On my way to clas yesterday afternoon, the bedliner of a full-sized pick-up truck flew out of the truck, and onto my car. Luckily, it only breifly hooked onto my bumper and covered my windshield before it flew up and over the top of my car. Although those 2 seconds before it blew off were TERRIFYING.
There isn't much damage done: a dent, some scratches, a missing license plate. The part of the ordeal that REALLY got to me was reporting the accident.
I immediately pulled over, got my cell phone, and called 911. They picked up, after 3 rings, asked my emergency, which I told them, and transferred my to another department. After 2 ring, they answered, asked for my emergency, which I again told them, tey asked if there were injuries, I said no, they said someone would be there shortly.
So we waited.
We were torn between whether we should stay in the car or get out and stand to the side. The shoulder that we were pulled over onto was no wider than a parking spot and the cars behind me were all over the road trying to avoid the giant bedliner, which at this point was hanging out in the middle lane. We decided, probably incorrectly, to stay in the car because it was cooler than being in the direct sun.
We talked about whether or not the driver of the pick-up was going to come back (which she did, thank goodness). I went through my backpack, found my syllabus, and called my professor to tell him that I wasn't going to make class. I sent a text mesage to my mother. Essentially, I had a LOT of time to sit dangerously on the side of the higway and there was a lot of time spent with the cars swerving all over the highway to avoid the bedliner. By the time I realized that it had been a long time, it had already been 12 minutes! And another 4 minutes went by before the police officer showed up!
I can understand that there were no injuries, but I made it clear to BOTH of the 911 operators that I had to speak to that there was blockage on the highway that was causing problems. That alone should have been a rush.
I have only been in one accident prior to this, and it was 8 years ago, so I can't say that I can really remember how long I waited before the police officer showed up, but I can tell you now, that 16 minutes sitting in a car on the side of a 65 mph highway seemed way too long.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Patty, I completely agree! I am shocked that a) the bedliner caused only minimal damage to your car (and, of course, I am thankful that you walked away injury-free, but more importantly, b) you'd think a State Trooper would be cruising that strip of highway (since it's their JOB) and might have been sent over to at least make sure you, your car, and the chaos of the road in general, were alright. Sheesh!
Post a Comment