-new, car/booster seat from the back.
Jerry and I then went across the street to rent a car. From there, Jerry went to pick up Clare from daycare and I went to the hospital. As my adrenaline stopped rushing, I began to feel more soreness and tightness in my neck, shoulders, and upper back. I was sure a neck brace was in my future, but fortunately, the doctors determined that it wasn't necessary. However, I was giving some pain medicine and was informed I was going to "hurt like hell tommorow".
It's 4:15AM right now and I have not slept very much. Granted, I was not in a horrible, life threatening car accident, but it was the worst one I have ever been in and the sensation of being hit and the sound of the impact keep reverberating through my head. As I reveiw the last few hours, I find I am very thankful for the following: 1) Clare was not in the car-enough said- 2) I wasn't seriously injured, 3) I have a loving and competent husband who took care of all the phone calls and got soaked in his business suit making sure I was okay and everything was taken care of, 4) I have a wonderfully generous father who offered to help out financially in any way he could 5) I have a caring mother who was ready to hop on a plane to fly from Florida if I had been injured 6) I have supportive friends and boss/coworkers, and 7) I was in an SUV rather than the Saturn Wagon I could have been driving this morning; I may have been more seriously injured. In addition to its size, the Sante Fe has decent crash ratings, as indicated in the link.
The SUV's back end is mushed up against the back tires. The impact caused the rear doors, which cannot be openend, crunch into the front doors, making them hard to open too. The bumper obviously is caved in and under, leaving the tow hitch about an inch off the ground. We are hoping it's written off as a total loss. Jerry was going to try and take some pictures of it and if he does, we will post one or two.
As for Curtis. How I would like to sue him, but the only thing we would get out of that is attorney fees and court costs, an expense that we don't want to take on. Hopefuly, he is now without a vehicle and cannot drive, which I think is a good thing.
8.31.2005
8.25.2005
Tell Your Story and Read Others
Its getting to that time of year again when the television networks start airing the 9-11 retrospectives, mercilessly forcing us to relive the horrors of that day over and over again. Some include images so graphic (people jumping from the building), that I cannot watch. But some, like the story of the people stranded in grounded planes in rural Canada (or was it Newfoundland?) who were embraced by the community and given beds, food, and toiletries by locals until they could resume flying, give me a sense of hope. And the firefighers and law enforcement, whose bravery and courage was overwhelming. There are others like that too, and those are more of the kinds of things I want to pass on to my daughter when she inevitably asks me and her father, "where were you and what were you doing on September 11, 2001?"
It's sometimes a cliche' thing to ask people where they were and what they were doing during some of our most notable historical events. We know the other events from our parent's generation (Kennedy) and our parent's parent's generation (Pearl Harbor) and at that time, those events joined a nation together. For my generation, it was "where were you when the Challenger exploded?" or less fortunately, "where were you when the OJ Simpson verdict was announced?". The Challenger explosion was an intangible thing for me, since I was only an adolescent, and it took place in space, more or less. The loss of life was not observable, but you knew it happened. However, it was still a tragic loss of life and still impacts us today. The Simpson case, well, that actually divided our nation. Not much more to say about that. When it was announced, I was working at Media Play. The black folks cheered and the white folks were angry. It was a sad day for different reasons.
But as much as those events, and my thoughts and surroundings at that time, are imprinted in my memory, none can edge out the incredible fear and sadness I felt on 9-11. And I hope none greater and more horrific ever will.
The link takes you to the 911 digital archives, which as it notes is "no longer posting new contributions to the public website, however your contribution has been accepted (if you post) and will be preserved in the September 11 Digital Archive collection at the Library of Congress". After posting, you can opt to have what you posted sent back to you as an email, and if you like, you can copy it here. We certainly would like to read your story...We will post our story on September 11, 2001.
