Every silver lining has a cloud.
Dec. 4th, 2006 06:48 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
soulstarToday (technically yesterday by now), I had a lovely day - I drove up to chez ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
ladymoonray, swisstone, tamaranth, et al, and took the train with them up to Charing Cross, then walked back across the bridge where we met lots of lovely people - most of whom where new to me in RL if not by LJ-in-passing - and had a scrummy South American Christmas lunch. Fun, and bit different! I left at about 5:30 along with ladymoonray and swisstone, cos I was getting kind of tired, and had to drive back from their place as well after taking the train back that far. So far so good. Hoorah! Anyway, the fresh air perked me up, and I decided not to dawdle too much on the way home, though I didn't want to rush it either.
So off I went, and tum-ti-tum, tra-la-la, nice normal drive home. Roads a bit wet, but no idiots, and if the three cars in front of me were often 5 - 10 miles below the speed limit where it was over 30, I wasn't bothered - like I said, wet roads, and the A21 is a pretty dark and windy one especially for a main road. I did think about overtaking one or two of them on the last stretch of dual carriageway, but in the end I was happy enough pootling along at their pace. I'm not sure now if I wish I had, or if I'm incredibly relieved I didn't - all depends exactly where on the road that would have put me, I guess.
Anyway, I was nearly home, just coming through Kent Street - the road is fairly up-and-down hilly all through that area. A car came over the hill ahead, travelling the other way. And the suddenly just swerved over to our side of the road and smashed into the car in front of me at top speed. Now, I (and the cars ahead) had been travelling at 40-45mph - it's a 50 zone, but again, hilly and wet. This car hit the one in front so hard that they both started spinning all over the road. I, obviously, slammed on my brakes, and since I wasn't that close to the next car, stopped well away from them both. Only, they didn't stop - the car which had been ahead of me kept spinning up the hill, and the one that had been going the other way kept spinning down - right at me. There was absolutely bugger all I could do. I didn't even have time to get back into motion and try to get on the other side of the road, and I'm not even sure if it would have done any good if I had, it was all so fast. I just had time to brace myself and hope that the other car - which by that point was so destroyed that it wasn't recognisable as anything more than a mangled engine block on wheels - would stop before it hit me. It didn't. But I was stopped, and it had lost some momentum, so thank god all it did was shunt me back and slightly sideways several feet, bounce off, and finally stop itself.
...Ow.
So, there was some... actually come to think of it, I was too shocked to even swear. I think I pretty much went "oh, no no no no NO!", smacked the steering wheel, took a deep breath, and turned the engine and everything off before getting out to see if the person in the mangled car was OK. By then, the guy behind me - who, again thank god, had been able to stop, and stop far enough back that I hadn't been shunted into him in turn - had jumped out and was checking on the driver of the other car and calling 999. I was kind of dazed, and I think I actually forgot about the other car - the one that had been in front of me that the girl in the car from the other direction had hit. Or I guess it didn't sink in how badly she must have hit them, considering the state of her ex-car. She was only young - probably in her teens, and by some miracle, she was actually mostly OK. Yes, her legs were trapped, and she was scared and shocked, but she was awake, and only seemed to have a cut on her arm otherwise. While the guy was calling the ambulance and so on, I rang her Mum for her, and then rang my brother - at which point my 'omfg, car accident' freak out started a little bit. My car actually didn't look that badly damaged, and there was petrol running from hers, so I'd restarted mine and moved it back and out of the middle of the road. I didn't even think about messing up the accident layout, or whatever, but the police have since told me I was probably better off moving it than not. So phew.
Anyhow, just as I got off the phone with Martin, my nose decided that right then would be a great time to bleed like there was no tomorrow. And the police sergeant dude also came over to speak to me, and promptly made me sit back in the car and went and got a paramedic. So. embarrassed. I did explain to them a million times that my nose does just do that, but they insisted on putting on the biggest, dorkiest, Carson-Beckett-wouldn't-even-do-that-to-Rodney-oh-OK-he-so-would sausage of cotton wool tied with a bandage round my HEAD on me. Oh well, at least being busy feeling like an idiot stopped the freaking out.
