Wednesday, March 11, 2009

No good deed goes unpunished...

Or, the story of how Someday is a good Samaritan and gets a reward she wasn't expecting.

Yesterday, Kidzilla and I were driving home along our normal route. We take a shortcut road that runs straight for about 4 miles and then makes a sharp 90 degree turn to the right. It's obvious that a lot of people miss this turn because the guardrail is usually mangled up. It was just repaired about a week ago from the last accident. There we were, driving along in the clear sunny weather, when wham, the car in front of us makes no effort to turn at all and goes straight into the guardrail. Luckily there weren't any other cars coming the other way to smash in to. I was the only witness and at that time the only car on the road. So I stop my car on the shoulder, holler at Kidzilla to stay in the car-DO NOT GET OUT, flag down the next car that comes by to call 911 and head over to the car. We had probably been going close to 30mph, the airbags had deployed, the windshield smashed and the driver was slumped over. I have taken first aid courses several times in my life, but I've never actually had to USE it and I was really praying that I wouldn't have to this time.

I opened the door and the driver got out, he was stunned and in shock, but had no other injuries. At that point, the driver of the vehicle I flagged down came over and talked to the guy and the police. I realized that it was 85 degrees out and Kidzilla was in the closed car so I went back to my car to roll down some windows for him and turn on the radio. I tried to overhear what caused the crash and it was either a bottle had rolled under the brake and he couldn't press it down or he was reaching down to get a bottle that had fallen on the floor and hadn't seen the turn (note to self- clean debris out of car more frequently).

Once the poor guy was sitting on the ground and seemed to have recovered himself and I had given my statement and information to the police, I was told I could go. So I hopped into the car and... nothing. It wouldn't start at all. So I called my knight in shining armor, A, to come rescue me. I will leave out the hassle he gave me for this. He arrived, sent me and Kidzilla home in his truck and waited for AAA to come tow my car (in addition to the damaged car right next to mine). As it ended up, I had a completely dead battery (although not from just the running of the radio while waiting at the accident scene) that cost us $100 to replace. If I hadn't stopped, the car probably just wouldn't have started this morning and I'd still have to replace it, but it just seemed like incredibly ironic timing. I guess it takes a good karma deposit time to clear the bank.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Sounds like a day to remember!