My first and hopefully last car accident

So last night I was in my first car accident since I have had my licence (over 9 years). Not something I  really wanted to tick off my bucket list, but oh well what can you do.

They say the most high risk activity you will ever do is drive your car because the statistics of being in a car crash at some point are so high. I used to just roll my eyes at that because you know I’ve been driving for years and never been in a car accident so of course they must be making that stuff up. But, now I get it!

Here I was minding my own business stopped in traffic (yes that’s right stopped, my car was not even in motion!) when all of a sudden bang out of friggin nowhere I felt this huge jolt and next thing I had smashed my head into the back of my head rest. Took a second to realise yes it actually happened I didn’t imagine that and then what did I do, start screaming....?? Obviously, because that’s logical my windows were all up nobody was going to hear me but screaming was going to help right? That’s shock for you. I did, however have a moment of clarity and realised I needed to pull my car off to the side of the road and thank god the person who hit me followed. Once parked mild panic attack/shock set in... you know random crying, shaking, praying the guy coming out of the car behind me wasn’t going to abuse me and somehow blame me.

Turns out he was actually really lovely about it all and was more worried about calming me down. Both of us had no idea what we were doing as we had never had a car accident before. My car was smashed up at the rear and his car was all scratched up at the front but didn’t look that bad compared to mine. In the process of inspecting our cars after exchanging details a passerby suggested he should try and start his car to see if the engine was still working. Thank god I followed him to the side of his car and was no longer standing between the two cars because when he started the car (he just turned the key from through the window) his car launched forward and smashed into my car AGAIN!! This time doing more damage than the first initial impact. Total and utter accident as he didn’t realise he had left his car in gear when he parked it, but thank god nobody was standing in front of his car. He assured me that this will become a funny story some time in the future.

After we got over the shock of that happening he left and I was firstly going to drive my car home, being the independent woman that I am I didn’t want help from anyone. Yea right like that was ever going to happen. Few phone calls later my boyfriend and my mum had showed up. Also in between that 3 tow trucks just emerged from nowhere (apparently they were alerted from a traffic camera there had been an accident). In the end I went to the hospital in an ambulance because my neck was sore and I was having headaches from hitting my head. My car got towed. Mum went home. My boyfriend followed the ambulance to the hospital.

Had to wait at the hospital for 4 hours to be seen by a doctor!! You would imagine that if someone came in from a motor vehicle accident with a possible head injury experiencing headaches and neck pain that they would be seen urgently, right?  But no, apparently the health system is as shit as they say it is. Turns out they suspect I only have whiplash and they let me go just after midnight.

So, I left work at 5:50pm last night and finally got home at 1:15am – minus my car. Not the most pleasant experience I have ever had and not one that I want to repeat. I am so thankful that I wasn’t hurt any worse and that my boyfriend made me go to hospital to get checked out (and he had to put up with me complaining about it for 4 hours).

Lessons I have learnt from this are:

1.       Call the police if you’re in an accident (it would be much easier)

2.       Let the tow truck take your car, don’t try to drive it home

3.       Accept peoples help - you are not inconveniencing them they want to help you

I am slowly working on trying to relax and not do things so my back can get better.  As I’ve said before, I’m not good at relaxing hence I wrote this instead of lying down doing nothing.

I hope everyone else is having a better weekend than what mine turned out to be.

Toni  xx