Then I had to do the whole showing my driving licence, letting them have permission to look up my insurance details, and giving a statement thing, and take a breathalyser (sp?) test. My first one ever, and lo, on the first day since bloody ages that I've had a drink and driven within the same day. Of course. I told the (very nice) policeman beforehand that I'd been out to a Christmas meal and had had a drink, but he said he thought I sounded absolutely fine. And phew, the result was actually Zero. Not even 0.001, or anything, not that I know how precise those things are. Zero! Phew. Guess eating all that food, drinking several glasses of water, and having four or so hours pass does indeed metabolise it all away. And then... the police announced that they didn't consider my car fit to drive - when I had another look at the front, it was actually all shunted back and more out of shape that I'd first realised - and that it was going to be recovered and taken back to a garage. My caaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaar!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! *clings* And also, the paramedic wanted to take me to hospital. About which I was all 'wtf, nosebleed?! what about the girl you're cutting out of her car right in front of me?!' But apparently it was considered a serious accident (overall, not my specific bit, I'd imagine!) what with the road-closing and everything, and they had to take us all back to check us over. So I called Martin again and arranged for him and Mum to meet me at the A&E, since I wasn't going to have a car to get home in, and off I went in the ambulance-car.
Actually, I didn't go straight away. And I had to walk up the road a little way to get to the car, which meant walking past the wreck of the car that had been in front of me. Like I said, I'd sort of forgotten about it, since it was actually out of my line of sight, the two cars had finally spun so far away from one other, and probably mainly since I had the very obviously destroyed car with the trapped girl right in front of me. But god, that one was just as bad, and rammed into the verge / hedge, as well. I hope there wasn't a brick wall or a fence back there. I think she only hit them and me, since I heard the police and ambulance men refer to me as being from the "third car" in the accident, and I assume they were counting from the positions down the road.
When we got to the hospital, I was taken in the ambulance entrance, which meant I got to bypass the 'normal' queue. Again, I felt kind of stupid with my pathetic nosebleed and big dorktastic bandage thing. Although by that time, my shoulders and neck were starting to get seriously unhappy, and I was kind of dizzy. So OK, maybe I did kind of need a checkup after all. Not long after I did get there, Mum and Martin arrived, so I did at least have company. Mum was kind of freaking out, and seemed to have rung every single person she knows in the world (or, you know, the vicar and a couple of others) - I have no idea why. I was still feeling stupid, and kind of upset and weird. But anyway, after an hour or so, I saw a doctor, and she checked out my nose (bleeding stopped, declared not to be a direct result of ((not) getting clobbered in) the accident - surprise!!!), cleaned me up, then checked my neck and shoulders and gave me some diazepam because - joy - I have whiplash from the collision. She also wants me to come back for an ENT appointment to get my nose sorted out. Cos that's worked so well in the past. I also asked how the others from the accident were, and she said that the girl who's done the crashing was stable and resting, but she was a lot more cagey about the 'others' - I got the impression there were two more people, but whether they were from one car or not, I'm not quite sure. Anyway, there were "still being assessed", which after all that time sounds pretty worrying to me. :-/
Still, after that I got to go home, but I've been feeling pretty weird still, so I haven't been able to sleep. Bah. :-( It's just... I'm going to have to call the insurance people tomorrow. And I wanted to go visit people next week - and I'm only supposed to have my car for another two weeks! It was being sold back to the Seat dealer on 20th, when the 0% credit deal is up. Now? I don't know what is going to happen. The policeman who is my contact for this thing rang me up a little while after I got home, and gave me all the details I need to sort everything out - Incident No., the girl's insurance details, where my car is currently being kept. But, ugh. Can't cope, except wot I hafta.
However, what I kept meaning to say, but I think I've completely forgotten is, I was extremely lucky - I have some minor ouchies, a somewhat crumpled car, and probably a tedious amount of paperwork to complete and phonecalls to make, but I came out the 'best' of the three cars involved in that accident. So, yeah. I think I just came back round to the silver lining part. Hmm.
