Loveday Writing

Think of something you don’t want to write about, then start writing about it.**

My car accident and new car

I can’t talk about my nice “new to me” car without talking about why I had to get one.

December 18, 2024, 7:35am. I was driving to work, worrying about another day of end-of-year stresses when I was approaching a t-intersection and was t-boned by another driver who failed to give way, like she was supposed to. One of my last thoughts before being hit was the fact that I didn’t do my usual look as I was approaching the intersection like I usually do because I, ironically, always feared being t-boned.

The sound of the car (Mazda) being hit was muffled as she hit between the door and the wheel well of the driver’s side, which I was told later is one of the strongest parts of a car. Because of this, no glass from the windows or windscreen broke, hence the muffled sound. I knew I’d done something to my head as I could see the skin from the top of my head go above my hair line in the rearview mirror and thought I’d fractured my skull. Turns it out it was a u-shaped head laceration from hitting the grab handle that sits above the door.

I had a brief thought of whether I could keep driving to work, this only lasted half-a-second before the adrenaline and fear hit and I started screaming. I could see smoke coming out the bonnet (the car wasn’t actually on fire), I could smell something electrical, and I couldn’t open the door or turn the car off (the car was still in drive and I managed to keep my foot on the brake, which is why I couldn’t turn it off).

The first bystander to come and help was a woman who got into the passenger seat to calm me down enough so I could make phone calls to my parents and boss. The staff from the pub nearby came to help the other driver and her teenage child, who I’d later learn had a seizure and lost consciousness due to the impact, and was lying on the ground nearby. Someone gave me an ice pack for my head laceration, I didn’t realise how much blood I’d lost until I was getting into the ambulance. The electrical smell that I thought was the car was my own blood.

Another bystander outside called the first responders. The police were the first to arrive, followed by paramedics, then Fire Rescue. A nurse or doctor of some kind helped the teenage child from the other car, then got into the back seat of my car to help me by keeping my neck straight and still. Another male bystander got into the passenger side of the car to put the car in park for me, another male bystander on the driver’s side turned the car off. Someone else, I think a volunteer doctor or medical professional of some kind wanted me to try and get out, but the nurse/doctor didn’t want me to due to the possibility of a neck injury.

Another bystander opened the stuck-driver’s side door, which Fire Rescue initially planned on cutting off to get me out, until I told them that I wasn’t pinned and could move. Some random person asked me how old I was, I think it might have been a journalist reporting on the accident. I eventually realised my glasses had been thrown off my face when I patted my face and couldn’t feel them, they didn’t break. Fire Rescue and Paramedics got me out and I walked myself over to the gurney. My father came to the scene to make sure the car was towed away and that I was attended to. I saw the blood on my shirt for the first time whilst being wheeled into the ambulance, my blood pressure was 193/117, catastrophic level.

When I got to the hospital, the police took my statement and conducted a breath test, and the injured teenager, his brother and the other driver were at a bed a few feet away from me. Later, the driver came over to me and my father in tears and apologised. I felt empathy for her, but I also wasn’t in the headspace to accept her apology either. I wasn’t rude, but I wasn’t overly friendly either. The doctors took my blood work and found me a bed, where I spent most of the day.

My blood pressure slowly went down throughout the day, and a CT scan cleared me of major head, neck and abdominal injuries. I eventually went home at 4pm, having to take out my own cannula from my elbow because the staff forgot to do so, even when I asked. I ended up getting six stitches for the head wound with a local anaesthetic, after there was an initial debate over whether to sedate and take me to the OR. I was also given a DTAP shot, IV antibiotics at the hospital, and took 9 antibiotics a day for a week after being discharged.

I went home with a bandaged head and bruising on my neck, left breast, and abdomen from the seatbelt and airbags doing their job. The stitches came out the day after Boxing Day, the bruises would take three weeks to fade. On New Year’s Eve, the Mazda was written off by the insurer.

In regards to driving, I rented a car for two weeks and eventually regained my confidence before buying the car I have now. I’m comfortable in it, but I’m still paranoid about t-intersections. My head laceration is almost finished healing, it’s not going fast enough for my liking.

I’m very lucky to be alive and grateful that I walked away with a few minor injuries. On one hand, I feel like a badarse for surviving, on the other, it still gets to me how short and fragile life could be and how much worse it could have been. I’m also incredibly proud of myself for buying a car on my own. All other cars I’d driven (including the Mazda) were borrowed from other people, mainly family members.

If you’ve gotten this far, I’m okay now, but this will always be with me.

**Reference: Marsden J 1998, Everything I Know About Writing, Pan Macmillan, Australia.