Posts from — December 2008

All I can say is that this is one funky Santa:

While driving home for Christmas break this past Thursday, something truly horrifying happened. It was a somewhat cold day out, around the mid to upper twenties out and there was quite a bit of snow that fell the previous day. It was the perfect weather for ice, especially black ice. We were about a good three minutes from getting off of the interstate and arriving at our final destination when I noticed an odd amount of drifting snow, followed by a large “black” object fly across to the other side of the road. The first thing that came to mind was a car caught ice and slammed into the guardrail. I figured that the person was completely okay but it was a good idea to stop for the person and make sure their alright. When we drove by (so that we could pull in front) and we saw an SUV crushed in upside down and smoking.

Andrew proceeded to pull off the shoulder. We got out of the car and then ran to the car. This was a truly first for the both of us, afterall we both have had our licence for a year and a half so far. We were both the first to the scene. Most people wouldn’t think that this wouldn’t have any big impact on your emotions, but it has a significant impact. I have never gone into “rescue” mode after witnessing a wreck, heck, I’ve never been in a situation in which I had to help someone, whos life was in danger, or seen a wreck in real life. Even though I do know that the guy in the vehicle was in more shock than I was in, but I was shaking like crazy, my brother was calling 911. We were smelling the smell of a wreck and listening to other traffic speed past. I yelled “Are you okay?” no response. I was even more terrified, thinking that the worst happened. I yelled the second time and I heard a guy yell “yeah!”. After that, without thinking, Waved a trucker, he stopped and brought a fire extinguisher with him. I told him that there’s someone in there and there talking.

I, now, of course, was wondering why I wasn’t trying to get the guy out of the car. I was actually thinking about how they say never to remove the victim and I saw that the doors are so crushed that you couldn’t get them open. By the time the trucker got to the car, about three or four cars stopped to help. Everyone was wondering how they were going to get him out. They all tried to pull the side doors open when one of them figured out that the back trunk door of the SUV can be opened. They proceeded tog et all of the luggage and stuff out of the trunk so that they can get him out. They eventually got the stuff out but the guy wasn’t the first living thing pulled out of the vehicle. His German Shepard was the first to be taken out. The dog looked unscaved, but was so shook up from the event, that he didn’t even bark. They then proceeded to remove the guy. The guy got up and walked away with a minor scrape to his head. I honestly was so shocked that the guy and even his dog were okay.

The guy and his dog were escorted by the kind people to one of their cars while we waited for the police and paramedics to get there. The rest of us stood there looking at the car, simply amazed. We were all talking to each other about how it’s amazing how the guy got up and walked away. After the police called my brother back, trying to pinpoint our location, the police, paramedics, and fire department came. The police came and took a witness statement from me, checked my driver’s license so that they can put my name down on the statement. I was wondering if anything bad was on my record (I don’t have any history) but it came back clean. We were cleared to leave.

After witnessing something like this, I made several conclusions. First, life is fragile. You can be here one minute and gone the next. You can also never be too safe while driving. You can be driving like dear ol’ grandma down the road and still get into a serious wreck. After standing there, I did, indeed realise I was on the bridge and noticed black ice. My father always told me to be careful of bridges because they get icy. This event definitely proved that and really opened my eyes. Another thing I realised is that there are more nice people in this world than I thought there were. Who would imagine that within a minute several “strangers” would come together in a team effort to safe one guy’s life. Heck, even the paramedics, fire fighters, and police were nice and respective to everyone. This event really changed the way I look at people and life itself.

I apologize for not updating. We have been very busy with finals. We’ve both been working nonstop for the past week trying to get just one of our finals done. The good news is that final was done successfully and it came out beutiful. The bad news though, is that I won’t be able to update for yet another week because next week is finals week at our college. Christmas break starts on Friday next week and we will be able to update our blog then. I know those of you who are reading our blog are disappointed, we are disappointed too, I mean, who wants to do finals all week? not me. I’d rather post and talk geeky with you all. I will see you all here again on December 19th! Thanks for all the patience everyone!

Photo from: Universal’s “Animal House”

Hello everyone, we are a little bit busier than we originally planned but we are still thinking of you all. We will start again on December 19. See you all then!