And now I've got that off my chest I feel... still kind of weird and wobbly, actually. Huh. Suck. Maybe I should try sleeping, after all.
ladymoonray, swisstone, tamaranth, et al, and took the train with them up to Charing Cross, then walked back across the bridge where we met lots of lovely people - most of whom where new to me in RL if not by LJ-in-passing - and had a scrummy South American Christmas lunch. Fun, and bit different! I left at about 5:30 along with ladymoonray and swisstone, cos I was getting kind of tired, and had to drive back from their place as well after taking the train back that far. So far so good. Hoorah! Anyway, the fresh air perked me up, and I decided not to dawdle too much on the way home, though I didn't want to rush it either.So off I went, and tum-ti-tum, tra-la-la, nice normal drive home. Roads a bit wet, but no idiots, and if the three cars in front of me were often 5 - 10 miles below the speed limit where it was over 30, I wasn't bothered - like I said, wet roads, and the A21 is a pretty dark and windy one especially for a main road. I did think about overtaking one or two of them on the last stretch of dual carriageway, but in the end I was happy enough pootling along at their pace. I'm not sure now if I wish I had, or if I'm incredibly relieved I didn't - all depends exactly where on the road that would have put me, I guess.
Anyway, I was nearly home, just coming through Kent Street - the road is fairly up-and-down hilly all through that area. A car came over the hill ahead, travelling the other way. And the suddenly just swerved over to our side of the road and smashed into the car in front of me at top speed. Now, I (and the cars ahead) had been travelling at 40-45mph - it's a 50 zone, but again, hilly and wet. This car hit the one in front so hard that they both started spinning all over the road. I, obviously, slammed on my brakes, and since I wasn't that close to the next car, stopped well away from them both. Only, they didn't stop - the car which had been ahead of me kept spinning up the hill, and the one that had been going the other way kept spinning down - right at me. There was absolutely bugger all I could do. I didn't even have time to get back into motion and try to get on the other side of the road, and I'm not even sure if it would have done any good if I had, it was all so fast. I just had time to brace myself and hope that the other car - which by that point was so destroyed that it wasn't recognisable as anything more than a mangled engine block on wheels - would stop before it hit me. It didn't. But I was stopped, and it had lost some momentum, so thank god all it did was shunt me back and slightly sideways several feet, bounce off, and finally stop itself.
...Ow.
So, there was some... actually come to think of it, I was too shocked to even swear. I think I pretty much went "oh, no no no no NO!", smacked the steering wheel, took a deep breath, and turned the engine and everything off before getting out to see if the person in the mangled car was OK. By then, the guy behind me - who, again thank god, had been able to stop, and stop far enough back that I hadn't been shunted into him in turn - had jumped out and was checking on the driver of the other car and calling 999. I was kind of dazed, and I think I actually forgot about the other car - the one that had been in front of me that the girl in the car from the other direction had hit. Or I guess it didn't sink in how badly she must have hit them, considering the state of her ex-car. She was only young - probably in her teens, and by some miracle, she was actually mostly OK. Yes, her legs were trapped, and she was scared and shocked, but she was awake, and only seemed to have a cut on her arm otherwise. While the guy was calling the ambulance and so on, I rang her Mum for her, and then rang my brother - at which point my 'omfg, car accident' freak out started a little bit. My car actually didn't look that badly damaged, and there was petrol running from hers, so I'd restarted mine and moved it back and out of the middle of the road. I didn't even think about messing up the accident layout, or whatever, but the police have since told me I was probably better off moving it than not. So phew.
Anyhow, just as I got off the phone with Martin, my nose decided that right then would be a great time to bleed like there was no tomorrow. And the police sergeant dude also came over to speak to me, and promptly made me sit back in the car and went and got a paramedic. So. embarrassed. I did explain to them a million times that my nose does just do that, but they insisted on putting on the biggest, dorkiest, Carson-Beckett-wouldn't-even-do-that-to-Rodney-oh-OK-he-so-would sausage of cotton wool tied with a bandage round my HEAD on me. Oh well, at least being busy feeling like an idiot stopped the freaking out.
