Yesterday, August 4th, we were headed home from Salt Lake super early (6 am) to get Oakley and Brooklyn back to teach dance after their night of performing for Elder Ballard. We had just passed Far West, which is where we intended to stop for gas but passed it before we realized it and seeing that Brigham City was just ahead decided we would stop there. Minutes later we noticed traffic ahead of us slowing and speeding up, then slowing then speeding up. I slowed from 75 to about 60 when all of the sudden the little pick-up truck infront of me was at a complete stop. I slammed on my brakes, but even being several hundred feet behind him knew at that speed we would hit him. Trying to think quickly I tried to miss it by going into the right hand lane (cement barriers were to my left) and seeing a semi in that lane realized my only option was to hit him. Erica screamed and we both braced for impact. Her screaming was a blessing and woke Oakley and Brooklyn who were sleeping in the back in enough time for them to brace for impact as well. In a split second our day and plans were changed. Our airbags deployed and it was almost like we had missed something and time had stood still. Erica said is everyone okay at the same time I said it. Once we saw we were all okay Erica said, "My arm hurts." I realized then that mine did too. Looking down at my left arm it had burns all the way to my elbow from the airbag. Looking over at Erica I quickly realized that mine didn't hurt anything like hers. Her wrist was HUGE instantly. Her watch had blown open and was embedded in her swelling wrist. She asked me to help her get it off and then she said she was going to throw up. The girls and I hurried to get her a bag and just after handing it to her she told us she was going to pass out. Which she did!! I held her head up with my right hand and tried to pat her cheek/shoulder with my left. She was looking at me, but there was nothing behind her eyes. I kept saying, "come on Erica!" Brooklyn started freaking out in the back seat saying, "come on mom!!" I kept telling Brook she is okay in my super calm voice while screaming at Erica inside my head saying COME ON ERICA, DON'T DO THIS TO ME!!! What seemed like an eternity, but seconds later she was back and the color returned to her face. I jumped out and asked the 4 guys standing there if help was on the way. They all looked at me like I was weird and said, "No, we thought you called for help!" NOPE! I sure did then though! We were blessed that an ambulance was just minutes behind us returning from transporting a patient earlier that morning and was there quickly to evaluate and take Erica for wrist x-rays. As Erica climbed in the ambulance I realized she didn't even have her cell phone. I ran it to her and told her she had to have it because I had no idea where they were even taking her! Not that I had a car to get to her....but I needed to know where she was even just for my peace of mind. She decided then to take Oakley and Brooklyn with her. I was so grateful she did. The hospital got them breakfast and took good care of them.
Oakley and Brooklyn's Ambulance Selfie. Of course they didn't take any pictures of Erica, the one actually hurt! Hahaha!
I was then left with the police officer to try and get my suburban off the road. It wasn't drive able at all. The bumper was pressed into my tire, the airbags deployed and my oil all over the road. The officer told me we had to get all three vehicles off the road before we caused another accident. He told me he was going to have me put it in neutral and push me the few miles up to the off ramp. Of course I asked if there was someone else who could drive it for me. He reassured me that I had this and could totally do it. We started out slowly and soon I heard him on his loud speaker tell me to change lanes. I started to fell the adrenaline come crashing down and realized that maybe I wasn't ok. At this point though I HAD TO BE OKAY! Nobody else was going to do it for me! We got to the off ramp successfully then he decided they wanted to try and get me into the Flying J parking lot. I could turn right, but because of the bumper I couldn't turn left. So they hooked onto my bumper with a chain and service truck to pull the bumper off just enough I would be able to turn into the parking lot. He told me that just before the stop sign he was going to give me a bump so I could turn right, then just before the parking lot he would bump me again to turn left. The first bump at the stop sign was successful, but the second only got me right out into oncoming traffic with a semi coming straight at me. After just having been in an accident I may have freaked out just a little and thought about evacuating. :) I had such limited steering ability that I couldn't turn my steering wheel enough to the left to make the turn. The officer jumped out and came and cranked and cranked and cranked on my wheel (the semi stopped thank goodness!) and then he was able to give me one more final bump to get into the parking lot. They had my suburban loaded on the wrecker in minutes and a nurse came to take my vitals. I held back the tears and was tough because once again I HAD TO BE! It was just me to deal with it. Ryan was cutting grain hours away and not able to help at all. I climbed into the wrecker and started making phone calls to my insurance agent and a rental car company while staying in contact with the girls at the hospital. It seriously took the officer incharge AN HOUR to write it all up and we kept wondering what was taking SO LONG! When the officer finally came to explain everything he said what had taken so long was that he had it all written up as a 3 car pile up with it being my fault, then the first car told him it was wrong and that they were hit TWICE! Once hard, then the second time just a bump. He went back and re-read all the statements and looked at the damage on the vehicles and realized that the truck infront of me actually rearended the first car before I ever hit him. That is why all of a sudden they were at a dead stop infront of me. The middle car kept trying to tell the officer that it was my fault. Grrrr. He said the statements and damage proved otherwise. I was relieved to know that I was at fault, but he was too and it made it make a little more sense in my mind as to how the accident happened. Once I got the info from the officer me and my tow truck driver, who I had become pretty good friends with by this time, were headed to the hospital.
Erica had been checked out and discharged and I found these cute girls crashed out in the ER waiting room. As we waited for our car rental company to come I called my dad and for the first time the emotions hit me. I could barely talk through the tears. Because when you are on the phone with your dad it doesn't matter how old you are you no longer have to be tough. For the first time all day I realized just how brave I had been and was reminded that I could do hard things and just had! It was a quick breakdown before I put my brave face back on and dried the tears in time for the car rental place to pick us up. They took us the 1/2 hour back to Ogden to get a rental car and even showed us the back roads so we didn't have to go back through our crash site. So thankful for that. Driving home in a strange car through traffic after a bad accident was hard enough on my sore shaking body I was so grateful for an easier route around to get us on our way. We were suppose to be home by 10 am for the girls to teach dance and didn't make it home till 4 pm. We were just SO GRATEFUL to be home safely and counting our many blessings. We were able to find a little humor in the crazy events of the day as we traveled back together. We laughed and cried and prayed and will never forget that day! Erica and I both talked about how both our airbags were deployed, we both have marks and hurt arms from them, but neither of us remember hitting them. I know we were watched over with help from the other side of the veil. We are achy and sore today, but NOTHING like we should be with how fast we hit the truck infront of us! For now my suburban sits in Utah waiting for them to tell us what our options are. Sad day. I do love that suburban. But I look at Erica and our beautiful girls and know that the suburban is what it is....it can be replaced. We are just grateful to be safe and home!
