Sunday, October 20, 2013

Perspective

I broke my iPod today.  Haven't had it yet a year, and I broke it.  I wasn't even doing anything abnormal with it - except trying to get an oh so perfect photo of an uncooperative 2 year old.

It all started with skipping church this morning.  Originally we planned to go to church, but we decided to just skip it and do other things.

So first we went to care for friend B's chores for her as previous agreed upon.  Then we went to town to pick up costumes and then stop at the mall. It was a 25th Anniversary event, and Akron zoo was bringing down some of their "special friends" for kids to see.  I was super excited to take my kids there.  And I was going to take pictures. With my iPod.

I was disappointed with Akron's "special friends". A snake and a parrot.  *blink blink*  That's it?!  Then there were turtle shells and an alligator head.  I laughed as I said, "We had an alligator head from FL in our living room. Let's go."

So we went into Elderbeermans because they have their Christmas trees up and their over priced and extravagant ornaments out. And Fiesta dishes.  And cement floors that aren't healthy for iPods.  My iPod slipped from my hand, crashing to the ground, shattering the screen, while I was trying to coax my 2 year old to look at me for a picture in front of an as tall as she is Santa.

I was done. My mood was ruined. I said, "Let's go" and we stalked past the disappointing Zoo display, passed through the doors, and tromped out to the car.  We got everyone into their seats and buckled in, and I slipped the shattered iPod out of my pocket.  I was surprised, but glad, to see it still works. I mumbled to my husband that I was glad we bought the extra warranty on it.  We pulled out of the parking lot and headed toward home.

I was still preoccupied with my disgust over my newly shattered iPod when we came to our exit for home.  There's a light there for traffic that do not take the on ramp, because it's right before a small town and it's a fairly busy intersection.

As we were coming to the light, before getting taking the on ramp to the right, my husband was admiring a burnt orange Harley stopped at the light.  He said, "that's a nice bike right there" and I gave a noncommittal "mmhmm".  Seconds later, as we had just taken our exit to the right, which runs alongside the 4 lane road we had just left for a few hundred feet before it turns up to a bridge, I heard brakes squealing and what sounded like an explosion.

There's an audible gasp from my husband, as he instantly hit the brakes and screamed, "That car just hit that bike!!" 

I look up just in time to see the biker hit the windshield of the car and continue to tumble to the back of the car and disappear.  Time slowed to a screeching halt as the car was still propelling the now driverless bike a good 100 ft up the road.  As we slowed, we passed the biker, lying face down on the ground, motionless. His pallor was already grey.  Pieces of the bike littered the biker and the ground in all directions.

The white Lincoln finally came to a stop, and the bike broke away from the front of the car and skidded a few more feet before settling crossways in the right lane.  Antifreeze and smoked gushed from the where the right front quarter panel of the car used to be.  Never had I seen so completely into the insides of a car's engine from the side of the car before. Nothing on the bike was salvageable. It was completely destroyed.

My husband pulled over. I was on the phone with 911 before I was out of my car.  The truck behind us had also stopped because he had seen it, too. The driver of the car got out and called his wife.  He said to his wife, "I was playing with the radio and not paying attention." He kept asking people there "is he going to be OK?" Another person had stopped and she just happened to be a nurse.  Divine providence.  She grabbed gloves from her car and rushed to check for a pulse.  Traffic had come to a dead stop and people were standing around gawking, cars were slowing down.  People were taking pictures. Are you freaking kidding me. 

The 911 operator asked me to tell her where we were.  She asked if he had a pulse.  I thought he looked dead.  The nurse said he had a pulse and his breathing was shallow. I told 911 there is a nurse here, she was just driving by. I repeated to her what the nurse had said, and that she said he would need to be intubated.  Another nurse stopped and they had carefully turned him to check for his pulse. Blood was trickling down his fore head.  His pallor was still deathly gray. My stomach lurched.  I turned away and told the 911 operator I could hear the sirens of the e-squad.  She said good and you should be seeing them now. I said yes, I see and hear them, and we disconnected our call.

The police and ambulance finally arrived. It only took minutes but it had felt like forever. An officer asked who were witnesses to the accident. Five of us raised our hand.  They asked us to stand to the side and wait to give our statements. They intubated him. Then they cut his shirt and jeans off him.   They started chest compressions.  If you've ever taken a CPR course, it's not the same as seeing chest compressions for real.  They were doing compressions and his stomach was sloshing like jell-o and I knew I was going to vomit.  The driver stumbled over to us and asked us if he was going to be ok. We told him we didn't know, they'd said it was too early to tell, and we just needed to give them space to work on him. They were still doing compressions.  I thought it had been an awful long time for chest compressions, that couldn't be a good sign. 

State Patrol came over and asked the driver to come with them.  They frisked him.  It was like we were on a nightmarish episode of COPS. He was spread eagle against the back end of his cracked up car, getting frisked.  Then they whisked him off to their cruiser.  And they were still doing chest compressions.

The first officer on the scene came over with his clipboard and asked which of us still there were his witnesses.   Thank God for that distraction.  By the time he had handed out the statements they had the biker loaded in the ambulance.  The officer stopped traffic so we could cross back to our cars and fill out our statements.  The fire department completely shut down the road so the ambulance could get out. 

We filled out our statements and handed them to the officer.   I looked at the debris littering the road. The biker had not been wearing a helmet, just a Harley ball cap.  It laid in the middle of all of the debris, looking like it had just been lifted from someone's head.  His saddle bags, jacket,  cd's, and a million pieces of plastic and metal literally spread in every direction.  The Lincoln that had hit him sat in a puddle of antifreeze. 

We told the officer that the bike had been sitting still when the car hit him.  He asked if we had our phone numbers, addresses, etc on our statements. We said yes. He thanked us and again stopped traffic so we could cross back to our car.  My husband looked at me and said, "Makes you think, doesn't it?"

As we pulled away, the bike was still laying in the middle of the road. My husband said, "Such a shame. That guy was minding his own business, just enjoying what was a beautiful bike.  Ruined his day. Maybe his year. Maybe his life."

I'm glad I only broke my iPod today.

4 comments:

  1. Wow, so tragic. One never knows when their time will come...I pray that this man makes it.

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  2. My heart goes out to the family of the biker. All I want to do is cry. All of that because the guy was playing with his freakin' radio!? Seriously!? The radio could have waited! Just shut the darn thing off if your station is nothing but static.

    I hope your post reminds those of us, who drive the "4-wheelers", to ALWAYS pay attention to the road when we are behind the wheel... Especially when we know that we share that very same road with the souls who ride motorcycles and unlike us, they have NO way to protect themselves from the dangers of the "4- and 18-wheelers". Sometimes a helmet doesn't even protect their fragile lives.

    May the Lord keep him and his family in his warm embrace and help them through this turn of events. So mote it be.

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  3. Let me guess...250 in Uhrichsville. People never pay any attention at that intersection. What you posted is so very true.

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