heart-stopping

Let me begin by saying: nobody was seriously injured – nor were there any bicycles involved.

Yesterday afternoon I had one of those moments that every parent dreads beyond description – getting a phone call that your child was in an car accident. My youngest son was on his way to tennis practice after school and was stopped behind a van for a driver making a left-hand turn –  and moments later he was rear-ended by a driver who admitted to being “temporarily distracted”/momentarily not paying close enough attention. (I won’t even start on my abhorrence over cell-phones use in cars, texting, etc. – even though we don’t know if this was a contributing factor in this accident).

While I understand that accidents happen, and we are more than willing to forgive and forget, I hope that this will serve as a reminder to both the driver and to my teenage son (who is in that high-risk group, even though he was not at fault here): distracted driving is completely unsafe and irresponsible, and the outcome could have been much, much worse.   Sad business all around.

My cousin sent me a link to this video made by AT&T entitled “The Last Text” about texting while driving, which I made all of my boys watch, and I think it’s definitely worth viewing – here.

Grant is fine, a little bruised and shaken, but we are SO grateful that the outcome was as good as it was. I can always replace a car … had anything happened to my son, well, I can’t even think about it.

One thing that left me fairly shocked (although the attending police didn’t seem to find it unusual for some reason), was that even though the dash basically popped out, or was pushed out by the impact, the driver’s airbag didn’t deploy. I am a bit mystified.  Can someone explain?  I may be asking the folks at Honda about this.

why didnt the airbag deploy? (I wish someone could explain this to me)

As for bikes and cycling … well, I guess this is one way for me to be car-free for a while.  Mark will be driving my car, while Grant drives our other car.  Distances, along with Grant’s before- and after-school activities and Mark’s business travel make it necessary for them to use cars, while I can fairly easily get by on two wheels.  Good thing.

Meanwhile – don’t drink, text, use a phone, apply make-up, shave, read, or do anything else when you’re behind the wheel.    Please.  Please.

a beautiful way to be car-free