So I'm sitting here at work and she calls me. She was on her way to school. Said the car had a tire blowout that threw the car out of control. She regained some control but it did end up pretty far in a field at the side of the road by the time it stopped.
So she's not hurt. She thinks the car isn't hurt much besides the tire (luckily this is all farm ground around here, so not much to hit).
But I'm sitting here nervously at work, a little shook because this is the first time any of my kids have had a near-miss like this. And she's only 15. And I'm trying to think about HOW in the world I'm going to get that car out of the field and back home (about two miles) while I'm stuck here at work.
If she gets the tire changed, can she drive the car back to the road? Is there anyone you can call that would help her change the tire?
Posts: 4625 | Registered: Jul 2002
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Farmgirl, how does your work handle leave? I take it you can't just take off and burn through a couple of hours of vacation time, or comp time?
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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posted
I think I'll ask the boss if I can take the rest of the morning off -- go home, use the spare to change the blown tire on the car, and see if I can drive it out of the field.
Because we are supposed to have rain/thunderstorms soon, and that field will get impossible really fast.....
posted
Yeah, probably better to take care of it now. Sorry you're having to experience this--I imagine I'd be pretty shaken up by it too, even though no one was hurt or anything. I'm really glad that this happened in a rural setting. I assume it was on a 2 lane highway or something? Definitely better than in the middle of a city, or on the turnpike at 70 mph or soemthing like that.
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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Just out of curiosity, Ivygirl is 15? What state are you in, because in my state, you have to be 16 to have a license. Posts: 1466 | Registered: Jan 2003
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I ended up in a ditch a couple months after I got my license. It shakes you up... glad you're both okay, and hope the car is, too.
Posts: 7954 | Registered: Mar 2004
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Kansas, at least when I was a teenager, would issue 14 year olds restricted licenses, which allowed them to drive to and from school and work.
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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posted
Wow that's scary. Glad to know she's OK though. I'd offer to help change the tire, but you'll probably be long done before I could get there from PA.
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Well, I have sent up prayers of thanksgiving that all is well.
I know how shaken you can feel after a wreck, Ivygirl will be even more sore tomorrow - she'll need to get some rest, and soak in a hot tub.
Best of luck with the car, Farmgirl.
I'm sorry this happened.
Tangential story: be thankful this is not the call you got. When my cousin was about six months pregnant, she was in a severe accident. (All is well, it was 11 years ago and her son is a healthy, happy child) Anyway, her mother got a phone call at work, from a mutual friend who had seen the accident.
"Robin, Shannan's been in a wreck. But I don't want you to worry - the paramedics are almost through cutting her out of the car and the helicopter is on the way."
Oh, but don't worry!
Again, praise God Ivygirl is all right. Posts: 14428 | Registered: Aug 2001
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I had a tire blowout on 595 in South Florida when I was 16 and it was very scary. I wasn't hurt either and I made it to the side of the road.
Belle, that reminds me of a phone message I got in college: "This is Lloyd. I'm with Martin [my then boyfriend] in the ER. Beep." Martin kicked out his window in his sleep and had a huge chunk of glass embedded in his foot. I ran across the street to the hospital and almost killed Lloyd when I found out what had happened.
Posts: 3037 | Registered: Jan 2002
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posted
Belle's story reminded me of one told by a coworker of mine. When he was a teenager he had a motorcycle, and got into a fairly horrible accident that could easily have killed or paralyzed him, but didn't--happily enough, all it did was break a few bones and abraid quite a bit of skin from his body. The paramedics loaded him into the ambulance, and just before the doors shut some woman poked her head in and said "don't worry Robert, I'll call your mother." Now, my coworker had never seen this woman in his life, and his name wasn't Robert. I hope that Robert was right there by his mother when she got the call. It would be horrible to hear that your kid had been in a horrific accident and believe it to be true for even a minute.
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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When I was a hospital chaplain we were called to all trauma alerts. It was part of our job to meet the family, escort them to the family waiting rooms, and sit with them until a doctor could come to speak with them. We had to get very quick at explaining that we met all the families of trauma victims, because some people immediately associated “chaplain” with “the patient is dead,” which was very rarely the case.
