19991111 - What Just Happened???

19991111 - UP and a typical Thursday.  Dragging a bit because of the stupid time change and new baby.  Nothing out of the ordinary, not a lot to do I had things in good order as we were planning to leave in the afternoon and head home for my friend Scott's wedding and get Dylan baptized all in one trip.  I remember Kathy running and doing some work orders, but for the most part I was in the office most of the day.

The day ended and we packed up the car after L got home from her teaching job at Wilmington Country Day School.  On the road we grabbed some food and drove. And drove.  And drove.  Now only 7ish in the pitch black on the long lonely stretches of 40 between Wilmington and Raleigh.  Somewhere in there L and I switched, because I was too tired to drive and needed a break...

L screams...  I sit up and see tall grass bending over the front of our Jeep Cherokee as we hit it with obvious high speed....  there is a sudden shifting around and sliding feeling...          THEN...   Complete silence...          Pitch black...          Calm like you would imagine the weightlessness of being in space...          An incredibly bright light...          THEN...          The LOUDEST sound I have ever hear...          Then the light in the Jeep comes on.  Dylan starts to cry.  It is exactly 8:15pm on the clock inside of the car.  We must have had an accident...???  I can't see well things are blurry, must have lost a contact.  I reach for my eye to rub it and it is a bit soft.  I pull my hand down and it is COVERED in blood.  Oh this is not good...  What Just Happened?

What happened is L fell asleep at the wheel.  Not placing blame here...  mind you it was the darkest night I can ever remember.  We are both exhausted from having a new baby and both working full time jobs.  The time just changed so it was incredibly dark very early.  We were trying to pull off an all night drive so we could get home without missing any daylight.  We shouldn't have left home.  I should have said "We are both tired, let's just get a good nights sleep and head up in the morning."  But I didn't...  We have done this same trip overnight through the mountains numerous times, taking turns sleeping...  Why would this be any different?  It was...  Obviously...

We at some point went off the road with the cruise control set at 75mph.  We went through some tall grass and started sliding.  I am guessing that we were moving about 60mph when we hit the pavement again sideways which gave the tires traction again and when the rubber met the road they were going in opposite directions very fast which launched us airborne, end for end across interstate rt 40 and into the median where we took a couple more flips until we came to rest upright, with the dome light on...

Lori was ok physically, not hurt but a couple of bruises and was able to open her car door and Dylan's.  The back windows were the only two that did not break...  A suitcase from the back of the Jeep landed on top of Dylan's car seat creating a perfect cocoon for him.  He had only a 1cm scratch on the back of his head...   I on the other hand had blood everywhere.  I clamored to the back seat looking for diapers and applied them to my face and head to get the bleeding under control... 

Within seconds people started showing up.
These are the sights they saw as they approached:

 
 

A stranger.  A man said to me, "what can I do?"  I replied, "Get my wife and kid away from me."
> L told me years later he was a truck driver and took her and D to a his truck.
Another stranger said to me next, 'What can I do?"  I directed him to take my camera and get some pictures, telling him that the camera was in the center console.  He took a couple of pictures, the ones you see here.  When he returned he asked what he could do next?  I gave him my cell phone and told him to call my parents.  I recited their phone number for him and he called saying no one answered.  I told him to leave a message, he did.  I then had him call my Aunt Louise, giving him her phone number from memory.  He called her, she answered and I told him what to say, that I had been in an accident and she needed to find my parents.  He did good under stress and with me giving him orders.  After the call he really didn't know what to do.  Me either...  But he asked me to count to ten for him.  I am sure he did this from experience watching movies and trying to keep people alert etc.  I replied 'I will not count to ten for you.  I have just given you several phone numbers from memory'...

Seconds later an ambulance showed up.  This all happened in a 5 minute span of time...  They were on their way back to the station empty because they had a false call...  When the medics approached the car I could hear them ask the crowd of people that had stopped to help, 'How many fatalities do we have?', I replied with a 'Hey I'm not dead'.  They began to work on me as best they could and assess the situation.   They put a blanket over me and said, 'Sir, we are going to cover you up so we can break the window and get you out".  My reply, 'Hey man, don't fu<k up the Jeep'.  They asked the guy I had make the calls for me 'if I had any idea what was going on'.  He assured them I was well aware of the situation and in control.

(notice the blood all over the inside of the car.  I did NOT have my seat-belt on...)

In the ambulance L&D joined me.  I got morphine right away, MAN I LOVE THAT STUFF!!!!  Soon we were at the hospital and I was getting worked on by all sorts of people.  One was busy checking my body for glass and picking out the pieces from all over,  one was washing me, the others tugging on this, attaching that.  Then a guy walks in that happened to just stop by while he was out for the evening...  The best plastic surgeon in the area...  Soon he was reattaching my nose...  then stapling my scalp, while I requested more morphine every time I could feel any sensation ;-)  Pretty soon he was working on my fingers on my right hand which had been scraped to the bone on the backside and huge piece of my hand missing under my pinky...

I remember L coming in and out of where they were working on me.  She reported that D was fine and so was she.  She also told me about the ticket the officer had to reluctantly give her for the accident :-(  And I drifted in and out of a morphine induced consciousness for the rest of the night...