6 posts tagged “accident”

Our neighbors at the lake were in a horrific head-on crash June 12.  They were headed to the lake when a vehicle coming the other direction was passing on a hill.  At first, nobody was expected to survive.  The husband is now being moved to a rehab center with a severely broken leg and ankle and some short term memory loss.  His wife lost an eye and had one side of her face completely shattered.  She came out of her coma on Sunday and is starting to spend some time off the ventilator.  She definitely has a much longer road to recovery ahead but at least she should survive.  Nobody really knows the condition of the man driving the other vehicle.  Our neighbors were in this truck.

I think its amazing how they ended up side by side facing the same direction.  One of the trucks must have spun completely around.  Our friends are in their 50's and the other driver was 32.  Please keep them all in your prayers.

 

Rascal didn't take a swim with the kids but got splashed a lot.

My parents' cat looked for some leftovers. The guys went out to the ranch hunting on Friday. This porcupine was the only thing they got. On Saturday, Lily joined the boys on her 1st hunting trip. Their luck was the same and they only ended up with 1 porcupine.  As you know, mom & I were more successful in getting a deer. Jace & Grandma played squeak. I didn't get near as many photos as I hoped to throughout the weekend.  Also, all the photos from the ranch were taken by Ray.

My mom and I had a nice visit with my grandpa today.  The nursing home he's staying at for now is pretty good but seems a lot like a hospital to me.  There must be some way to make those rooms more homey.  We picked up some finger steaks at our favorite restaurant there, the Airport Inn, and took them to the nursing home.  That was a nice treat for grandpa.

It's a 2 hour drive each way to visit him.  I drove but we had my mom's Yukon.  About 35 miles from Sidney right at dusk, I turned my head to say something to my mom, when a deer ran right in front of us.  I said "oh sh*#!" and stepped on the brakes but we still caught its hindend on the front passenger side.  I pulled off the road right away to inspect the damage.  Mom got out first and said we were just missing a headlight and that she couldn't see the deer.  I decided to inspect for myself and thought I could hear a hissing sound which made me concerned that the radiator had been punctured.  (See, I learned something watching Ray put together cars all those years when we were dating).  I looked under the car and there was a small drip.  It didn't look green like antifreeze but I was still worried.  I also couldn't see the deer but didn't do a lot of searching for it.

I climbed back in and mom said we should just go.  We were in a bad spot for cell service so mom wasn't having any luck reaching the boys.  She said to just keep an eye on the control panel because it would give a warning if anything was wrong.  We were 15 minutes from a small town with one gas station so I was just praying we'd get that far.  About 10 miles down the road, I thought it looked like the temperature gauge was higher than normal.  Soon after, it was definitely climbing.  Then, the following warnings started appearing on the control panel, in order, when the next town was in sight: 

1. Low Coolant Level
2. Engine Overheating
3. Engine Power Being Reduced
4. Something about a system being disabled?

We basically coasted into the gas station as we were losing power.  I couldn't get out of the car fast enough because I didn't know if there was danger of fire in that situation.  Rascal was with us so I grabbed him and got right out.  We went in the gas station and explained to the woman what had happened (figured she'd wonder why I was bringing a dog in even though I was carrying him).  She let us use her phone since we still had no service and mom reached the guys who had just gotten back to town from hunting.  She was so nice and opened up the employee lounge so we'd have chairs and a table to sit out while we waited for our rescuers to make the 20 mile drive to pick us up. 

Ray came and got us while my dad stayed at the house with the kids.  They hadn't had any luck on their hunting trip except to get another porcupine so Jace really wanted to come with and keep the deer.  He was disappointed that there wasn't one to be found. 

The car will be towed on Monday morning.  I filled out a police report and we called their insurance company.  That's the only accident I've ever had aside from having someone back into me in my high school parking lot 2 wks after getting my license.  I have to say I was proud of myself for not swerving to miss the deer.  I always thought that would be my reaction in that situation but it didn't even occur to me to do anything but hit the brakes.  Of course, the guys were giving me a hard time for not swerving because then I could've missed it.  But, we also would've ended up in oncoming traffic as it's a 2-lane road.

Thumbs Down:

1. Our friend's brother was killed in a hunting accident over the weekend.  He leaves behind a wife and 3 teenagers.  His friend's gun accidentally discharged in the vehicle.
2. We watched "We are Marshall" this weekend.  I love a good football movie.  However, I cried through almost the entire thing.  Who knew a football movie could be that sad?