Then I had to do the whole showing my driving licence, letting them have permission to look up my insurance details, and giving a statement thing, and take a breathalyser (sp?) test. My first one ever, and lo, on the first day since bloody ages that I've had a drink and driven within the same day. Of course. I told the (very nice) policeman beforehand that I'd been out to a Christmas meal and had had a drink, but he said he thought I sounded absolutely fine. And phew, the result was actually Zero. Not even 0.001, or anything, not that I know how precise those things are. Zero! Phew. Guess eating all that food, drinking several glasses of water, and having four or so hours pass does indeed metabolise it all away. And then... the police announced that they didn't consider my car fit to drive - when I had another look at the front, it was actually all shunted back and more out of shape that I'd first realised - and that it was going to be recovered and taken back to a garage. My caaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaar!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! *clings* And also, the paramedic wanted to take me to hospital. About which I was all 'wtf, nosebleed?! what about the girl you're cutting out of her car right in front of me?!' But apparently it was considered a serious accident (overall, not my specific bit, I'd imagine!) what with the road-closing and everything, and they had to take us all back to check us over. So I called Martin again and arranged for him and Mum to meet me at the A&E, since I wasn't going to have a car to get home in, and off I went in the ambulance-car.
Actually, I didn't go straight away. And I had to walk up the road a little way to get to the car, which meant walking past the wreck of the car that had been in front of me. Like I said, I'd sort of forgotten about it, since it was actually out of my line of sight, the two cars had finally spun so far away from one other, and probably mainly since I had the very obviously destroyed car with the trapped girl right in front of me. But god, that one was just as bad, and rammed into the verge / hedge, as well. I hope there wasn't a brick wall or a fence back there. I think she only hit them and me, since I heard the police and ambulance men refer to me as being from the "third car" in the accident, and I assume they were counting from the positions down the road.
When we got to the hospital, I was taken in the ambulance entrance, which meant I got to bypass the 'normal' queue. Again, I felt kind of stupid with my pathetic nosebleed and big dorktastic bandage thing. Although by that time, my shoulders and neck were starting to get seriously unhappy, and I was kind of dizzy. So OK, maybe I did kind of need a checkup after all. Not long after I did get there, Mum and Martin arrived, so I did at least have company. Mum was kind of freaking out, and seemed to have rung every single person she knows in the world (or, you know, the vicar and a couple of others) - I have no idea why. I was still feeling stupid, and kind of upset and weird. But anyway, after an hour or so, I saw a doctor, and she checked out my nose (bleeding stopped, declared not to be a direct result of ((not) getting clobbered in) the accident - surprise!!!), cleaned me up, then checked my neck and shoulders and gave me some diazepam because - joy - I have whiplash from the collision. She also wants me to come back for an ENT appointment to get my nose sorted out. Cos that's worked so well in the past. I also asked how the others from the accident were, and she said that the girl who's done the crashing was stable and resting, but she was a lot more cagey about the 'others' - I got the impression there were two more people, but whether they were from one car or not, I'm not quite sure. Anyway, there were "still being assessed", which after all that time sounds pretty worrying to me. :-/
Still, after that I got to go home, but I've been feeling pretty weird still, so I haven't been able to sleep. Bah. :-( It's just... I'm going to have to call the insurance people tomorrow. And I wanted to go visit people next week - and I'm only supposed to have my car for another two weeks! It was being sold back to the Seat dealer on 20th, when the 0% credit deal is up. Now? I don't know what is going to happen. The policeman who is my contact for this thing rang me up a little while after I got home, and gave me all the details I need to sort everything out - Incident No., the girl's insurance details, where my car is currently being kept. But, ugh. Can't cope, except wot I hafta.
However, what I kept meaning to say, but I think I've completely forgotten is, I was extremely lucky - I have some minor ouchies, a somewhat crumpled car, and probably a tedious amount of paperwork to complete and phonecalls to make, but I came out the 'best' of the three cars involved in that accident. So, yeah. I think I just came back round to the silver lining part. Hmm.
And now I've got that off my chest I feel... still kind of weird and wobbly, actually. Huh. Suck. Maybe I should try sleeping, after all.
