Car accident (witness) and catch up
Jan. 24th, 2008 09:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
olivia_suttonHi all,
Ok, before I get to the "oh boy did I have a bad day", let's go over last night. Now, Wednesday is my *good* class. And, anyway, I actually went in to work a little later (I left the house around 2:30pm) because I was reading thru' the textbook, having, already found my notes from MY Microsoft class, and transcribed the relevant parts on NTFS Permissions into my teacher notes. Anyway, I left after 2pm, rather than around 1 or 1:30pm - and the drive was entertaining to say the least (she said sarcastically) <smirk> It went from barely snowing to snowing so hard you couldn't see depending on where I was -- literally block by block, well, even less than a block since I live in a rural area and rural blocks are a lot longer than city ones. But the drive was awful. And, when I got into my classroom/lab area (the dreaded superlab I've complained about before) I had only like 4 or 5 students, however, eventually the rest of my class drifted in one by one (well, except the student who's about to be dropped for non-attendance). Still, the class was great like always. I really do enjoy it. And, I managed to give my own "mini-lecture" on NTFS Permissions OK. I mean, I was a bit nervous, but it really did go OK.
Then today, ok, I had a doctor's appt before by lab hours, so I was driving to my appt and there was a car accident RIGHT in front of me. I mean, immediately in front of me. Well, I was screaming "Oh, my god!" but also managed to pull over to the shoulder, and called 911 on my cell. The whole thing was really scary. This car changed lanes without looking and the other car swerved to avoid getting hit, and then the driver lost control and drove right thru' a road sign, into the median and landed in a snow drift. (Snow was flying everywhere - as did the road sign). I called over to the other car, but she didn't respond and I couldn't see movement, so like I said I called 911 and said "There was a car accident right in front of me," and they asked if anyone was hurt, and I said "Yes - I can see into the car and the people aren't moving."
I then told the operator I was driving south on such-and-such road, but I couldn't quite remember what cross street I'd just crossed. I did tell the operator the name of the restaurant I was sitting in front of, and eventually kinda' figured out what the cross street was. But, it was weird that I couldn't quite remember where I was at first. I then asked the operator/dispatcher if I needed to wait, and he said yes. And after that I hung up. Then I called the doctor's office, explained what happened and that I'd be late. So I waited. And waited. And the driver of the other car eventually started moving around, so I called over to her from MY car, with the window down. (This was on a VERY busy divided highway. Luckily, the median is wide, and in summer - grassy. Since it's obviously winter, it was piled high with snow.) I explained that I saw what happened, and called 911. And, I found out the girl was ok. And we BOTH waited. And waited some more. After a bit, she called over to me, asking if she could use the cell to call her husband. I said sure, so I ended up with her in my car for awhile, and she made a couple of calls to reach her husband. She was also really glad that I stopped. Then she went back to her car, and we both waited some more. Eventually, I called work to try to find out what to do (the tech school where I teach has a criminal justice dept - and I didn't know if I could leave or what. I mean, I wasn't the one who *caused* the accident, I just saw it). I ended-up talking to my boss, who said it was OK if I was late, since I just had office/help lab hours. Just after THAT call, the sherriff's dept *finally* showed up. As did a tow-truck. All told it took an hour and a half - hour 45 minutes for the Kent County sherriff to actually arrive. To my surprise there were TWO officers in the car. I ended up having to write out a statement - and I told the sheriff both verbally and in my written statement that another car caused the accident AND just took off - never stopped. I also had to give my name, address, driver's license #, and phone numbers to the sherriff. And I had previously given my business card to the other driver with my name and phone numbers (I hand-wrote my cell # on it, since the cell is new) and email, but not my physical address. (The business card I'd made myself when I was looking for a job after graduating, so it had "IT Professional", and my certifications on it.)
But it was a VERY scary experience. I've never seen an accident like that. I've been in a couple (minor ones), but not had one occur right in front of me. And the crazy thing is - I actually managed to get to work on time.
