Scariest Moment of My Life

Saturday was the luckiest/unluckiest day of my entire nineteen years with probably only the exception of my birth.

I was heading to work on Saturday morning. I literally had just gotten on the highway and had drove about a mile down the center lane of 35W N towards minneapolis. A van in the right lane wanted to move into the center lane, never saw me and merged anyways. I tried speeding up and moving to the far left lane and thought that I was in the clear. I was even about to honk my horn at him all pissed off like "You almost killed me!"

Turns out, he still never saw me. He continued to merge and his left headlight hit my right tail light sending both cars to the right. (Mind you, we were both travelling very fast, 65mph) my car swerved all over the highway and flew down a 7 foot drop into a ditch. His car flipped into a tree several hundred feet south of me.

The time that my car was completely out of control took FOREVER. Time seemed to slow down and crippled with fear I just kept WAITING for the car to stop moving. I really really really just wanted to stop moving, and at that moment I really expected that I was going to die. My life did NOT flash before my eyes, I did not succomb to praying to god or anything equally dramatic and stupid. I was merely scared and waiting. Finally my car halted to a stop, my entire passenger side squished in, the windows and windshield broken, glass everywhere. My gear switcher console completely popped out of its place. An entire ton of car comprised of steel and metal ruined. I looked at my squishy, fragile human body in amazement. How this strong machine could be so damaged, but my meager in comparison human skeleton and squishy organs appeared without injury was nothing short of freakish.

In shock, I sat in my car for who knows how long. I called my dad first. Then Work. Only then did it occur to me to call 911.

Several cars pulled over to help, until the ambulance, state patrol and fire came. A lady who told me she was a nurse was the one who called 911 and she let me sit in her warm car until the police arrived. The man in the tree somehow got out of his car before I got out of mine, which makes me think that I was in there for quite awhile. How he got out of his car is a mystery to me, seeing as his car was upside down. He also was alright. From the look of him, he seemed like a dad who would probably have young kids. (late 30's, driving a mini-van) I am glad they weren't in the car, that would have worsened things a thousand percent.

I sat in the back of a cop car for awhile, (very uncomfortable) and then in a tow truck. It took 45 minutes to get both cars out of their respective landing spots. Needless to say, both vehicles were totaled. (RIP to my car, as crappy and annoying as it could be, I still loved it)

Alas, car shopping at the moment... driving a rental for the time being. Feeling rather lucky and a little sore about the whole mess. Moral of the story: fucking look before you switch lanes.

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