Posted by
Fascinator on Sunday, September 03, 2006 7:27:42 PM
SEAT BELT STORIES.
The best is the last one.
(ME) And the first is mine. I was exiting the freeway at my normal speed, but the fresh rain slicked the pavement, and I skidded off at the curve, loaded down from moving the day before and in a hurry to get to the programming class I had to teach.
Off went my Volkswagen Fox sliding down the softly downward ground, right into the only four-foot high rock in South Florida. The trauma being too much for my little station wagon, it decided to go belly up, literally, and left me hanging upside down inside.
It was uncomfortable upside down, so I struggled with my seat belt, finally dropped down to the roof of the car, and managed to wiggle my way through the half-open window. So thankful I had left it open!
But what really made me mad as I stood up outside the vehicle was that I'd have to now pick up all the mess that had flown out the open windows! Arggh!
It finally sank in that somebody was running my way yelling. "Get away from your car! We've got to get you away from that car! It's on fire!" He started walking me, stunned, away from the car. Thank you, out there, if you ever read this and recognize it!
Flames were leaping upward from the exposed belly of the motor. I walked away, ever so slowly, my muscles all forced me to move slow motion. By then there was a line of people on the side of the road opposite, and somebody with a boat grabbed their fire extinguisher. A cop showed up, then a guy that said he was a doctor was looking at my eyes, somebody was saying, "What? You walked away from THAT?!" And then some paramedics were pushing me down onto a stretcher.
I guess they tell paramedics to hook their sugar water into everybody no matter what. That's their job I guess, just in case. They kept arguing with me about it till a light bulb went off in my head and I told them I'd sign a waiver. They immediately desisted. Thank God for little things. The hospital let me leave after a couple of hours. No broken bones at all, no internal or external bleeding, just felt bruised from head to toe, and had to walk in real slow motion.
Worse even than the accident was the cop giving me a ticket for "driving too fast for weather conditions"!! What is that!?
But, like a lady said, interviewed after Hurricane Andrew in 1992, I was glad to be alive!
--Alan