That’s the sound the truck made when it crashed into us last night.
So it was about 9pm, and my wife and I were leaving the hospital where we had been having a childbirth class (le mans and all that bullshit). We’re about two miles from the hospital when some guy turns left through an intersection right in front of us, failing to yield the right of way. My wife screamed, stopped and hit the horn, but he kept coming and hit us head on.
The impact wasn’t all that bad. Our airbags didn’t deploy, and it was more like a hard bumper-car kind of hit now that I think about it. But when my wife is behind the wheel–and six-months pregnant with twins–I freaked out more than I should have. I’ve been in a couple accidents in the past, and I always remained calm. Not this time.
My first reaction–and this was completely instinctual–was to shout “I’ll kill that motherf*&#er!” and jump out of the car. I was literally ready to murder the other driver. Almost immediately after I did that, I realized that was not the right thing to do. I got back in the car and made sure the wife was okay. She was shaken up, but didn’t appear to be seriously hurt. THEN I got out and went over to the other vehicle to see if the driver was okay. His airbag had deployed, knocking him silly. He was all dazed and acting stupid, and at first I thought he was drunk. Turns out he wasn’t, but he had a few DUIs on his record. Go figure.
The thing that keeps me thinking is… it could have been a lot worse. The instant I learned my wife was pregnant, I had a fear every time she got into a car that she’d be in an accident and it’d be that scene in “Singles” when Kyra Sedgewick gets sideswiped and loses her baby. And lo and behold, we got in a wreck, and that scene was first and foremost in my mind.
The wife seemed okay, but we went to the hospital to get checked out anyway. (We had just left the hospital, and dammit if we weren’t right back in there! WTF!)
$3300 bucks damage to our SUV, but it’ll live. The thing is built like a tank. The other guy’s truck is all thrashed.
Right before the accident I had been stressing about a deadline to get a comic book finished. I was all worried about whether or not we’d get it done, and how much it would suck if everyone’s hard work to meet the deadline was in vain, yadda yadda yadda. It’s almost like some divine hand reached down and said “why are you worrying about this? you’re going to be a father, pay attention to that. here, I’ll show you where your priorities should be, motherf*&#er!”
KA-WHAM!