The Big & The Bang

It's been a decade since the crash.  It happened ten years ago tonight.

I was headed home from work, after returning to the labors of office life in the wake of the Christmas holidays.  I remember walking down the hallway from my department and seeing a Security guy heading in the door.  Also, on my commute, I remember passing a cop whose bubble-top lit up as he pursued someone else.

BANG!

The next thing I remember was regaining consciousness slumped in my driver's seat, the scene marked by my blood, the bashed-in front end of my vehicle, and commotion outside.

I was sore, as if body-slammed off a 4-story building.  I slowly turned my body to look around.  Was there anyone else with me?  I didn't know.  Couldn't remember.  I called out for an answer.

I didn't know where I was going or where I was.  I didn't know if it was dark at the end of the day or the early morning. 

Somehow, I undid the seatbelt and crawled to the passenger side, where I reclined the seat as someone wrenched open the passenger door.

"Are you okay, man?"

"I think."  I tried to talk without moving my mouth.  I'd clearly chipped a tooth and maybe bitten my tongue.  "Can you call 911?"

"Someone already called," the voice assured me.

The next thing I knew, I was regaining consciousness again strapped to a board in the back of an ambulance.  Someone was cutting my clothes off.

There were others in the ambulance.  I heard talk about a Care Flight.  And I realized they would've had to pull me from my vehicle, get me on the board, and load me in the ambulance.  And, being unconscious, I know I was a sack of dead weight.  So, I apologized for being fat to those who had to carry me.

They asked me what day it was.  I had no idea.

Soon, the ambulance was under way.  Someone else from the scene was Care Flighted.

"I see you were wearing a seatbelt," said the burly EMT who rode with me in the back of the ambulance.

I had no idea what he meant until later, when I discovered huge bruises crossing my chest and belly and also my waist, exactly where my seatbelt had been. 

It seems I impacted the back of a stopped vehicle at 70 miles per hour.

Not the best of days.