It Can All Change in a Blink of the Eye

Date: February 9, 2011
Time: 3:50 p.m.
Place: approximately 1600 North Main in Logan

Nicole and I had picked Hannah and Ashley up from my mom's house in North Logan a few minutes earlier.  We were heading south on main street taking Ashley to her TaVaci lesson, which is at the south end of town.  From out of nowhere appears a silver truck shooting across all lanes of traffic.  Quickly in my mind I think, "go, go, go so we don't hit".  However, that didn't happen.  We slammed into the side of the silver truck going 45 mph.  Everything happened so fast and I really didn't have any time to react.  I'm not even sure if I was able to apply my brakes.

The impact happens and I kind of come back around.  The airbag has deployed and there's smoke and the nasty smell.  I touch my chest and face and can't feel anything burning.  I remember hitting the deer with our Jeep near Jackson, WY and when the airbag deployed it smacked my legs and stung.  I then flip to all three of my girls behind me.  As I turn in the seat to look at them I have six very large eyes looking back at me.

Hannah:  "Mom! What happened?!? What's wrong?!?"
Me: "We've been in an accident. Are you okay?"
Hannah: "I'm fine. I didn't even move."
Me: "Nicole, are you okay."  She looks at me with the "Mom why are you asking me.  I'm fine....just sitting here reading my book."
Me: "Ashley, are you okay?"
Ashley:  starts crying...."My neck hurts!"
Me: "Okay....okay.....I'm coming!"

A lady approaches my passenger side door.  I have to unlock it....oh yea.....the doors automatically lock when the car is in drive..forgot about that.

Lady:  "Is everyone okay?"
Me: "I think we're fine but my daughter says her neck hurts."

I get out of the driver's side and rush to the other side and open the door so I can see Ashley.  Another lady comes up and announces that she's an EMT.  I recognize her from BATC.

BATC EMT Lady: "I'm on the phone with 911. Is everyone okay?"
Me: "My daughter says her neck hurts."
BATC EMT Lady: "Okay.  We'll go ahead and have them send an ambulance anyway.  How old is she?"
Me: "She's five."

Everyone around me was so nice. They were offering me their coats.  I had a sweater on but my coat was sitting in the van.  I wasn't worried about me shivering I was worried about the condition of my girls.  They are asking me if they can call someone for me.  At this point I realize that I'm all alone.  Dave is in St. George enjoying the warm weather and golf with his Dad.  I had just left my mom's and she was heading to a doctor's appointment at 4 o'clock.  What am I going to do? I already know at this point that my van is not going anywhere.

Before I knew it and it seemed like within 30 seconds there were police officers of whom I recognized and then the paramedics were there.  The one paramedic happens to be our neighbor.  He lives about five houses up the road.  It sure was nice having a friendly face.  Then is the blur of accessing Ashley, getting her information and information on everyone else.  They asked if I wanted to transport her to the hospital, which at this point I can tell that it's not a life threatening injury.  She's basically freaked out about what has just happened and the seat belt left a nice burn mark on her neck.  The scary part is having to make this decision by myself.  Do I send her or not? Hannah is in the middle of the seat experiencing a bit of shock herself.  She's freezing cold and shivering.  She's looking at me and saying, "No mom.  Don't let them take her. She's fine."  I turned to my neighbor and said, "Mike, help me here.  What do I do."  He gave good advice and we could all pretty much tell that Ashley was going to be fine.  I chose not to transport her and to watch her for the next 48 hours.

Somewhere during this I managed to call my mom's cell phone, which she didn't answer.  Somewhere out of my head I pulled the doctor's office number and called to have them give my mom a message that I needed her to call me right away.  She called me and I informed her that we'd been in an accident on main street and totaled the car.  In my own version of shock, I asked her if she could come and pick us up after her appointment.  We'd go ahead and wait for her at Village Inn.  Where did that come from you might ask?  Well, I was looking around and trying to find a warm place that we could go in and sit.  I also realized I had my wallet so I could take the girls inside and get them a piece of pie while we waited.  Yea.....I have no idea where that came from but at the time it made sense to me.

As things are winding down, others are still coming up to me and trying to help.  It's nice to see all of the service that is out there.  Someone came up and asked where I needed to go because they had a suburban coming and could give us a ride.  The tow truck drivers were willing to take us with them.  He leaned in the car and asked the girls if they wanted to go for a ride.  Ashley's response was, "I'm tired of going for rides!"  

