I know. It has been a long time. But with the new job, I haven't had the necessary time (or desire) to spend more of my life on the computer. This is my thought place, and there are feelings and emotions that I now wish to express.
Jamison, Cierra, Paige and I decided to go up North and spend time with the family over the three day weekend for Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Little did we know the events that would pursue on our drive up North on the 15th.
My 2008 Hyundai Elantra is totaled.
We were passing Spanish Fork heading northbound when we started entering into the I-15 CORE project. The lanes had been narrowed down to two lanes with barriers on both sides to direct traffic through all of the changing of the lanes. We were in the left lane, and there was a car just a little further ahead and in the right lane. The car in front of us didn't realize the shift in traffic and was merging right into my car. I yelled "Jamison!" not knowing if he was seeing this car merging into us and we swerved to avoid hitting the car. Because we were going 65 mph, we had over corrected and started fish tailing. The first hit was in the front on the driver's side on the median.
Still fish tailing, the front collision caused us to hit the back left (driver's side) on the left barrier popping the back tire.
That collision lifted the back wheels of the car off the ground as we are skidding perpendicular to the road on the front two wheels. I remember thinking to myself, 'we are going to flip' and started bracing myself in case of the car rolling. Jamison had been actively trying to gain control of our car through out the entire collision, and through his efforts and God's will our car never rolled. This next part none of us our quite sure how we got to the point that we did. But we collided into the right barrier after skidding down the road bouncing our car back into the left lane slamming perpendicular to the left barrier. That final crash that brought us to a halt definitely threw our heads back into the seats. Which gave us the whip lash we had all felt that evening.
Sheer terror came over me not knowing what next to do. After confirming that we were all okay, shock was finally settling into my system. My car was dead and here traffic was trying to pass by us on the narrow freeway. When we had finally stopped all of the traffic at that time was 20 feet away from us at that point. I just remember several people running toward us in the car and making sure that we were all okay.
We were the only car in the accident, the car that had merged in to us didn't get hit and never stopped.
How did they not know what havoc they had wreaked upon me and my family?
At first, this thought brought me to tears knowing that my car is gone. I had taken so much pride in my car, I took such good care of it. But although my car is gone, I have been truly blessed in many ways from this experience.
Am I blessed? Yes, I truly am.
I feel that we (all four of us) were being prepared for that moment. I find it interesting that when in reflection that you can see the Hand of God in every day to day functions.
A couple of weeks ago, Jamison and I finally were on our own car insurance plan with Bear River Mutual. We literally were insured for two weeks before we had the accident. How grateful I was that our insurance had been finalized when they did.
A couple of days before the accident I had received a letter from my bank, which was odd to me because I went through paperless billing. I was on my way to throwing it away when I felt the need to open and just look at why I was receiving a statement. The letter was informing me that I had Gap Insurance on my Elantra. How important that information had been to me when sitting inside the destruction of my car knowing that I had Gap Insurance.
The day of the crash, Jamison couldn't find his wallet before we left. Having been paid the day before, we were just going to use the money in my bank account and that it wasn't necessary for him to have his cards with him. I had an overwhelming feeling that we needed to find Jamison's wallet before we left. We were late getting to Cierra and Paige's house to pick them up for the drive up and we almost left without his wallet with me making the drive up North. Before we had given up, Jamison had found his wallet. It had fallen off of the bed side table and landed in the middle of all of his school folders.
There was a good chance that Jamison still would have driven even without his wallet only because we had always been careful on the road. How blessed we are that we found his wallet, that day was the day to have his wallet with him. Besides, the damage could have been worse if I had been the one driving the car.
The trunk of my car was full of items and bags that we were taking up North with us. I had taken my laptop along with homework that I had placed all in my backpack. When I was about to put my backpack in the left back corner of my car I had decided against it at the last minute. I placed it between my legs instead, half way through the drive I was regretting putting my backpack between my legs. I had zero room, and with Cierra sitting behind me I had scooted my chair closer to the dashboard to accommodate her long legs. How blessed I am that I had felt the need to have it between my legs although it had been uncomfortable. The inside of my trunk where it is push in is where my laptop would have been. Both Jamison and Cierra had been planning on bringing their own laptops as well. Cierra had mentioned that every time she had reached to pack her laptop that something would come up and that she never got the chance to pack it. Cierra's bag was smashed in the trunk. Jamison had the feeling to not bring it at all. How blessed we were, although as silly as a laptop is, that sure would have been a trial if something had gone wrong.
There was no broken glass, blood, or any airbags that had gone off. Everyone was worried that our airbags had not gone off but how blessed we were that they had not gone off! Having personally been too close to the dashboard I was in no position to protect myself and would have had serious injury from them. And I truly believe that by the airbags not going off that Jamison had made it possible for us to not have rolled. How scary it is to think what would have been different if the airbags had gone off.
The fact that we were the only car in the accident was a blessing in itself. Who knows how worse off the accident would have been at that point.
I am grateful for Cierra's intuition, when getting a ride with the Highway Patrolman who had been assisting us. Cierra blatantly asked the Patrolman if he knew our cousin Mike Hainey, who was a Highway Patrolman for Utah County. The patrolman proceeded in calling Mike over the radio, who happened to be working that day, telling him that he had three of his cousins in the backseat of his car. Within a matter of minutes, Mike was calling the patrolman on his cellphone and they proceeded with the conversation there. When we had arrived to where Dad was to pick us up at the KFC in Spanish Fork Mike was waiting for us there. When the patrolman gave us our claim number for the accident, Mike had told us that 99.9% of all accidents that were caused by losing control received tickets. He had run our claim number through the system and there was no ticket posted for us from the accident. How blessed we are by not having the ticket, I am sure that by Cierra's prompting to ask the patrolman if he had known our cousin saved us from having that ticket.
Since the accident we have received an estimate from Martin's Collision Repair Center. Estimated amount of damage was $16,192.60. Martin's is deeming the car as of being totaled. How blessed we are that we don't have to make a claim on our insurance and not having to pay the $500 deductible. That is a blessing.
Although I have suffered through trauma from the accident, how grateful I was that none of us had been seriously injured. We are truly blessed and still have a lot to fulfill in this life and I believe that is why we were spared. We should have been more hurt then we were, we walked out with minor whip lash.
How grateful I am for a Heavenly Father who truly watches out for our well-being and prepares us, if we listen to his promptings, for events such as what had happened. I cannot deny the power of the Spirit and it's calming presence when trying to recover from the accident. I know that He directly is a part of us each and every day and that if we listen, we can know and feel of his presence and be truly blessed.
