I digress from corona virus posts this week. We live on a 4 lane mainly main road, which is residential at this point along the road at least two or three miles – the speed limit is 40mph. Unfortunately drivers tend to treat the speed limit as a suggestion they don't like. Across the street from the house next door to us (to the south) is a small local residential street which comes into our road – it does not continue across to side. In the 30 or so years we have lived here I can easily recall 6 accidents which have happened at this intersection – when speaking with my “new” neighbor (only here about 6 years) she remembers 3 accidents just since she has been here, so 6 in 30 years is a low estimate.
Husband and I were involved in one of the accidents. We were stopped in the left hand lane waiting to turn left into the small street at in early evening, with car lights and turn blinker on. Our side of the road had no traffic at all, while the other side had a flow of traffic. Before he could turn a car came speeding up our side of the road and hit us full speed in the rear of the car. Luckily no one was hurt – our car, however, was totaled - the rear of the car was in the back seat – good thing no one was sitting there. Another accident propelled a car coming from the street across from us onto our lawn – husband was out just in front of the house taking down our Christmas wreath (due to which I will always remember this happened on Good Friday, hence why I need to be better organized). Luckily the driver braked before hitting him and our house. So we really know about accidents here.
Last Friday night we heard 3 horrible sounds, even before opening the door we knew there had been an accident. Due to the virus we did not want to walk outside, but when we saw the rear of a car in front of the house to our south and heard the horn blaring, we knew and called the police. Since the only thing around here that brings neighbors out and together is a car accident, a crowd quickly assembled (most without masks if I may add same). We decided it best to remain in the house due to the crowd and watched through our open front door. Now, as far as we knew the 2 cars collided in front of the house to our south. Police (several cars) came - volunteer fire department ambulance and volunteer EMS ambulances came. Since after some time the ambulances left unused we presume no one was seriously injured. It took several hours before the cars were towed away and all was quiet.
We noticed that there were large pieces of debris in the cut of our driveway and we were concerned that our van parked on the driveway parallel to the street was not hit. We looked through its windows from our door and the windows all seemed intact. I figured if we found out the next day that there was damage, we could call the police and get the info about the accident – safer to stay in and not risk getting corona virus. The tow trucks finally came – the front car was put on a flatbed truck. The rear car was to be towed on the tow bar of the tow truck. The driver had trouble getting the car positioned – he ended up dragging it by the rear end to in front of our house and then grabbing the front. The law here is the tow company which picks up the car(s) must clean the debris. When we had our accident the debris was shoveled up from the road – this fellow barely swept it to the curb. When the tow trucks left it was after midnight and we decided to wait until the next day to check the van.
The next day being Saturday I went out to bring to in the mail. I was to check the van for damage and see if we had “anything” to clean up from the accident. OH MY!!!!!!! The entire front of our property was covered in pieces of car ranging from most of a license plate holder to under 1” big as well as most of the two windshields!! Our driveway (which is a semi-circle), the sidewalk, the “right of way” grass at the street and the street itself were all covered. I went back and told husband and we went out to work on the mess.
We started by picking up the larger pieces and putting them in a garbage bag. We moved onto using a broom and snow shovel (use broom to push onto the shovel) to clear the smaller pieces and glass bits – starting in the street and then the sidewalk . We got to a point where all the pieces we noticed and the sections of glass that had stayed on the middle layer of plastic that was attached to it were picked up and thrown out. When all we had left (we thought) were the tiny pieces of glass all over, husband thought to get his shop vacuum for us to use. He did most of the vacuuming.
It was in the high 80Fs that day and sunny. Husband was bending over as we worked – when he bends over he gets dizzy. We reached a point after a few hours that he was rather unwell. I got him settled in the house with air conditioning and a cold drink and went out to clean up our cleaning up.
Our van is parked on the dirt in the semi circle of our driveway (this allows our car to be driven in and out of the driveway easily and the van can be also be driven in and out of our property through using the ends of the driveway and the dirt semi-circle). Under the van in the dirt was a lot of glass. We had decided that if we got all the grass except that under the middle of the cars – clear of glass in line with the tires we would pull the van straight forward and then be able to vacuum the rest of the glass. That was where we left off. I put away the vacuum, broom, snow shovel and put the second started garbage bag next to the mostly full one at the curb – almost all of which were from the accident.
As I walked with the various tools to the house I found other pieces and had added them to the garbage bag before I closed it. In front of our garage – which is the opposite corner of our property from where we thought the accident had occurred – I found yet another small piece of debris – I was concerned as our neighbor on this side has two young daughters- one of them only 3 – and was worried that debris might be in their yard and one of the girls touch it or step on it and get hurt or the 3 year old might even put it in her mouth. I knew they were not home and figured I would call the next day. Husband had to go up to sleep before dinner due to how sick he felt.
Next day was still in the 80Fs so I told husband to move the car and then go into the house. I found much glass and small pieces of debris where I would swear there was no more the day before. I vacuumed the dirt and then had him come out to check a spot he told me had glass to make sure I had gotten it all – ha ha ha! We were still finding pieces of glass today (Wednesday) that we somehow missed and yesterday saw a glint of something shiny and found another piece of car less than 1” big while we were outside putting the vehicles back in place from having our air conditioner installed yesterday. On Sunday when I vacuumed as I went back into the house I found a two good sized chunks on the neighbor's lawn (to the north with the 2 girls) and picked them up and added them to our bags.
I was unable to reach her by telephone and when I went out Monday to get the tarps we use as covers on our RV bed during the day while traveling to cover our bed in the house while the ac work was being done, the neighbor was out with the girls and her husband. I explained about the pieces I had found and picked up and suggested she check her side of the fence for debris. We have not really seen each other during the pandemic and standing 6 ft apart we talked about the accident.
It did not occur where the cars ended up – I sort figured this based on the debris field. She had the accident on video. A friend had been parked in the street in front of her house and a car came roaring along – in the parking lane – doing what had to be 60 mph at least and hit the parked car, pushing it front of our house and hitting it again and continuing to push it to the front of the neighbor on the south's house hitting it once again on the way! Neighbor was surprised that the driver was not tested for alcohol or drugs and was allowed to leave. I also found out that I had wrong phone number for the neighbor and we also traded email addresses.
The neighbor to the south emailed us the morning after the accident as she had not seen us standing in our door as she was standing in her door, to tell us we probably had a mess to clean up as they had at their house.
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK – One cannot control what happens by the acts of others. Be careful driving and parking to try to avoid crazy drivers. One should be prepared to clean up the major mess left behind on one's property. Luckily this time no one was hurt badly (though the driver should have been tested at the very least and probably arrested) – who knows what will happen next time.
Stay safe and stay well.
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