The paramedic that we know asked where my mom lives and when I told him it wasn't too far from where we were he was willing to give us all a ride to grandma's in the ambulance.  The ride in the ambulance came about because someone had given the girls blankets from their car.  She came up to me and asked where I lived so we could coordinate getting the blankets back to her and keeping them on the girls for now to keep them warm.  I don't know her name....all I know is that she lives in Lewiston.  Such a sweet person.  Anyway, the paramedic said that they had blankets that we could use...thus taking a ride in the ambulance.

However, right at this moment another angel appeared out of nowhere for me.  My Uncle Bob was right there and said, "Michelle, I'm right here.  What can I do to help?"  Unbeknown to me, my mom had called him from the doctor's office and he immediately left his work and came to our rescue.  I remember pointing at him and saying, "I know him!  He's my uncle!  I'm going with him!  He'll take me to my mom's!"  Oh, what a sight for sore eyes he was.

Nicole didn't cry until we got her out of the van and were trying to get her to go over to Bob's car.  There was no way she was going to get in a strange car.  After Bob gave her a pen and a pad of paper, she was all for getting in the car and was ready to go.

I thought fast enough to grab my purse and the girls back packs from the van.  Who knows what else you're going to need.  I was just hoping that I'd grabbed the essentials.

Bob took us over to my mom's where we all finally felt safe and we waited for her to return to us.  I thought I had myself composed enough to call Dave but as soon as I heard his voice I broke down crying.  Oh how I missed him at that point in time.  I finally was able to squeak out that we were all okay.  After a few more minutes, I was able to pull myself together enough to explain what had happened.

And what did happen you might ask.......

Well, it was the part of main street where you have Walmart and Deseret First Credit Union on the east side of the road and Village Inn and Al's Sporting Goods on the west side of the road.  The driver of the other vehicle was a 16 year old boy who had just gotten his license.  He was attempting to turn left onto main street from the Walmart/Deseret First Credit Union side.  First of all can I say......who in their right mind makes a left hand turn onto main street from the Walmart side....NO ONE.  This is a very dangerous spot.  In fact, a spot that I've always thought that I don't ever want to get in an accident at.  Well, so much for that.

Anyway, I guess he started the left hand turn but then another car was turning somewhere and his mom yelled for him to hit the brakes but he panicked and hit the gas instead.  Thus crossing three lanes of traffic  and into the fourth lane which was our lane and we ended up hitting him.  I guess we spun him around and he ended up hitting into another vehicle but I have no idea where the other vehicle was.  I was too focused on my girls.

As we were leaving, I noticed the camper shell on the lawn of Al's Sporting Good.  Well, I didn't realize that the truck we hit had this shell on it.  The impact of us hitting him knocked the shell off the truck.  Hannah saw the shell flying through the air.  I didn't see it but she was impressed that it didn't even break the windshield.

Things that keep replaying in my mind:

The officer coming up and asking which tow company I wanted.  I remember thinking where would Dave want me to send it.  Elden's came to my mind and out my mouth right as one of their trucks passed by.  When Elden himself came up and gave me a hug and he said that I could have at least called two minutes earlier.  They'd just driven down the road.

How nice everyone was and their concern for the welfare of me and the girls.


Seeing the 16 year old boy crying.  He was totally devastated.  He told his mom that he never wants to drive again.


The boys mom.  My heart broke for her.  She herself was devastated.  Especially after seeing my three girls in the back.  I remember hugging her and telling her that I was extremely thankful that me and my girls were okay.

How big the girls eyes were when I turned in the seat to make sure they were okay.

Poor Hannah in the seat shivering due to the cold and shock and asking if we could please shut the doors.  We couldn't though because the paramedics were assessing Ashley.


How nice and comforting it was to see familiar faces.

Nicole sitting in her car seat totally oblivious as to what was happening.  She was just happy to be in the van with her book.

My precious little Ashley.  I know she is scared by the look in her eyes but she is being so brave as the paramedics were assessing her and she was answering all of their questions.


My thoughts:


I still get rather teary eyed as I think of how blessed and grateful I am for the outcome of this event.  I think back to when I was little and we weren't required to be in car seats or seat belts.  It pains my stomach to think of where Hannah was sitting and if she hadn't had her seat belt on she would have flown through the windshield.  I think of Ashley and Nicole being in their car seats and having them properly attached.  The outcome could have been completely different if they weren't buckled correctly or not at all.


I honestly believe we had guardian angels with us this day.  I am truly grateful to my Heavenly Father for the protection he gave me and the girls.  I remember realizing that we were going to hit and then it felt as though someone else stepped in and took the impact for me.  I remember coming back around to reality and thinking to myself, "Well, that wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be."


