My children were 13 inches from death or serious injury.

[JDBracho]

I was driving our Grand Caravan with my two boys in the 3rd row, and my baby girl and my father in the second row.  I was slowing down to make a left turn into the middle of a 4-way highway.  I noticed the car behind me was going a little fast,  I looked to see if the traffic was clear for me to cross, when Slammmm.  Suddenly the Van accelerated and I was fighting to steer the van into the median and slamming on the brakes to come to a stop.  After stoipping the van, I immediatly jumped out of the van and started to open the door to the back.  In that split second I was scared to death of what I may find when I opened the door, I could not hear my children.  I was still struggling to catch my breath from the impact.  As soon as I opened the door, my dad jumped out as I sighed a huge relief at that moment all three of my children started screaming.  I was asking my dad if he was ok, as I unstrapped the baby from her car seat.  I sat in the back trying to comfort her, as I looked over my boys in the back seat.  They appeared to be completely unharmed.   They were horribly upset, my 4 year old kept saying, they did that to our van, and my 3 year old was screaming about our groceries and the splatted milk all over him.  All I could do is thank God, thank God my children are ok.  My dad was having a really hard time breathing, he has emphysema, and the impact really knocked the breath out of us.  At this point people were coming up to the van asking us if we were ok.  I couldn't find my cell phone the impact sent it flying.   All I wanted to do is hold my baby, and comfort my children.  I found my phone and called my brother and his wife, they were traveling a little ahead of us.  I called my husband, and he didn't answer the phone.  He was mowing the lawn.  I was so nervous I really needed his support.   Finally after 15 minutes, he answered the phone.  I am forever grateful to my sister-n-law for calling AAA and Geico for me.  I was just to wound up to deal with it.   People kept offering to hold the baby, and telling me to sit down.  I was not going to let a stranger hold my baby!   The same strangers were commending me for having my children properly straped in carseats.  When I looked at the back of the van I could not believe what a hard hit we took, and everybody was ok.  When my husband arrived he took us to the emergency room.  They offered for us to ride in the Ambulance, but I didn't want my children in that thing without carseats.   My dad and I both have back and neck injuries, but the children checked out to be ok.  The entire time we were in the emergency room, all I could do is hug my children, and be so thankful that they were ok.  I still look at my children and get teary eyed thinking about what could have happened.  I took a measuring tape and the impact damage was only 13 inches from hitting the 3rd row seat that my two boys were sitting in. 

Our losses.  This was three months ago and we are still waiting on the money to replace our van.  In the mean time, we couldn't afford a rental car, so I am driving our extended cab F150.  I am so happy that all 3 carseats fit in the back. But it sure hurts to load them in and out with my injuries.  We had just put new tirres on the van , less than half an hour before it was totalled.  I had  just put in $85 worth of gas 15 min before it was totalled.  Not to mention the $300 worth of groceries that were totally crushed or spoiled before we could deal with them.  Maybe it was good the groceries were there to shield my children from the broken glass.  Of course the insurance company doesn't want to give us what kbb or edmunds says the van is worth, they have their own numbers, that are convenienlty 2K less than any other value we can compute.   My father and I have to pay the 20% that PIP doesn't cover on the medical expenses....    All of this money lost is annoying, but it doesn't really matter because my family is ok. 

 

[momto3.5]

Sep. 17, 2008 at 8:59 PM

Oh thank goodness everyone was okay!

I have the same kind of van and it makes me nervous when people are driving crazy behind me because of how little room is between the back seat and the back of the van.

[Julie1972]

Sep. 21, 2008 at 11:18 AM

That was such a scary accident...I am so glad you guys weren't seriously injured....Hopefully your back will get better soon.  I think you should sue the bejesus out of that bitch who hit you.  I would love to know if she was drunk....

[JDBracho]

Sep. 21, 2008 at 2:50 PM

The accident report showed that she got a ticket for open container.  It also said the reason she ran into us was the person in the passenger seat was having an epileptic seizure  For some reason that makes me feel less angry.

(Original Poster)