A few days after Christmas, we were driving to meet up with some friends. The highway looked nice and dry, until we got to one section, just about to go over a bridge, and Danny said "is the ground wet?" [Kind of, it was black ice.]
Just as he set it, we started fishtailing. I couldn't get control over the car, and we started spinning. We were in the left lane, so were spinning in the left lane and shoulder. There was plenty of traffic behind us- I just remember seeing lots of bright headlights, and especially the lights of a semi-truck. I don't know how it missed us. Eventually we hit the concrete barrier in the center, in the front and then in the back, where Max was sitting. The air bags went off at some point while we were spinning, before we stopped. Danny was shouting, and the whole time I was just thinking about Max. Was he ok? Was he going to be ok? If he was ok, was he scared because we were screaming? Everything was in slow motion. I was praying for the car to stop. Eventually it did. Danny was shouting at me (it was loud, we were on the highway) to get out of the car because we were hanging into traffic. I couldn't- my door was crushed shut. Probably my biggest fear in life-- being trapped. It was even worse because all I wanted to do was check Max and hold him and let him know everything was going to be ok, but I couldn't. I was stuck. And I kept imagining the worst, because I couldn't hear him crying, I could only hear Danny shouting.
I was shouting at Danny to hurry and get Max out and get out of traffic and onto the shoulder.
A kind lady pulled over to help, she offered to let max sit in her car (it was warm). Danny put him in her car and started walking towards me. I started SCREAMING for him to not leave Max. I envisioned her driving away with my baby after he had just survived that crash and I was panicked.
While this was all going on, I was calling 9-1-1. Danny was on the phone too (he called my mom). My mom (and brother) arrived right about the same time as the cops & firemen. I've never been so happy to see them.
We unloaded everything from the car and signed some papers for the cops and firemen. They checked Max to make sure he was ok and they installed his car seat into my mom's car. We got in her car and just drove away and we just sat there, staring into space, in complete disbelief at what had just happened. I couldn't stop shaking and was really cold the rest of that night. We all had some pretty serious soreness and migraines for several days (lets just say if it was us against the airbags and or the concrete barrier we hit, the airbags and barrier won. big time). And I, being the driver, felt a lot of guilt (and still do) for nearly killing us and for killing our car. But we were ok. And so grateful for our lives. And especially grateful for Max's life and for his car seat.
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| pics from when we went to look at the car at the car storage place. |
I really can't even complain about the bummer this put in our finances and in our digging-out-of-debt plan, because I really am just so grateful that we are all alive. Especially my two guys, who I am pretty dang crazy about.
But, it was certainly a setback.
We still owed about $2800 on our car.
We have a $1000 deductible on our insurance.
Our car was kind of a junker, so we were just crossing our fingers, hoping to break even.
Our insurance was actually really decent to work with. There wasn't a lot of haggling and arguing over a price-- they offered about $5500 which obviously covers the balance of our loan and the deductible with a tiny bit left over.
And-- as a bonus, if you weren't aware, most insurance companies will pay for you to get a new carseat! In our case, we got about $350!
Some take aways we learned: drive carefully out there in stupid winter, be nice to your insurance company and maybe they will be nice back (but if they aren't, haggle your way and get what your car is worth!), and don't take your days on this earth for granted.
We haven't decided what we'll do as far as replacing the dang thing goes. $1700 doesn't exactly cover much of a new (used) car. TBD!
