Realm of the Shadow Redux

The Accident (a revelation?) Part deux!

Posted on February 28th, 2010 by shadowchaser

: Image via Wikipedia

Hello there. First of all I should probably preface this post as one that will possibly cause some trepidation in a few readers, some concern for my sanity in other readers, some outright discontent in still some of those whom read my drivel, and antipathy for my comments in still another sect of my readership. This is because I am going to be discussing my son Michael’s recent automobile accident. Now you need to understand a few things here, first of which is that I don’t usually proselytize about what some people would consider somewhat normal occurrences of sheer physics of a terrible crash. This crash though is not what I would consider to be normal. But I’m getting ahead of myself here. Let me back up a bit and discuss this from the beginning.

From what we’ve been able to determine our son Michael left work on Saturday morning (the 20th of February, 2010) in a normal manner in order to drive to Atlanta, IL and take care of his sisters, Nikki, house while they were in Ireland. You see, Michael had been house-sitting for his sister and her husband because they specifically needed someone to take care of their dog Chase so it gave our son an opportunity to get out of the house for a “mini-vacation” from the old curmudgeon (me) at home. Again though I digress and I respectfully request your indulgence as some of this background information may in time prove to be important (ok, probably not but it does allow me a chance to stretch out this post!). Anyway, to get back to the story at hand, Michael left work somewhere between 7:00 a.m. and 7:20 or so to head back to Atlanta for the day. Now, Michael being Michael (and all those who are familiar with my son will understand that statement), he decided to travel down the 2 lane highway sentimentally known as Old US-66. Old US-66 is a famous highway that was in heavy use back in the 50′s and 60′s as it was a major highway that ran from from Chicago, Illinois, through Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California, before ending at Los Angeles. It has gone by many names such as “the Mother Road“, and “Main Street of America”. This road is so notorious it even has hit songs written about it. Anyway enough about the road, let’s get back to the story about Michael and the events that have transpired.

As I stated before, Mike decided, in his infinite wisdom, to travel along Old US-66 to get to Atlanta that morning instead of taking Interstate 55 which runs alongside of the Old US-66 route. Now normally this would not pose a problem except that on that particular morning we had received a small amount of snow overnight. This snow, along with snowfall that we had experienced earlier that week, coupled with somewhat warm temperatures to create some hazardous road conditions of “slush” alongside the shoulder of the road. Now according to the radio report, Michael control of his vehicle and over-corrected which sent him careening into the opposite lane of the road, right in front of a Dodge Ram pickup truck heading in the opposite direction. Needless to say there was a collision. Mike’s car was t-boned by the truck which you can see in the photo’s below:

As is evidenced from the pictures above Mike was impacted pretty much front of center of mass of the car on the passenger side. The impact was such that it basically flattened the passenger side of the car itself and pushed the center arm rest towards the driver side of the vehicle. To what extent the arm rest was pressed onto Mike is unclear as he has no actual recollection of the accident and very little of the moments after the crash. He has stated to me that he “heard” someone telling him to get out of the car and he attempted to do so (this could explain the absence of a visible seatbelt as he may have removed it to exit the vehicle). I have a friend (ironworker) who was the second person on the scene who stated to me that Mike was actually in the back seat by the time he got there. Mike was not wearing his seatbelt at that time (how could he be if he was trying to exit the car?). My friend and another person responding to the accident attempted to remove Mike through the passenger side of the car (maybe the opening left by the crushed door/window?) and through the rear window with no luck. I’m certain that they were taking all precautions to prevent further injury to Mike by moving him as little as possible. By this time the police and rescue personnel had arrived and requested my friend to leave the scene as he was no longer a member of the rescue squad so my report switches from his account to others.

From here I will recount what I believe happened from the observation of the wreckage and what little knowledge I possess of accidents of this type. First of all let us assume that Mike was traveling at around 50 to 65 mph in a southerly direction on somewhat wet road. He has already lost control of the car and is sliding down the Northbound lane sideways. Now assume also that the oncoming truck is traveling NORTH at a high speed (let’s also say 50 to 65 mph) at the point of impact (from what people who have seen the impact site have told me, there were no evidence of brakes being applied which means that there was no time to react). That would make the impact at around 100 to 130 mph. I don’t know exactly what the forces generated at that speed are but I’m told they are around somewhere in the neighborhood of 228,000 J of energy expended. Now the officer at the scene reported that a ticket was issued for no seatbelt because Mike was in the backseat area of the car. IF, and I stress the IF here, Mike were not wearing a seatbelt the I believe his injuries to his right side would have been much worse than the broken clavicle that he sustained. Not only that, as the pictures show, he was hit towards the right front of his car which would have propelled him in that direction. It is quite possible that he could have slipped out of the shoulder harness of the seatbelt and since he was found in the back seat of his car it is logical to assume he removed the belt in order to try to exit the vehicle. This is what we believe according to our knowledge of Michael’s driving habit and the fact that I have NEVER seen him drive his car without a seatbelt on in the 4+ years that he has been driving.

So, just how did my son come through with so little in the way of injury? If he did not have his seatbelt on then his injuries should have been much, much worse than they were. By the pictures below you can see what appears to be a “bubble” created around the driver’s seat. This is an area of relatively little damage and is where Mike was at during the accident. It is possible that he was wearing his seatbelt and it kept him within this “bubble”. I suppose that it is even possible that this “bubble” is in fact a side effect of the engineering of the vehicle (I truly do not know, nor do I care if it is). I truly believe that this is where God intervened to save my sons life. I look around me and see evidence of God in all of His divine creation. From the smallest grain of sand to the largest mountain I see God’s hand and His works. I especially see His work in my sons accident. To me it looks as if God had placed His hand on my son and allowed no further harm to come to him. I’m sorry if you don’t see this or if you consider me unbalanced in thinking so but it is my faith to believe in the power of the Lord and this I do. I also believe that God made it so that my friend’s (the ironworker) girlfriend just happened to be heading to work moments after the wreck and not only see the aftermath of the wreck but impel to make phone calls to my ironworker friend so he could respond quickly to the situation.

God works in our lives each and every day. I believe (and I am not alone in this belief) that He chose to intervene in my son’s life at this point and time. I don’t understand it, I don’t even try to, I just believe it. But most of all. I thank the Lord for preserving my son for my wife, myself, and all of those people that Mike interacts with. I thank all of my friends, family, church family, and anyone else who have been praying for us during this time. It is a comfort to know that our community can pull together in faith to request help from the Almighty in our times of need.

Driver's side of the car. The drivers door still opens!

Interior looking from the rear of the car.

Interior looking from passenger side of car.

So in conclusion I say this. If you are a parent, hug your kids and tell them you love them. Life is truly fleeting and we came close to losing a precious life on that Saturday morning. I praise the Lord for preserving my son and allowing him to be with me longer. Thank you for your support and please be kind in your comments to this post, it is from my heart.