Thumbs Up:

1. Sleeping in because there's no school today.
2. A yummy, new recipe I made last night - Chicken Broccoli Divan.
3. I had my last p/t appt. yesterday.  The progress has been remarkable.  More than anything, I have to watch my posture.  My lower back is getting a little sore because it's used to slouching but I'm even walking straighter.  When you're only 5'0", you can take all the extra height you can get.

We try to go to the stock car races once each summer.  Saturday, they were having Scout night so both the boys could get in free.  We lucked out and had perfect weather for early in the season so we went with Gndsgang.  It was Lily's first trip to the races.  We took the boys at a younger age but she's always had an aversion to loud noises so I didn't think she'd like it.  However, it didn't seem to phase her.

My favorite part of the races is the crashes.  Nothing serious, of course, but it's boring if they just go round and round all night long.  The night started off very boring.  The first several races didn't even have one restart!  I figured we'd be getting done at a pretty decent hour but then things started picking up.

First, there was a car that ran part way over another and then slowly tipped onto it's hood.  It's rare to see a rollover so that was pretty exciting.  They got the driver out right away and he was fine.  Then, they tipped the car back over and a fire started up under one of the wheels.  Whoa!  Now we're talking LOL. 

For the feature races, you can sign kids up to be junior trophy presenters.  They give the big trophy to the winner and the winner gives the kid a smaller trophy.  Ray was supposed to sign up the kids but forgot.  One of the junior presenters didn't show up so they came out into the audience to pick a kid to receive the junior trophy.  Guess who they picked?

She was so tickled and excited to have her very first trophy.  After all, her brothers' room is packed full of them so she needs to get going on her own collection!

Later, there was another rollover where the car went over one complete time.  I kind of missed that one because I was looking at the other side of the track but the kids were loving the excitement.

The 2nd to last race was the Street Stocks and it started with 18 cars.  There were a few minor collisions early on and then a huge one right in front of us.  A few cars collided, one flipped onto it's roof, and was then slammed into while upside down by two other cars!!  It was horrible.  I like crashes but that was too much.  I can't remember if they turned the car back onto it's wheels or if one of the collisions flipped it back over but the roof was basically gone.  All we could see of the driver was his helmet and he appeared to be slumped over in the seat and not moving. 

In the far right, you can see the other white car that was involved (behind the red truck).  It was smashed up badly, too, but the driver got out on his own right away.

They finally got the driver out.  He was conscious and walked to the ambulance with assistance.  I haven't heard any update on his condition but I don't think it was serious.  I couldn't believe there were 3 rollovers in one night!

The only driver I know is the father of one of Lily's preschool friends.  He was in this particular race and was actually minorly involved in this accident.  In addition to that, he had 2 different flat tires during the race.  After the crash, the field of 18 cars was down to 8.  Because of the flat tires, our friend had to start at the back of the group.  With one lap left to go, he moved up to 2nd place and in the final turn pulled ahead to barely win.  It was such an exciting finish!  The best I've ever seen.  He's had several wins but I'm pretty sure this was one of his favorites as he was really stoked.  It's definitely the best night of racing I've ever seen. 

Read in the paper that the driver was treated and released at the hospital.

Have you ever had a premonition about something that came true? 
Submitted by Sheri.

Not really but my husband did.  Around his high school graduation, he kept having dreams about something bad happening to him and his sister but didn't know exactly what.  A few weeks after graduation, he woke up one day and looked in the mirror.  He was wearing the same shirt he'd been wearing in the dreams and knew "this was the day".  He was down in Wyoming visiting family at the time.  He was driving a truck with his sister in the middle and his best friend beside her.  They were driving down a gravel road on the way to his grandparents' house when they blew a tire on a curve and rolled.  Of course, none of them were wearing seat belts.  When they stopped, Ray & his sister were standing where the windshield had been.  Ray wasn't hurt but his sister had blood running down her face and he was worried she'd damaged her eye because he couldn't see it through the blood.  He looked around for his friend but couldn't find him.  Finally, he spotted him laying in the middle of the road, unconscious, where he'd been thrown during the rollover.  Ray started administering first aid until the paramedics arrived. 

Turned out his sister just had a cut on her head from the rear view mirror.  However, the paramedics told Ray once at the accident site and again on the way to the hospital that his friend was dead.  He was losing a tremendous amount of blood.  It took several weeks, but his friend recovered.  They had just been back in Montana for a few days when we first met.  He was still pretty traumatized over the whole ordeal.  His friend is doing fine now and has even battled testicular cancer.