Just seconds can change everything

**leighcat** · 08-11-2010, 06:15 PM

I got 2 new tires for my car today. I just missed being in a car accident by seconds. Unfortunately the people next to me weren't so lucky. I saw the whole thing. The minivan whipped out of a side street into oncoming traffic and the car next to me couldn't stop in time. The minivan was on a side street on my right, they were crossing over the lane I was in. The people traveling next to me in the other lane were the ones that the minivan whipped in front of. I turned just in time to see the whole thing happen and I just barely escaped being in it myself. So I pulled my car over into a parking lot. I got out and ran over to check on everyone. The passengers in the car were out of their car and I told them to make sure to have an ambulance check them out to be on the safe side because tomorrow they could have problems that they didn't notice today. The wife didn't want to be checked out but I told the husband to talk her into it and to be checked himself. He did let them check him out thank God. Their airbags had gone off and they had a lot of front end damage. I was concerned about internal injuries. I walked the wife out of the road (she was up and walking already before I made it back to her car when I parked) to a good samaritan to keep her in her car because it was raining by then, and not a safe place in the median for an elderly woman. I had the man put the car in neutral and I pushed it out of traffic and into the median all the way. Then a sheriff car with 2 officers pulled up as I was pushing the car and I told them what happened. Later I gave my info to highway patrol as a witness.
The driver of the minivan (who caused the whole accident) drove across to the gas station like nothing ever happened. The witness at the gas station said the driver of the minivan was a confused old lady and had no idea she had been in an accident. She never felt the car smash into her or heard the honking. People in buildings nearby all came out to see what the loud bang was!!

It is amazing how I just missed being in that accident by a second. It was the second time in a couple weeks on that same road that I avoided an accident. Please stay alert of drivers around you, please take first aid and CPR and please, drive safely.

**savvy_sniper** · 08-11-2010, 06:26 PM

Glad you are okay and you were a good Samaritan AND you stayed and gave your statement regarding the accident. It is SO important to get witnesses.

**leighcat** · 08-11-2010, 08:44 PM

Thanks Mary. I was the only one who pushed the car and the only one that stuck around to be a witness. I would hope if I needed help someone would do the same for me. It is just so ironic how the minivan missed my car and got the one next to me. The way we were in traffic it doesn't make any sense that it was them and not me that got hit.

**mndtrp** · 08-11-2010, 11:03 PM

I stopped for a few extra seconds at a stop sign one night, to change a cd, and a suburban turned onto the street in front of me. As we neared the next intersection, a man in a pickup t-boned the suburban. I stopped, pulled the semi-coherent man out of the pickup, and then pulled the very stunned driver out of the suburban. He was going on and on about his friend, but I was unable to find anyone else. When the cops and ambulance showed up with their flashlights, they found the friend, thrown into a bush. He had cut something and moved on from this world while laying there.

A few seconds can certainly change things.

As far as the OPs post, I think there should be far stricter regulations on driver's licenses, as well as more intense testing more often.