Crash!

The five kids and I (Allyson) were on our way home from piano lessons at 6pm. It had been snowing off and on all day, it was windy & cold, the roads were icy, and it was just getting dark. I was in the left lane and a big semi-truck/trailer was in the right lane. We had been side by side at a light, but within a 1/2 mile he was significantly in front of me (must've been going faster than me! I was going under the 45 mph speed limit). Suddenly I noticed that he was sliding and his long trailer was beginning to swing left into my lane. I immediately "pumped" my brakes three times (knowing instinctively that if I were to slam the brakes, I'd slip and slide too!), however, I could tell that I wouldn't be able to slow down fast enough to prevent a major collision - his trailer was already fully into my lane now.

Grateful I was still in control of my minivan (the roads were very slick but I never once slid!), I made a split-second decision to turn leftward and drive into the median/ditch to avoid the truck. Unfortunately, the truck continued to jack-knife until he was completely sideways - totally perpendicular to the road - and since he's so long, his trailer dipped down into the ditch. The back end of his trailer came towards me as I was trying to escape him, but we collided in the ditch. He munched the front corner of my car. We came to a rest with the corner of his trailer about 18 inches away from my windshield - where Chandler sat terrified in the passenger seat. (in fact, he ducked and covered his head as he saw the inevitable crash) The car stopped and immediately shut off (couldn't even get an interior light to work), and Kierstyn and Chandler began to cry. The other three kids sat quiet and confused - they had been watching Ratatouille on the DVD player and didn't have a clue what was happening!

The Lord was definitely watching over us. No one was hurt at all. Had we collided a fraction of a second earlier, the trailer would've smashed into the children on the side of the van or something equally drastic. I'm so glad the hood and engine were able to take the impact instead!!!

It was a really rough evening - Marc had just left town (by car) on a business trip and was over an hour away. I reached him by cellphone, and he called good friends from church to come pick us up and take us home within an hour of the accident (while he turned around and made his way back). We sat together in the still-warm car for a little while. While we waited for the police to process things, the two boys started complaining of some chest/abdominal pains. I ran over to the policeman to have him call the paramedics. When they arrived, our warmth was instantly replaced by the freezing cold wind as both sides of the car were opened and surrounded by the men. They helped us out and into the back of the warm ambulance. The boys were ok, but Marc and I took them to the hospital's ER a couple hours later just to be sure.

Although no police citations were given, the good news is that the truck driver is considered to be at fault (he actually had seen another car in the median up ahead and stepped on his brakes, causing him to slide - I imagine he realized he was going too fast for road conditions such as these). My insurance is getting his insurance to pay for everything, I think. Our car was able to be fixed (took 2 weeks!), our deductible, new carseats for the little girls, medical bills ... all is being reimbursed to us. Enough fun - now let's not experience that again!!!