Reflections on a T-bone, and a german residency awarded.

So two posts in one day… this is number two. (see: number one, Photoooography)

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Hmm, what else happened this week.  Oh yeah, yesterday!  Two words:  car accident.  And a pretty brutal one at that…

After school yesterday I took the motorway over to rt 22 and got off at the 15th Street exit, towards Allentown, and got off at Fairmont Avenue, because I was driving to Dan’s Camera City to get some film for my new camera.  On my way out, I decided I would turn left and go down 15th Street into downtown Allentown to go to the library and take out some books.  I approached the stop sign, and all was well.  Though there was heavy traffic, I deemed clear to go, if I hurried… It was pissing rain out, so obviously my car tires didn’t react right away to my accelerating, so that probably didn’t help much to my situation.  All of a sudden, in the middle of the street, WHAM.  Damn! What happened?! I was stopped, in the middle of a busy busy and very wide intersection!  All I see is clouds of smoke everywhere.  My first instinct was to get out of the car ASAP, smoke could mean fire!  After coming out of the shock, I start moving trying to get out of the car.  then I realize, hmm it might be helpful to put the car in park and turn it off… so I went back to my seat and threw it in “P” and switched the car off (Though I’m sure it was already off because of the impact…)

I climbed over the console and scratched my way out of the passenger side door… I immediately ran over to the second car, the one who T-boned me in the driver’s side, to make sure all was ok.  The driver’s steering wheel airbag deployed, his nose was gushing blood.  I didn’t have a cellphone, so I had no way of calling 911 nor could I call my mother.  Thank goodness for the Good Samaritan who was trying to turn left onto Fairmont, the street I was coming from, as she parked her car in the middle of the road and came out to help us, when everyone else was just passing by not even slowing down.  She called 911 and let me use her phone.  We got the driver napkins and tried stopping the bleeding until the ambulance arrived.  Took forever, considering we were at 15th St and the hospital was at 17th & Chew, not too far away.  But when they finally came, the firetruck accompanied.  They took the driver away, but he could walk to the ambulance.  I told them I was fine and didn’t want to go to the hospital (which I will later find out was stupid of me, because obviously I wouldn’t’ve had to wait in the ER later if I just went in on the ambulance…)

Then the cop came.  I don’t even recall him even asking me if I was at least ok… he just asked what happened.. I said, Well, I turned left and got struck.  That’s all I said… He then asked me for my name, number, birthdate, insurance stuff and that was bascially it… since the driver of the other car was already taken away on the ambulance, the cop couldn’t get his statement until he went to the hospital.  In the mean time, the passenger who I haven’t mentioned yet, of the other car, was in the back seat.  When my mother with my brother arrived, they noticed that the passenger int he back seat seemed to be rummaging through the car.  All of a sudden, out of nowhere, he vanished.  Simply vanished.  Leaving the scene of an accident is illegal. He simply fled!

Which brings me to the next point:  for those of you who weren’t aware, yesterday was 4/20.  This day has long been recognized among teenagers as “National Pot Day” (Obviously, in this case, pot meaning marijuana)  When I saw the driver the first time, after getting out of my car, I had noticed the guys eyes were pretty darn red.  Later I found out from a nurse friend of ours, that it is POSSIBLE the redness was from the airbag dust… but the fact that the passenger was rummaging through the car and then simply fled, that makes me even more suspicious that pot could’ve been involved.  What pissed me off though, was the fact that the cop had no interest in the fact that there was indeed another passenger and that he fled… So later that night I spent time on the phone making calls to the Headquarters of the Allentown Police trying to pass along the message that I had more information on the accident… I have yet to hear from them.

So from an Insurance Agency’s point of view, I think I seem to be at fault, since I was at a stopsign and pulled out into moving traffic… But speeding was definitely a factor, and I don’t believe the dude had his headlights on, and since it was pissing out he should have had them on.  If he was under the influence of marijuana, that’ll definitely help my case… but I doubt we will ever know.

Thank goodness this kind lady stopped to help… she was so sweet, she told me “I have a 17 year old son, and if this had happened to him, I would hope someone would stop to help them too…” She let me sit in her car, even th ough I was drenched, because it was pouring out… Later that night, since I used her cell to call my moms cell, I had her number so I called her to thank her for helping, though she didn’t pick up-I just left her a voicemail.

I went home and changed and then we went to the hospital anyway just to double check that I was ok, and for insurance reporting reasons… I got the whole neckbrace treatment, then once they found out I was T-boned instead of simply rearended or something, they threw me in a wheelchair and gave me a little more priority… Turns out no bones were broken or anything, but I would definitely be sore.

I learned that I am very lucky for being in a Volvo.  Volvos for life, that’s how the saying goes… And there’s another saying, something about Volvo’s being like tanks… Everyone told me that I’m lucky that I was in a Volvo, otherwise I would’ve been severely injured… I didn’t even know I HAD side airbags until today, and thank god I did!

So today I got a phonecall from insurance, today I will have to pick up my incident report at the HQ, and today I made some phonecalls trying to suggest or complain or recommend, I don’t knwo what you’d call it, that someone install a traffic signal at that intersection… You can tell it’s a bad intersection, and its on a bit of an incline AND a curve so obviously it’s hard to see oncoming traffic.

I was driving on the blue path, he was going north on 15th St.

So yeah, I’m just sore with a really stiff neck and hobbling around doped up on painkillers, but I’ll be ok… let’s see what happens with insurance…

T-boned.

T-boned II

On a much brighter note, I completed my video [http://vimeo.com/4172284]  on NYC, and speaking of, another trip is in my future because TODAY I GOT THE PHONECALL FROM THE GERMAN EMBASSY, I WAS AWARDED MY RESIDENCE/WORK PERMIT!! So I’m just waiting for a document in the mail and then it’s all A-OK to go up to Manhattan and pick up my visa! That should happen next week or so!! So more on that when I get it…

-Zac.