My Car Accident Story

I was told that I am lucky. I am actually more than lucky. I amazed many people by walking out of my minivan, with a child in my arms. To this day, I can sit here and think about the events of that day and it makes my head spin.

December 17, 2006, my family and I were headed to the mall to get my youngest child a birthday present as well as to see Santa since Christmas was only days away. We never made it there. As we were heading south, a car was heading north and a Toys R Us tractor trailer was behind him. As they got closer to us, the tractor trailer rear ended the car and pushed him head on into us at about 55 mph. We never saw it coming. I am kind of glad of that.

Everything was white. The air bag deployed and that was all I remember. Talking to my family and then everything going white. When the airbag was deflating, I started to realize what had just happened. I do remember hearing the hit as well. Everything happened so fast, in the blink of an eye. Speaking of eyes, when the airbag was deflating, I realized that I couldn't see out of one eye. That was a scary moment, one of many to come. The airbag pulled my contact lens right out of my eye. My eye doctor later told me that my contact may have saved my eye from terrible injuries. Airbags come out so fast and literally, you have no time to blink your eye. You just don't see it coming. So I was lucky to have my contacts in.

Once I realized what had happened, it was time to get moving and get to my kids. Covered in blood, I wasn't worried about myself one bit. My kids were my life and I couldn't even face a life without them. My husband got out of the car but said he couldn't really walk. He got to my son, JD, who was seated right behind him. I can still hear the blood curdling scream that my daughter, Lexi, was screaming in the third row of the minivan. I tried to get up from my seat so I could get to my kids but my feet were pinned down. The heater box collapsed and pinned my shoes down. Adrenaline helped me to get my feet out of my shoes so that I could get to my scared and hurt children.