CAR ACCIDENT

In shock, with pain radiating across my back and chest, I was taken by ambulance from the scene of the accident to the hospital. My daughter was also transported there. It had started off as a normal day. The two of us had traveled across town to go grocery shopping. After we loaded the car with groceries, my daughter wanted me to make a quick stop at Subway to pick up a breakfast sandwich. They make one with egg whites, so she was craving it. I told her that would be okay. I wasn’t hungry because I had already eaten before we left. I made a split decision to go through downtown, instead of the back way. As I approached the Y intersection going that way, the light was green… but a person had stopped their car and was just sitting there. I had just enough time to slam on my brakes and avoid hitting them. I honked my horn. “ MOVE!” I shouted. Then I pumped my brakes to warn others behind me, we were stopped. I thought to myself, this was going to cause an accident. I looked in my rearview mirror, traffic seemed well behind me. The guy in front of me, still wasn't moving. My daughter said something to me, distracting me from turning on my flashers. Then, the next thing I know... we were thrown forward. BANG! CRASH! Rear-ended. It was at this point… the car in front of me, sped away. UNBELIEVABLE. I had avoided hitting him and now someone had hit me. The minutes that followed are almost a complete blur. As we were loaded into the ambulances, my car was towed from the scene to an undisclosed location. And I briefly thought about all the perishable groceries inside. What a waste. This was the least of my worries. At the hospital, I was given oxygen, hooked up to monitors, IVs. They took vials of blood. They thought I might be having a heart attack. So more tests and then tons and tons of X-Rays. My daughter was going through a similar routine. Fortunately, my husband and other daughter arrived to hold our hands, while we waited for results. All I wanted to do was go home. We had been in the hospital all day long. My prayers were finally answered. First they released my daughter. Then an hour after that, yours truly… got to leave, too. Still shook up, we were nauseous and ached everywhere. But it COULD have been, so much WORSE. What if I had hit the car in front of me, too? Three or four days have passed, and things are slowly getting back to normal, here at home. Unfortunately, I keep reliving the accident, over and over in my head. I hope that in time, that will subside. But, in the meantime... I don’t think I’ll be going near that Y intersection, anytime soon.