“Oh my God he is not going to stop!” is the last thing I remember until the car carrying my growing family landed in a yard within feet of a house. The headlights gleaming off the chrome grill of the 1960’s vehicle speeding through the flashing red light flooded my car as I screamed. Time seemed to stand still as our car flew sideways until we came to an abrupt stop and jerking me back to reality. The other driver had made no attempt to slow as his car rammed into our small, newly licensed, maroon sedan. He hit us right by the driver’s door crushing the back door down onto the backseat within inches of our daughter’s car seat. The impact twisted the driver’s seat around my body as it threw the car and my growing family over the sidewalk and into the yard of the house on the opposite corner. The collision flipped the 1960’s car all the way around – 180 degrees—and they headed back the way they had come—the wrong way up a one-way street. It looked like the left side of our car was missing and glass was everywhere. My husband, Tod, watched in disgust as the other car drove away but he was unable to see the license plate because his glasses flew off during the crash.
The streets were dark and empty. Feeling very alone, we unbuckled our terrified 18-month-old daughter out of her car seat. She had little cuts on her face from glass flying round the car during the crash, but thankfully, she seemed to be unhurt. Through the dark of the night, we saw lights on in the bay window of a house a couple doors down. As I approached the front door five months pregnant, carrying my toddler and knocked, we watched in amazement as the elderly couple inside the house stood up off the couch, shut off the lights, and walked to the back of the house. Still feeling very alone, and scared we went back to the scene of the accident. My husband did what he needed in a world before cell phones, he yelled, begging for help from wherever he could find it. After a few moments, someone yelled back, “Shut up down there!”
Watch this space to learn what happens next….