We start school at 10 and about ten minutes to ten Cameron said he wanted to read a little book my mom had gotten for him to us. So he was reading and we heard a very loud BANG! We went to the door and could hear a baby crying and could see that an accident had happened in front of our house. We live on a straight bit of road, but people drive way too fast and accidents happen occasionally. Most are not bad. This one was. I told my mom to call 911 and told the kids to stay inside and I ran down the hill to see if I could help.

When they repaved our road they did something very strange. They pretty much got rid of the shoulder and there is now an angled drop off several inches high. A big huge septic cleanout truck had gone off the road and over corrected. A young woman was coming the other direction in an SUV (and, as the police determined later, not even going as fast as the speed limit). The big truck hit her head on. She never saw it coming. She didn’t even hit her breaks. The truck was going pretty fast. The skid mark he made across the road stretches quite a ways.

The young woman had her little two year old in the car with her. A woman who arrived on the scene just after it happened had just gotten the baby out of the SUV when I got down there. The baby was injured, looked mostly like bad bruises, but even with a very poorly installed carseat, she will be okay.

The mom, however, was very badly injured. By the time the emergency people got there (seemed like forever, but I’m sure it was just a few minutes) she was going into shock. I was asking her questions (her name, baby’s name, their ages, etc.) to try to keep her awake until the paramedics arrived.

Thankfully the fuel line did not start leaking until later when the vehicles were cooler and the mom was on her way to the hospital. Had a fire started, we could not have saved the mom. She was completely pinned. It took quite some time for the EMS people to get her out. They used the Jaws of Life among other major tools. After they got her out a policeman told us that she is lucky to be alive. The airbag saved her life.

They decided to chopper her out. It always is an awe-inspiring sight to see a MedEvac land and take-off. They are amazing. They decided to send the baby with the mom. The strange mark on her forehead combined with the poorly installed carseat was a bit worrisome as far as a hidden injury they weren’t seeing right off. The mom had a broken arm, broken femur, and a huge laceration on her leg (she went under the truck a little bit and if the engine was pushed in much more her legs would have been cut off). She was pretty cut up as well and who knows if she had any other injuries that were not readily apparent.

All in all I was only down there an hour and a half, but it seemed like so much longer. I am so thankful the mom survived and wish her the best in her recovery. I decided to cancel school for today. I’m a little shaken up and need the day off myself. My older two had started on their workboxes without me. I was very impressed that they would go ahead and do that. They were happy when I said they didn’t have to do any more, though.