A sudden stop

Looking back on yesterday’s car wreck there are so many places where I should’ve questioned things but did not. Oh how I wish things would’ve turned out differently. The one thing I wouldn’t change is the fact that Travis and I were not injured.

We had finished spreading mulch this weekend and were about to return the trailer we borrowed back to our friends. There were still areas of the yard we wanted to mulch but had not yet done. I debated just buying bagged mulch for this but talked myself into making another trip to the yard waste center. The plan was to go first thing this morning so that Kelly had it available to spread as she found time during this week. Travis loves to help with projects and volunteered to join me, in spite of the early hour. So, a little after seven this morning, I strapped Travis into his seat and we headed off to the Yard Waste Center, towing the empty trailer.

We arrived at the Center, paid for our load, and backed into place as told. As the bulldozer guy drove over to the mulch pile, I could see the bulldozer’s scoop was full of 2x4s and wood chips. I assumed he would empty it before picking up a scoop of mulch. He didn’t, of course, and dumped a scoop full of both mulch and wood chips into our trailer.

Climbing down from his bulldozer, he began by hand to sweep out as much wood chips as he could.

“Whatever you can’t easily sweep out, just leave there,” I told him. “I’ll shovel the rest of the wood chips out.”

He thought about this for a moment and then said “let me get you some more mulch.”

Back in his bulldozer, he scooped up another load of mulch – a full load. The mostly-full trailer bounced under the weight of the overflowing mulch. Only later would I realize that, like a seesaw, the trailer’s center of gravity had shifted slightly to the rear.

There was a bigger problem first, though, as the guy climed back out of his bulldozer.

“Your right tires are low,” he said, motioning.

They sure were: they were flat! The crushing weight of the mulch deflated the tires.

“Do you have a compressor on site?” I asked.

“Sure don’t.”

“What about that fleet services truck?” I said, referring to the maintenance truck I had seen arrive after we did. ‘Do you think he has one?”

“I’ll go check,” he said as he wandered over to it. I kept Travis entertained in the van while we waited.

The maintenance truck soon pulled over and made short work of the four tires. I thanked both men, tied tarps around the bulging mulch load, and carefully pulled the van onto the road. The van strained against the load but not more than expected. It looked like we would make it.

And we did do well, all the way up to the first hill on New Bern Avenue beyond WakeMed. After we crested the hill I began to feel the slightest swaying motion.

We we fishtailing, and I found to my alarm that the brakes weren’t working!

I tried desperately to keep the van moving in one direction but the fishtailing just seemed to get worse.

The next few seconds passed in a blur. The van now swaying completely out of control, I gripped the steering wheel, hoped that no other cars were too close, and yelled “hang on Travis!” to our boy in the back seat.

This is gonna hurt, was all I was thinking.

We skidded off the road, the trailer whipsawing in front of us as we spun around. The trailer overturned on the side of the road, pulling the van completely around and slamming it sideways into a tree. Both side windows shattered, showering us with broken glass.

Then silence. You idiot! I thought as I tried to open the mangled door.

Travis was in his car seat but for some reason his car seat was no longer attached to the van’s seat. I turned him over and was thankful he was all right.

“Daddy, call 911!” Travis hollered, and that’s just what I did, trying to be coherent in explaining to the dispatcher what had happened. I’m used to being the one who calls in the accident, not one who is in the accident! I was still coming to grips about what had happened and wasn’t doing too well at making sense.

Travis looked a little ashen and began to complain about being cold: classic symptoms of shock. I sat and hugged him in my lap for a bit until he seemed a little better. I put him in the seat, closed the van door, and gave him the job of looking out for the arriving police officers. He seemed to take that job very seriously.

A few motorists had stopped at the scene and checked on us. Soon a state trooper rolled up to call it in. Travis was impressed to collect some badge stickers from him before he left.

Raleigh Police arrived a short time later and filed a police report. As I spoke with her, a female officer from CCBI kept Travis entertained with three more badge stickers. I called Kelly and soon she and Hallie were there, too, moving items from the van to the other car.

The neighbor whose yard I landed in came out and spoke with the officer. She was concerned about her tree. I introduced myself and handed her my card, apologizing for the incident. She and I laughed when I showed her how I’d delivered a trailer-full of fresh mulch to her front yard. When I mentioned my role in the CAC, she remarked about the neighborhood’s recent success with the ABC store case. I’m always glad to meet active members of the community, but crashing into their front yard isn’t the most ideal of circumstances!

The tow truck driver arrived and asked me many questions about what to do with the busted van and trailer. He said he could take both, so that’s what we opted to do. He had driven the minivan to a side road and said it “wobbled” a bit, so we opted to tow it, too. He loaded the trailer onto his flatbed truck and towed the minivan.

Kelly took Travis and Hallie with her on the way to Hallie’s school, and I got a ride home in the tow truck. While I got to work only an hour late, I was still shaking and so preoccupied for most of the day that I might as well have stayed home.

Kelly also explained why Travis’s seat wasn’t in its place. The night before, she had switched the seat to be used as a booster seat, with the seatbelt in the front to be buckled by Travis. Though Kelly had told me last night that she had switched the seat, it never registered with me that the seat would be unbuckled! We are all very fortunate that the accident wasn’t more severe and that the van didn’t overturn.

There were obviously so many chances to prevent this wreck today, so many times when common sense should’ve told me that this was doomed to failure. I don’t know if its bravado or stupidity but either way I completely failed to heed the warning signs.

This morning we will fetch the van from the tow lot and take it to a body shop in Garner; the same place we took our Volvo when it needed a new hood. I’m fortunate that I don’t need a car for work, so the repair can take as long as necessary. And while the tree put a substantial dent in the driver door, the rest of the car’s body seems untouched. Even so, the tree may have bent the frame enough to make for a difficult (or impossible) repair. We’ll know more later.

From now on I think I’ll leave the stunt driving to someone else!