I am utterly amazed and how powerful car seats and seat belts are.  I am totally an advocate for them.  For us to walk away with a little soreness and a welt on Ashley's neck that was gone by the next day is amazing.  I hear in my mind Hannah telling me that she didn't even move.  I see Nicole looking around like nothing had even happened.....we must have just stopped quick at a street light.  I see cute little Ashley starting to cry because her neck hurts and she's scared.  But the gratitude that filled my soul as the four of us walked in to our home that evening was so overwhelming.  Yes, we were down a vehicle but we were all safe and together as a family.

I am so grateful for the outpouring of kindness and service our ward members have shown.  It has been an eye opener at how fast word moves around a little community.  It all started because I was sitting at my mom's table at 5:15 and I was teasing Ashley that she was going to miss her TaVaci lesson.  Then it dawned on me that Hannah has piano lessons at 5:30.  After much trying, I finally got a hold of her piano teacher who is my visiting teacher too so she'd know Hannah wasn't coming and this is where the ball started rolling.  As I was chatting with Karina on the phone, she asked if she could bring us dinner.  I told her we'd be fine because I didn't know when we'd be home.  I still had to go to Nibley and pick up the truck from Dave's parent's.  She then said she'd like to bring us dinner Thursday night.  At this point I felt fine, so it was a bit weird to swallow some pride and say okay.  It kept playing in my mind that you need to let others serve you so they too can grow.  So I swallowed the pride and said okay.

Well, I guess my other visiting teacher showed up at Karina's house as I was chatting with her and between the two of them they got the ball rolling.  Before we returned home to Mendon at 9:15 p.m. I was contacted by my other Visiting Teacher, I had chatted with another ward member needing a favor but I wasn't home to help her out so she heard the story and her husband is a member of the bishopric, I was contacted by one of our home teachers and the other home teacher contacted Dave in St. George.  The Relief Society President called to make sure we were okay and to see if we needed any blessings and Dave was contacted by the Elder's Quorum President.

I do have to say I was grateful come Thursday night that dinner was brought in for us.  I couldn't sleep Wednesday night.  I last looked at the clock at 1:38 a.m. and I never got into a real deep sleep.  I kept waking up and listening for the girls to make sure all was alright.  So, when dinner came in at 6:15 it was a welcoming sight.

Thursday night I was also contacted by another ward member who serves on my enrichment committee and she "told" me she was bringing dinner in on Friday night.  Again, I swallowed my pride and said thank you.

Today at work (Friday) i received a phone call from my new visiting teacher offering to bring us dinner.  I quickly called her and let her know that someone already had it covered.  She contacted the other sister and between the two of them one brought cooked dinner for this night and another brought a cold dinner that I can use over the weekend.

We have only been in the ward for a little over two years and haven't had any major trauma that we've needed help for.  It is nice to know that there are those out there that care and are willing to jump in and serve and help out in a time of need.

As the girls and I knelt for family prayer Wednesday night, it was a very emotional prayer for me.  It was hard to keep the emotions in check.  Hannah and Ashley were curious as to why i was crying during prayer.  I used it as a teaching lesson to let them know that when your heart is so full of gratitude for what you've been given that it's alright to let the emotion show by crying.

I was tucking Ashley in to bed after prayer and she was crying a little bit.  She looks at me and says:

Ashley:  "Mom.  It's alright because the van was getting old anyway."
Me:  "You're right Ashley.  The van was getting old.  You know we can replace the van but we can't replace Ashley."
Ashley:  "Yea.....but if I were a twin then there'd be another me."
Me: "Even if you were a twin, there wouldn't be another Ashley."

Hannah has been a little shaken from the experience.  This is actually her second major accident that she's been involved in.  She's been talking about the accident quite a bit but hopefully this is her healing process and soon she'll be good as new.

Nicole....well....she will tell you that the van is sick and had to go to the doctor's.

Now comes the joy of dealing with the insurance company.  We chatted with the boy's insurance company yesterday but we were informed that he and the truck were just added to the policy last Friday so it's in "pending" mode and they can't commit anything to us for the time being.  What?!?!?  We are out of a car......we need a rental!  I'm not sure I'm ready for the game we get to play.  Especially because tonight I chatted with the third vehicle involved and she said the insurance company told her they were taking full responsibility for everything and asked if she wanted a rental car.  Again....what?!?!?  Her car is drivable and has $600 in damage.  Mine isn't drivable and I need the rental.  AARRRGGHHHH!!!

From here Dave is being great and has said he's taking over in dealing with the insurance companies.  He's going to make a call Monday morning to get things rolling.  This is a huge stress relief to me.

I'll try to keep the blog updated on how things are going.  In the meantime, here's some pictures I took of the van at the collision shop the next day.

This is the bumper lying on the ground between two other cars parked next to the van.