Does Friday Cause Wrecks?

Today is a G O R G E O U S day! Blue skies, moderate temperature, FRIDAY! What an awesome day! But what about this kind of day has caused so many wrecks around town? Are people more careless on days like today? Does this TGIF feeling cause people to be daydreaming behind the wheel?

A policeman friend was at the girls' school today because both of our daughters were presenting history monologues in class. He missed his daughter's performance because he was called out to a wreck ("with possible entrapment" -- I heard on the walkie talkie). I saw 3 wrecks with police already on the scene while driving around town today. And then the ultimate, "gasp" came after getting David from school.

We were sitting at the red light just past David's school parking lot. I was behind another school Mom who was first in line. When the light turned green, I was almost like, "ahem....I've got some place to go...let's get a move on." She wasn't THAT long delayed but she wasn't immediately moving forward on the green light either. But as she moved into the intersection, going straight....WHAMMO! A driver from the left TOTALLY ran a red light at full speed and knocked her big ol' Explorer into the oncoming lane that was STOPPED (because it was a red light!)

Ugh.

I saw it in slow motion. It was one of those, "oh no, she's gonna get hit!" kinda things but there was NOTHING we could do but watch. Even Shayne said, "I've never seen a wreck happen before!"

Of course, I kinda pulled my car over to the side a bit and watched to see if anyone is hurt. People from surrounding businesses were coming out to check on everything, too. I told the guy from the barber shop (tall dude but I was able to lok him right in the eye), "hey...I don't think anyone is hurt and I need to move on. Let me tell you what I saw." Then I went on to relay my view. I wanted him to know what I witnessed and THAT I witnessed it. Next I saw another Mom from the school and I told her that I saw everything and to PLEASE let the Mom in the wreck (I had no idea who she was, I just knew I had seen her car in carpool line) that I would be happy to give any help or information to insurance companies if need be.

Since there didn't look to be anything that I could do, and since we had places we needed to go (and mainly since I didn't want to keep my 4 kids cooped up in the van for WHO KNOWS how long before the cops showed up!) I decided to move on. (Is it illegal or just rude for a witness to leave an accident? I hope I don't regret leaving!)

When I got home there was a message from the Mom in the accident. It turns out her daughter is in David's class. I told her, of course, that I would be happy to speak with her insurance person if I needed to. But the biggest "ack" was when she said she was fearing a lawsuit. Oy.

Turns out the 'innocent bystander' car that was hit was throwing beer bottles and cans out of the car AND that the driver scooted over and allowed the woman from the front seat to climb over and pretend she was driving. And of course the car that HIT "Mom" said HIS light was green.

Right.

So, I guess there is a chance I might be speaking to attorneys as well as insurance folks. But maybe not. Maybe the CSI'ing of the scene will keep things straight.

But let me say this. I can't thank God enough for letting us be 2nd in line. I can tell you that if we had been first in line that we would have been in big trouble. I would have gone right away which would have made that dude right into the passenger areas of our van. And our van is lower to the ground than that Explorer was and it would NOT have been good for the kids. Makes me sick to think about it.

And the same goes for the Mom. When I spoke to her she said she had been turned because her son was trying to unbuckle his carseat. If she hadn't been delayed for a second because of that, she would have been hit or the backseat would have been hit with her kids. Thankfully, only the front/driver's side was hit and then pushed so that the front passenger side hit the STOPPED car.

Big sigh.

Thank you, Lord. I truly am thankful for your Hand of Mercy.