Posts: 9866 | Registered: Apr 2002
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Okay - I'm back already. Drove home (35+ miles), got the spare on the car, drove it out of the field (sortof) and then came back here to work.
It's worse than I thought (the car).
One of the back wheels (the one she thinks blew) is at about a 30-degreee angle from all the others -- in other words, when all the tires are pointing straight ahead, this tire is pointing pigeon-toed inward about 30 degrees. Bent rear axle probably, but I have to climb under tonight and give it a good look. We dog-tracked it home very very slowly (just about 1 1/2 miles).
Good news on this is that this is a front-wheel drive car ('85 Chevy Geo Prizm) -- so this is not the drive axle since it is in the rear.
Ivygirl had insisted on going on to high school and had already had a classmate that lives about 4 miles away come get her -- she was long gone before I got out there (that is the nearest classmate, by the way).
Mr. Funny - yes, in Kansas you can get a license to drive "to and from school by the most direct route" or drive farm vehicles at age 14.
Now, when she had called me originally and told me where it was and that it was in the field, I was thinking " wait -- isn't there like a MAJOR ditch between that road and the field?" I was right. There is about a five foot deep drainage ditch on this rural county road, between the road edge and the corn-stubble field.
Because they JUST re-paved this road yesterday, her tracks are quite clear. The blowout jerked it enough that the right tires dropped off the edge of the road (which, again, since they just paved it had about a 4 inch drop between pavement and dirt), looks like she pulled it back on and it fishtailed (nice black marks where she was probably locking up the brakes), went off the right side of the road, down into that ditch, back up, and skidded sideways severals yards out into the cornfield, where it buried itself in dirt.
Airbags didn't deploy, which is probably a good thing because it let her maintain some sort of control. You can tell she hit the ditch pretty hard. I guess she told her grandma that she "hit the ceiling at least three times" and her neck hurts, but I know from past experience she will hurt much more tomorrow than she does today. She WAS wearing her seatbelt, and the car did NOT roll, thank goodness.
This is her grandma's car. So now I will have to see how much $$$ is will be to fix it, but that might have to wait awhile.
You know how Charlie Brown has his kite-eating tree? I think we have a car-eating road. I mean really -- it is like a jinx.
As I was examining Ivygirl's accident, I realize it was only about 200 yards from exactly where I had an almost identical accident when I was 14, on my way to school in my '65 Plymouth Valiant.
Same road, same side, same field. I lost control (probably inattentive), fishtailed, went down into that same ditch, but with mine the ditch was wet so the front wheels stopped while the back of the car didn't, and it rolled at least twice in that same field.
I came out basically unhurt (cuts, bruises), but the car was totalled.
I couldn't help but notice how her skid marks looked almost identical to what mine had looked at that same place 29 years ago.
To top it off -- about five years after my accident on that road, I loaned my car to a girlfriend who was living with me at the time, and she rolled it off that SAME road, into a field, just about two miles off from where these other accidents are. (Totally it too, but she was unhurt).
I think this road has it in for me. Have to take it -- it is the only county road that connects to my dirt road.
posted
That is eerie Farmgirl. Pretty interesting too. Do you have any idea if it's a higher accident rate area for other people too?
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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posted
Sorry your car is so banged up, by the way. Wish I could do something to help, but A)I'm not there, and B)I know a lot less than you probably do about cars.
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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I'm pretty sure Bob_S would tell me it is all statistical, and that would make sense. I mean, since it IS about the only road I can use to get to/from the farm, then the overall percentage of time we drive this road is nearly 100% compared to all other roads we drive (because once off this road, we could be going any direction), so it would make mathematical sense that there is a higher percentage chance of any accident we have being on this road as opposed to any others we drive, right?
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Yeah Farmgirl, usually things like that that seem eerie on the face of it turn out to have mundane explanations like that, but it's fun being "eeriefied", for a second, and then fun to work out why it would be.
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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But very glad to hear that Ivygirl got through it OK.
