Seriousness of Driving

This article is being written by a victim of no less than four rear ending moving vehicular accidents. The first accident took place, when I was leaving a pageant in town with my mother and daughter. It was Little Miss Spring Time Pageant. Thank goodness I had dropped my small son off with his father to go fishing at the fish pond. If he had been in the back seat of my van more than likely he would have been a fatality or seriously injured. I was driving an Astro Van. The car was within the city limits at 35 miles and hour, and I heard this pop sound like a balloon that bursted inside our car. At first I had no idea that we were hit, until I looked backward into the mirror in an instant and saw a truck with his whole front end smashed up, and then it flashed like lightning in my brain. My van was still moving forward but I was rolled all the way backwards in my seat and my arm was pinned between the seat and the door handle. The seat had bent and my arm was forced into being pinned there. I thought to myself in an instant what to do, because I had to stop that vehicle rolled backwards. I pulled the car to the
right off the road and applied my break. As I applied the break my arm was taking the force of the thrust from the accident. I felt like it was going to break. Not knowing how bad the car was hit near the gas tank, then I got everyone out of the vehicle that could be moved. By the time the fire truck got there on the seen, then we were being put on back boards and transported to the nearest hospital. All of us suffered whip lash from this accident in the neck, and my arm was not broken, but it was black and blue from severe bruising. It took my daughter about a year to process in her brain processing in math. Her teacher said one day she could do it, and the next she could not. She had suffered brain injury cause her head hit the roof of the van, and I had told her to put on her seat belt, when we got in the car,and I did not know she did not have it on. The reason given to me later on was she could not get it around her pageant gown. Her ribs, brain and neck and spine were all injured but she was not permanently injured. My arm and spine were also injured but over the months with therapy we all seem to recover. It was the brain that took the longest to return to normal. I remember the day that happened, and how my daughter felt so happy it did.

Now let us look at the cause of the collision. The driver felt oh so sorry for hitting us, but he took his eyes off the road and admitted he did that. Second he took his eyes off the road speeding in a 35 mile per hour zone. He was doing 60. You can see the impact not only totaled his truck but bent the frame on my van and knocked a 14 inch whole in the rear door of my van. It went all the way through the back door. Now you can see why I said my son might have been killed in that accident. I thought to myself what would have happened, if I could not have stopped the vehicle while rolled backwards, then it might have impacted something else. The police officers did not check the guy for alcohol or drugs due to the fact they knew of his well to do grandfather in the community. He was allowed to get away without inspecting his condition. Where is the justice in that?

Then, there is the accident that involved myself and my husband. This accident even gets better. I love the medical industry of nurses that are pushed beyond the safe limits and are not monitored, when they leave the hospital to get in their car. This time I was in the Atlanta, Georgia area. This area is a big metropolitan area with many confusing highways and a vast well condensed area of several cities. This time I was taking my husband to see his Endocrine doctor that had moved his office from the outskirts of Atlanta to a more congested and harder to find place. This trip had set out to be difficult ,and I was right about at the doctors office, when out of the blue we were hit in the rear. The thrust on this accident hit both of us, but my husband was the first to notice that he had been hit and was having chest pains. I immediately called for an emergency ambulance to come to him. I always take things and never think of how injured I am. My husband started to feel like he was having a heart attack, but later on we found out his heart was all right. It was the massive blow on his side of the car from the rear end. The police officer that showed up said my car could be driven. They took my husband off by ambulance to the nearest hospital. I was going to follow the ambulance, and my car would not start. I had to get the officer to help, and he reset a button that automatically shuts off the vehicle, if the gas tank area of your car is impacted. I got the car started, and then I was shaking all over. It was like delayed reaction on my body. I had to stop at a business and ask for directions to get to the hospital,because I did not know the area I was in. They were courteous and set me on my way to the hospital. My husband was in acute pain by that time, and his back and spine and chest were hurting. I was so weak and felt like I had the shakes. I checked myself into the emergency room of the hospital. At this time we got emergency treatment and diagnostic on the car accident, then we did not know realize the significance of the injury that we had received in the accident. We both ended up in months of therapy with nerve injuries to the neck and spine. I had sustained brain injury and felt like for three weeks the back of my head had a hand on it. It was where my head hit the back of the head rest. I had no job at the time, and no medical insurance other than my med pay injury insurance which was limited, and I could not get a doctor to take me for my brain injury. I felt like I had been run over by a train for over 6 months. I could not process things from my long term memory without great difficulty. I felt embarrassed,when someone asked me what my daughter had given me for mother's day. I said well.................................
then 15 minutes later after the conversation, then my brain remembered it was a printer for my computer. How could I have forgotten such a thing? I felt so embarrassed, because it made it look like she gave me nothing and did not love me. That was a horrible feeling.