That's all for now.
Take care out there,
--Olivia
Ok, before I get to the "oh boy did I have a bad day", let's go over last night. Now, Wednesday is my *good* class. And, anyway, I actually went in to work a little later (I left the house around 2:30pm) because I was reading thru' the textbook, having, already found my notes from MY Microsoft class, and transcribed the relevant parts on NTFS Permissions into my teacher notes. Anyway, I left after 2pm, rather than around 1 or 1:30pm - and the drive was entertaining to say the least (she said sarcastically) <smirk> It went from barely snowing to snowing so hard you couldn't see depending on where I was -- literally block by block, well, even less than a block since I live in a rural area and rural blocks are a lot longer than city ones. But the drive was awful. And, when I got into my classroom/lab area (the dreaded superlab I've complained about before) I had only like 4 or 5 students, however, eventually the rest of my class drifted in one by one (well, except the student who's about to be dropped for non-attendance). Still, the class was great like always. I really do enjoy it. And, I managed to give my own "mini-lecture" on NTFS Permissions OK. I mean, I was a bit nervous, but it really did go OK.
Then today, ok, I had a doctor's appt before by lab hours, so I was driving to my appt and there was a car accident RIGHT in front of me. I mean, immediately in front of me. Well, I was screaming "Oh, my god!" but also managed to pull over to the shoulder, and called 911 on my cell. The whole thing was really scary. This car changed lanes without looking and the other car swerved to avoid getting hit, and then the driver lost control and drove right thru' a road sign, into the median and landed in a snow drift. (Snow was flying everywhere - as did the road sign). I called over to the other car, but she didn't respond and I couldn't see movement, so like I said I called 911 and said "There was a car accident right in front of me," and they asked if anyone was hurt, and I said "Yes - I can see into the car and the people aren't moving."
I then told the operator I was driving south on such-and-such road, but I couldn't quite remember what cross street I'd just crossed. I did tell the operator the name of the restaurant I was sitting in front of, and eventually kinda' figured out what the cross street was. But, it was weird that I couldn't quite remember where I was at first. I then asked the operator/dispatcher if I needed to wait, and he said yes. And after that I hung up. Then I called the doctor's office, explained what happened and that I'd be late. So I waited. And waited. And the driver of the other car eventually started moving around, so I called over to her from MY car, with the window down. (This was on a VERY busy divided highway. Luckily, the median is wide, and in summer - grassy. Since it's obviously winter, it was piled high with snow.) I explained that I saw what happened, and called 911. And, I found out the girl was ok. And we BOTH waited. And waited some more. After a bit, she called over to me, asking if she could use the cell to call her husband. I said sure, so I ended up with her in my car for awhile, and she made a couple of calls to reach her husband. She was also really glad that I stopped. Then she went back to her car, and we both waited some more. Eventually, I called work to try to find out what to do (the tech school where I teach has a criminal justice dept - and I didn't know if I could leave or what. I mean, I wasn't the one who *caused* the accident, I just saw it). I ended-up talking to my boss, who said it was OK if I was late, since I just had office/help lab hours. Just after THAT call, the sherriff's dept *finally* showed up. As did a tow-truck. All told it took an hour and a half - hour 45 minutes for the Kent County sherriff to actually arrive. To my surprise there were TWO officers in the car. I ended up having to write out a statement - and I told the sheriff both verbally and in my written statement that another car caused the accident AND just took off - never stopped. I also had to give my name, address, driver's license #, and phone numbers to the sherriff. And I had previously given my business card to the other driver with my name and phone numbers (I hand-wrote my cell # on it, since the cell is new) and email, but not my physical address. (The business card I'd made myself when I was looking for a job after graduating, so it had "IT Professional", and my certifications on it.)
But it was a VERY scary experience. I've never seen an accident like that. I've been in a couple (minor ones), but not had one occur right in front of me. And the crazy thing is - I actually managed to get to work on time.
That's all for now.
Take care out there,
--Olivia