The only experience I've had that comes close was as a passenger. A bunch of us were travelling in a rented small-"sped"-sized wheelchair minibus. One of the rear tires blew while we were doing 60 mph. The driver was great - kept control of the vehicle and pulled us over to the side. Luck played a factor too - no other vehicles near us at the time and a wide shoulder on that section of road.
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I'm glad to hear it worked ok, Farm. A banged up axle is a small price to pay for Ivy's safety. And you have the peace of mind knowing she wasn't doing anything wrong when it happened.
My "let's find out if I believe in God" moment behind the wheel - I'm driving down the interstate through the Atlanta connector when I hear a loud "whump" and my vision goes black.
I manage not to lose it completely and slow down to more reasonable pace before pulling over into the emergency lane.
Apparently my hood had come loose and launched itself at my windshield. Which, fortunately, didn't crack. Oy.
Hit an invisible patch of black ice on a Canada highway and spunout 360-ing in front of an oncoming semi.
The highway had been clear and dry for more than 25 miles before this, so I was back up to interstate speeds. *shudder
Posts: 2919 | Registered: Aug 2004
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I once spun completely around on my way to work, ended up pointing across a lane of oncoming traffic. Luckily, there was parking across the street, so I pulled forward enough to let the cars pass, then continued on my way. It was coming down an icy hill.
Posts: 5422 | Registered: Dec 2001
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If we include spin-outs on Interstates, I have been in 3 potentially fatal accidents and 2 garden variety rear-ending type accidents. Also, 3 scary blowouts that caused me to lose control of the car.
In my husband's family, there was a tradition of each child totalling a car while living at home. The last Two of the six failed to deliver, however. My husband also survived a bike/car accident, but he does have chronic neck challenges from it. I guess I see it as part of growing up... weird.
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I was once driving along way too fast on a gravel road that hadn't been graded in ages. The gravel had been piled up into long rows, and I was driving with my tires in the dirt ruts between the rows. Something that I was allergic to was pollenatinging and I started sneezing like crazy, over and over, violently enough that I was basically immobilized by it, and my vision was blurred so dramatically by tears that I could barely see. The car kind of rode up onto the gravel rows and started fishtailing. I tried to correct for it, and probably would have been successful had it not been for the hayfever. As it was I ended up spinning 180 degrees and slamming into an embankment. Bent the axle and totalled the car, but I was able to get it to limp back home. That was a better than usual excuse for my missing the Latin class I was headed into town for.
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posted
Glad your daughter is ok. Having a tire blow out is a frightening experience, especially if you are a new driver. Stay on top of her neck... make sure that she's really ok.
Posts: 4112 | Registered: May 2001
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Wow... I am glad Ivygirl is okay Farmgirl. *Hugs* to you both. Glad she was wearing her seatbelt, too. There was a local tragedy a few weeks back where a young girl wasn't wearing her's and she, very tragically, died.
The road eerieness would make an interesting short story, though. I'm sorry about the tangent. Story ideas keep jumping at my brain, but nothing is sticking.
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When I was 19, I decided to have a lunchtime date with an old girlfriend in Winston-Salem, NC but still had to be at work in Boone, NC at 4 p.m. that day. It's about an hour and a half drive, but due to dawdling, I had to make it in an hour.
So I had to dash back up US 421 and as I hit the mountains, where it gets a bit curvy, I punched the accelerator on my Thunderbird and flew past car after car... zipp.. whish... zoom... vroom...
Beautiful day, not a cloud in the sky, each move executed perfectly. Then there just happened to be a fellow washing his car on the hillside near the highway. The soapy water washed down onto the road, right in a sharp curve...
Slip, whip, whip... I remember seeing the mountainside at least three times, and the big beautiful view of the valley three times before it came to rest. I also remember how the Big Country tape I was listening to sounded sooo slooooow all of a sudden.
Somehow I didn't hit the mountainside or go shooting off into the wild blue yonder and ended up in my lane, but pointed right back the way I had come from.
About the time I said, "Whew!" here came all of that traffic I had passed.
My pants had staid relatively dry up until then. After that... well... err...
But no collisions, thankfully. And yes, I was late for work. Had to stop at home and change.
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