I was driving to work and had just merged on to the freeway from the Provo Center Street on-ramp. Just as I was trying to speed up, I noticed brake lights ahead, so I slowed down. "Wierd, maybe I should change lanes cause I don't want to be stuck in traffic and be late to work". No sooner had I thought this when I realized the car in front of me had come to a complete stop. So I slammed on my brakes and stopped just 1-2 feet behind the car. Right when I'm thinking "Thank goodness", I am slammed forward. The car behind me apparently was not paying attention to brake lights and crashed right into me. Luckily, I still had my foot on the brake pedal, so I still didn't hit the car in front of me, however, my car was not so lucky.
The first thing I noticed was that the stereo had completely come out of the dash and was hanging. The music was still playing, so I new it was okay, but it still freaked me out. So I popped the stereo back in. Then I got out of my car and called Brad. Now I should mention that due to all of the I-15 construction, there is no shoulder to the freeway, so we all tried to pull over as best we could in the 1 foot space to the side of the right lane, but basically we blocked the lane. So I'm on the phone with Brad telling him that i was hit and everything, and all the other girls from the other 2 cars are on their phones, when I realize that my glasses are not on my face. I freak out and start searching the car cause I was worried that they had flown off and hit something and thereby been damaged. Luckily I found them on the carpet under the steering wheel. Thank goodness. I walked around my good like Ford Escort and checked the front, and saw that I had no damage there and affirmed with the girl in front of me that I had not hit her. Then I walked to the rear and saw the damage. My bumper was caved in/no-existent any more. I could see pieces of it along the freeway. The license plate was hanging on pretty good still as one screw was still very much intact to some metal. I then text my manager and told her that I was in an accident and would be late.
So the girl who hit me tells me that she thinks its all her fault cause her brakes don't really work. I wanted to yell, "Then what are you doing driving! Seriously!" My estimation is that she was going at least 45 mph when she hit me. Brad asked me over the phone if I was okay or hurt. I only noticed that my sacrolumbar was sore (low back). The girl who hit me called 911 and within a few minutes, the high patrol was there. They numbered our cars by the order we were all in. Some how 2 other cars were involved. One was completely crunched, so I think she might have hit the concrete barrier when she tried to stop and not hit all of us. The other car, well i have no idea, she looked fine. So after we were all number, the UHPs had us back up and drive into the closed off part of the road that is being worked on. Luckily our accident was right next to this, so I only had to back up a few feet and then they moved cones for us to get over and off the freeway.
After we are all moved, the UHP officers start talking to all us and asking what happened. They then had each of us write down our information and statements and they took all of our license, registration and insurance info. After all this, the UHP officer working with me told me to sit in my car while he filed the report. This is when I found out the the girl's car who had been in front of me, had stopped working all of a sudden, which is why she had come to a complete stop. Her car was working now, but they decided to tow it anyways so that wouldn't happen again. As her car was not affected at all, she was good to go. Some EMTs came and spoke with all of us. After I assured them that I was fine and would just go to work to have my physical therapist look at me, they left me alone.
So this morning was not exactly warm, so I'm just sitting in my car freezing, when finally I get out and find my UHP office assigned to me. He hands me a piece of paper with my information and the girl who hit me's information on it. He told me that he gave her a citation and that he filed a report. This was all stated on the handy dandy paper. He told me that I could just call her insurance and with all this information and get the details of repair worked out with them. He then told the girl who hit me the same thing but that she should contact her insurance, not mine. After all the cars that needed to be towed were moved, the UHPs stopped some traffic at the onramp and let us get back on the freeway.
I got to work and Roger, my PT, looked me over and did some tests to determine that I had no neurological damage. By now, it had been an hour and a half since the accident, so I was starting to notice a little more pain. He told me that the adrenaline was wearing off, so I would really start feeling sore and that it would last for 4-6 weeks! I laughed cause I thought he was joking, but he wasn't. He told me that massage, heat, and advil were the best things to help. I also spoke briefly with Dr. Ockey and he said that same things. Great! So as I'm working, I am getting sorer. It gets to the point where my whole spine hurts. And the longer into the day, the worse it got. Plus, my greatest pain region kept changing. Where it had first been my low back, it was then my midback and this morning it was my back that was killing me. But, Roger did give me a tens unit to help. A tens unit has electrodes that you stick on the muscle that is bothering you. It then sends like electrical impulses/shocks, to that area(s) and this helps to relax the muscle.
During the whole accident and high patrol stuff, I was talking with Brad and he got online and told me that he could see me online from the traffic cam. Of course, traffic built up at the accident spot, and as typical, when I got on the freeway, once I got passed the point where we had crashed, the freeway was moving great again. Gotta love curious looky-loos.
So there were my minutes of fame. Ha ha. Great right? Now I feel like the bionic women with all the machines attached to me and wires (my insulin pump and the tens unit). Too bad it doesn't make me really strong. Oh well. Now I have to take the poor car to a collision repair shop to get the bumper/crunched trunk fixed and get a rental (all paid for by State Farm Insurance at least). Oh and a great thing that happened as well, when the stereo was popped out, the knob to change the air from cold to hot, was broken off. The metal part that lets you turn the knob and is inside the stereo console was broken and super glue isn't gonna fix it. So now the car is stuck on hot. At least it is getting colder right?
.jpg)
