2 1/2 years of lost sleep and unbearable stress is finally over. 

April 18th, 2009.

This night, when I had a brush in with the Reaper, would effect my life for 2 1/2 years to come. It was the end of a fun night. Me, my best friend and a roommate were cruising to another friends house outside of Los Angeles. We were entering the ramp onto the 110 freeway when a spiffy little purple Audi speed around me, but manages to hit the side of my 1989 Buick Century. I slow down thinking he is going to pull over, but alas, his steps on the gas and speeds off.

“What the fuck?!” was my response, and then I take chase. Obviously my Buick was no match for the Audi but I was hopeful. Suddenly as I round a corner there is a wall of red lights, I have to slam on my brakes. I skid to a stop at the random traffic on the freeway, and guess who is beside me, the purple Audi. 

I will not type the plethora of curses we spit out at him but the nice version is, “We’ve got ya now! And your license asshole!).

And at this very moment, a drunk driver slammed into the back of my car going 70mph. Now, you may say, there is no way I could have survived. That is exactly what my lawyers said until they read the report and saw the pictures. Instant death for a rear end is usually 45mph+.

I don’t even remember seeing the lights. As she impacted my car the world went black and my Buick flew about 20ft. I open my eyes only seconds after and the adrenaline kicks in. I make sure all of my mates are safe, they are shaken up and aching all over but no major damage. I act quickly getting everyone safely out of the car and on the side. There is no median and cars are speeding around the curve nearly missing us.

I run over to the car that hit us and the driver and passenger are sitting in the car crying. I ask her if they are ok but all she keeps saying is, “Oh my god, my car. Im so screwed. My car”. NOTE: Not once this whole time did the girl ask if we were ok, only complained about her car.

I yell at them to get the hell out of the car and put on the flashers as other cars whip past. They finally exit and walk toward the divider wall as I am on the phone with 911. As I am provider the details to the dispatch, I am noticing more cars rounding the corner at 70mph nearly slamming into us so I tell everyone to climb on top of the divider.

As we move to climb, a car speeds around the curve, and not seeing the crashed vehicles, slams into the drunk girl’s car. Both cars come barreling towards us and if we had waited a split second longer vaulting the median, we would have all been killed. Next thing I know we are forced to run across the opposite side of the freeway playing frogger with oncoming cars to get to safety.

Two days later, after we had recovered a little bit from the massive whiplash, we went to gather my belongings from my car. The pictures above are the remains. The tattoo above is something I got directly after seeing my car. As I searched the car for anything left intact, I noticed my GPS had flown into the back of the car and under the front seat. As I reached for it, a glitter caught my eye. I picked up the GPS and sitting on the screen, face up, was a pewter cross. 

Now I am now very religious, more spiritual, but I felt something that day. When I saw that cross on there I knew that my Mother and Father were watching over me that night, protecting me, and that was there way of telling me that. To get the cross and GPS to come together this is what had to happen:

• Cross in locked glove box bursts out
• GPS attached to windshield flies off
• GPS hits my friend in the face
• Both items fly around the chaos.
• Both items scatter again the second time it is hit
• The GPS lands behind the seat and the cross lands face up on the screen

That was 2 1/2 years ago. That split second of the drunk driver hitting me took away those years and destroyed my finances. Since the girl had the lowest liability required by California law, the promise of much money was slim. Her passenger refused to make a claim so we couldn’t take it to personal court for 2 years. I was forced to move back to Maryland and my credit fell into ruins. I haven’t slept well since and I have always felt a weight on my shoulders.

Tonight, I finally got the settlement letter from the lawyers. All I have to do tomorrow is fax it to them with a signature and I will be forever done with this. Tonight I feel as free as a bird and I nearly cried. Even though I am only getting 15% of what I should be getting…the peace of mind means the most to me. If you have read this far thank you for reading my rant, and please never drink and drive.

5 September 2011 ·

• Tags
• 2 1/2 years of lost sleep and unbearable stress.
• Car crash
• drunk driver
• finally
• near death
• relief
• ruined
• stress