Smashed Focus

Heading home for lunch to let the dog out for the afternoon ended in disaster.  An individual failed to yield, turned immediately in front of me and utterly destroyed the front of my vehicle, as well as that of another innocent driver that was simply waiting on a red light.

I had just left another intersection and had accelerated to the speed limit as I approached another intersection.  Another individual launched his car front of me, obviously attempting to squeeze through and smash!    

I had less than a second to react, having only enough time to slam my feet down on the clutch and brakes, while thinking "this is going to hurt."  It was not enough time.  My vehicle slammed into the side of this, throwing his against the over vehicle.

My air bags deployed, and I am pretty sure I lost consciousness for a moment. I could hear someone yelling if I were OK way off in the distance.  I opened my eyes and could hear the hissing of air and steam all around me, along with the fog of air bag dust in the air choking off my oxygen. My car was attempting to dial 911 and I tried to stop it, unsuccessfully.  My brain did a quick assessment and decided nothing was too damaged. I attempted to stop the car from dialing 911 three or four times before finally giving up and just opening the window so I could breathe.

I could still hear a person asking I were OK, but they sound much clearer.  I could see her now and responded, "I think so." I needed to get ahold of someone though, so called my comrade and told her that I was going to need some assistance.

Getting out of my car, I truly wanted to choke the individual in the other car but remained calm and simply asked if one person was the driver of the car I hit.  He confirmed that he was and I only asked if he was OK.  On confirmation, I turned to attempt contact with the insurance folks.  Someone said they had already called the police.

The police eventually arrived to sort things out.  Nobody got a ticket, but it was clearly the fault of the other driver.   He indicated that he thought he had a green light, and I believe that he did.  However, so did I and underneath his green light, a sign read, "Left Turn Yield on Green."

The remainder of the afternoon was spent in the ER, after beginning the trek home and starting to discover all sorts of odd little ailments.  Nearly everything on left side ached in one way or another.  My sight felt unaligned as well, and dizziness came and went. 

The ER checked and found I might have had a mild concussion and sent me home with  instructions on self-care.

Home finally arrived about 1830 hours.  It had not been a pleasant Halloween.