Accident

I was the first to arrive on an accident scene yesterday. There were several lessons I have learned through this emergency.

First, I am still surprised at how long it took me to realize that what I was seeing was an accident. Arriving just after, I did not see or hear the impact at all. The other oddity was that the damage to both vehicles was completely hidden from my perspective. The only thing that finally dawned on me that this was indeed an accident was that one of the cars had a deployed airbag. But having never actually seen one before might be why it took even a few more seconds to register what was really going on.

I immediately tried to use my Bluetooth in my car to call 911. When I directed Siri to dial 911, she asked me which number I wanted to text, and provided a long list of strange numbers. Grabbing my phone, I tried to manually make the call, but of course with a touch screen, there are several hoops to jump through. Turn on the phone, push in the verification code; find the phone icon; find the keypad; then dial. Hard to do when hands are shaking! Finally, after what appeared to be many minutes, I finally reached the 9-1-1 call center. I was giving information and somehow we became disconnected. I attempted to call back multiple times, in between checking on the two ladies involved in the accident. It seemed that each time I tried to call, my phone locked up. Needless to say, by this time, I was feeling rather inept at getting help.

Afterwards, a friend told me to put 9-1-1 in as a contact named Emergency. Now I know!

The lady in the middle of the intersection did get out of her car. She was crying, and seemed disoriented. When she looked at her car, she burst into tears again. Together, we went to the car with the deployed airbag. The lady in that car seemed to be okay, but was also disoriented. The first lady said, “you ran that stop sign!” The second lady apologized, and attempted to get out of her car. I noticed that her hand was bleeding. I asked her if she was all right. She said that her chest was hurting. I tried once again to call 9-1-1 to no avail, and then they called me back. I told the dispatcher that this lady was complaining of chest pains. They said a squad was on the way. 

As the three of us stood in the middle of the road, I asked them if I could pray. Both of them grabbed me and held me very tightly. Not knowing if I was going to hear disinterest or contempt, it was in this moment that I knew I was in the right place for a reason. As both of these ladies held me with all of their strength, I felt nothing but pure gratitude. Here we were, for just a minute, to think only about the One who was with these precious souls. The One who protected them and kept them from more serious injury. I prayed not only for their well-being, but I thanked God for sparing them, and for walking with them through all of the stuff that lay ahead (insurance claims, car replacement, etc.).

A police officer arrived and again told me that a squad was on the way. After a few more minutes, I decided that my car was now a potential problem and it was best to get out of everyone’s way. I left, thinking what a blessing it was to be able to pray with two very distraught ladies.

Bringing peace into a chaotic situation is so fulfilling, and today, I am grateful to be used once more.