Again, let us look at this accident. What happened and why did it happen to us this way? The driver was a male nurse who had spent 17 straight hours working in the hospital and was so tired when he got behind the wheel that he fell asleep and struck two vehicles. He first side swiped one when his automobile wandered from the left lane into the right lane on the four lane road. He was not awake, when he hit the first car, and he was not functioning to stop the car before it hit us. We were over 30 feet from where he impacted the first car. Our car was considered totaled, because it had bent the frame of the car and we could not even open the back doors of our automobile. All the guy could do is look at us, and say I am sorry for hitting you, but I had to pull a double shift. This guy looked to be in his twenties. I did feel sorry for the man, but on the other hand I look at the hospital who is not monitoring the condition of their workers that they over work and let go behind the wheel of a car. This is not the only nurse I know this happened to. I know of another that hit a dumpster for falling asleep at the wheel of their car. Then, there is another one I know who came from work tired, and they were listening to the radio going home, and found themselves upside down in the vehicle and their neck broken.. This is three times that hospitals should have been more in control of their nursing staff in functioning brain wise, when leaving to get in their moving vehicles. That frustrates me to think how many this may happen to, and how it affected the life of two older citizens like this. It literally I feel took years off our lives, and I never will be the same inside my body. Was it the nurses fault for getting behind the wheel of a moving vehicle with no sleep. Should the hospital be more responsible in what they do in these cases? They could require them to stay and sleep in a bed before going home or cut the hours back on the shifts.

The last rear end accident was out of my control all together. My daughter was driving and it was raining, and we were all stopped at a red light in Oklahoma City. Then we started to move, when the light changed to green. She was struck by the car behind us, and come to find out that they were struck and thrown into us by a hit and run motorist who took off on the highway and did not stop at the accident. The reason for this accident was unknown but the same effect happened. All of us sustained injury. I remember working for a year in pain in my back, and coming home everyday not being able to get in and out of the car without acute pain. I even tried back braces at work to help, but it did nothing for me. Then I got a call from my insurance company that told me I could go to therapy because I had med pay. I went and my back got pain free in several months. My daughter only had limited liability and I had not earned my insurance at work yet, because I was hired part time, then went to full time. So that call I got from my car insurance company meant the world to me. It changed my life to the better.

Three times rear ended by people out of control at the wheel.

1. Taking eyes of road and hitting us.

2. Falling asleep at the wheel from over working.

3. Hit and Run.... possibly no license, possibly texting, possibly drunk. Who knows why this happened?

Outcome..........................

1. Injuries of innocent people

2. Loss of vehicle by all parties

3. Guilt of those that caused the accident and could not undo it.

4. Life being shortened and possibly could have caused death.

5. Undue financial and personal suffering that could have been prevented.

Then, I got a fourth rear end bump.......................my car appeared all right at the red light..........someone again was not paying attention.......................and I did not know the
feeling like being hit until the next day, when my neck was in pain once more. Does it ever end?

Please do not text or talk on the phone while driving!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Pull over and do this communication but not behind a moving vehicle!!!!!!!!! I actually saw someone on a phone stop in the middle of an intersection and forgot what he was doing. No one could turn left on light, because this driver was more involved in his phone conversation. I am thinking to myself....why did you not pull off the road, when you got this phone call?

In Oklahoma I have experienced a completely different issue, and it scares me on the interstates. I see cars that you know are on something from drugs to being a DUI on alcoholic beverages. How do I know this? Cars or trucks do not ride the middle of two separate lanes on the interstate. You get in a lane and ride there until you change lanes, and at that time you signal before changing lanes for other motorists. The under the influence or should I say DUI brings about five or ten years possible prison terms for the second or third offense. One riding the lanes or jumping on top of someone can cause a deadly accident and kill entire families. I am sorry that you feel you need to get on a highway and drink. Keep drinking and whatever you do with drugs ( prescription or illegal ) that you should not do inappropriately off the highways. I happen to care about my family and my friends who are endangered by this behavior.