It's sometimes a cliche' thing to ask people where they were and what they were doing during some of our most notable historical events. We know the other events from our parent's generation (Kennedy) and our parent's parent's generation (Pearl Harbor) and at that time, those events joined a nation together. For my generation, it was "where were you when the Challenger exploded?" or less fortunately, "where were you when the OJ Simpson verdict was announced?". The Challenger explosion was an intangible thing for me, since I was only an adolescent, and it took place in space, more or less. The loss of life was not observable, but you knew it happened. However, it was still a tragic loss of life and still impacts us today. The Simpson case, well, that actually divided our nation. Not much more to say about that. When it was announced, I was working at Media Play. The black folks cheered and the white folks were angry. It was a sad day for different reasons.
But as much as those events, and my thoughts and surroundings at that time, are imprinted in my memory, none can edge out the incredible fear and sadness I felt on 9-11. And I hope none greater and more horrific ever will.
The link takes you to the 911 digital archives, which as it notes is "no longer posting new contributions to the public website, however your contribution has been accepted (if you post) and will be preserved in the September 11 Digital Archive collection at the Library of Congress". After posting, you can opt to have what you posted sent back to you as an email, and if you like, you can copy it here. We certainly would like to read your story...We will post our story on September 11, 2001.
8.24.2005
8.15.2005
Indy Children's Museum
We went to the Indianapolis Children's Museum on Saturday to expend some of Clare's energy. This museum is the largest of its kind in the country, and rated as the finest in the country by some of the Parenting magazines. We spent about 2 hours there, and really only saw maybe 1/3 of it.
It also has the largest water clock in North America.
8.13.2005
This Blog Thing
Yeah, so we're on this bandwagon too.
Actually, we do have a purpose for this: Clare's got her own webpage http://claredueweke.aboutmybaby.com, and we don't want this one to specifically be about Clare. One of the things Jen and I are always talking about is keeping a running commentary, history, whatever, for us and for Clare. Inspired by Amanda--who is not shy about asking questions of Jen/Brian's family history--we want to throw stuff out there. There's SO much that we don't know about our families, what things were like, how you remember certain events, etc. And we want ourselves, and Clare, and anyone else who's interested to be able to have a forum for this. So that's what we're doing. I know that for my family, there's such an age difference/life experience difference that I'm going through all this stuff that my brothers did 10-20 years ago!! But even for the short visit that Dave's family made in June, it was still pretty enriching to share stuff back and forth.
We're the ones who moved away from Michigan, and it's doesn't look like we'll move back there anytime soon, if at all. So, the responsibility is on us to make sure Clare knows her family and friends. We hope people take this somewhat seriously and check, post, respond, comment etc. routinely.
Oh, and the title. It might change, but Jen liked this one a lot. Reference to Tom Hanks in League of Their Own, but sort of translates to: we're sort of here for now, and reasonably ok with it.
Actually, we do have a purpose for this: Clare's got her own webpage http://claredueweke.aboutmybaby.com, and we don't want this one to specifically be about Clare. One of the things Jen and I are always talking about is keeping a running commentary, history, whatever, for us and for Clare. Inspired by Amanda--who is not shy about asking questions of Jen/Brian's family history--we want to throw stuff out there. There's SO much that we don't know about our families, what things were like, how you remember certain events, etc. And we want ourselves, and Clare, and anyone else who's interested to be able to have a forum for this. So that's what we're doing. I know that for my family, there's such an age difference/life experience difference that I'm going through all this stuff that my brothers did 10-20 years ago!! But even for the short visit that Dave's family made in June, it was still pretty enriching to share stuff back and forth.
We're the ones who moved away from Michigan, and it's doesn't look like we'll move back there anytime soon, if at all. So, the responsibility is on us to make sure Clare knows her family and friends. We hope people take this somewhat seriously and check, post, respond, comment etc. routinely.
Oh, and the title. It might change, but Jen liked this one a lot. Reference to Tom Hanks in League of Their Own, but sort of translates to: we're sort of here for now, and reasonably ok with it.
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