Accident!

Hurricane Lane heading to Hawaii

In the mist of Hurricane Lane bearing down on the Hawaiian islands... and me texting our son about the possibility of "flying out of there" while there's still time... (Wednesday morning)

what do I do? ... but have a car accident Wednesday afternoon! Police! Fire Engines! Paramedics! Etc! (It's amazing how fast all those people showed up). 

Probably totaled our old car (1995 Grand Marquis). It was my mom's and we thought we might get another year out of it... apparently not.

No one was seriously hurt (thank God) and I refused the ambulance. The paramedics did bandage my left arm that was bruised and bleeding from the air bag. However, once I was home, both the insurance lady I spoke with and my daughter-in-law who is a nurse recommended that I go to the emergency room because although my  obvious wounds seemed not life-threatening, I was complaining of a loud ringing in my ears and some dizziness (and I was still shaking from the obvious shock of it all).

So DH and I went to the ER where they did a CT scan of my head and an x-ray of my arm. Both were fine.  So... just bruises and contusions  on my arms from the air bags and across my chest and stomach from the seat belt. We got home about 8pm. 

This morning... just sore. And although my ears are no longer ringing (which I was told by someone that might have been caused by the impact or the sound of the air bags exploding?), my hearing still seems a bit 'off '. Weird...

left and right arms...










When I was asked if anything hurt... both on the street and in the ER,  I said "no... but my arms burned?".  I was told that this was due to the powder used in the exploding air bags (didn't know that... you learn something new all the time - would rather have not learned this.)

I also learned that it smells like something's burning as I thought the car was on fire after the impact and explosion of the air bags. My driver's door was jammed from the impact and wouldn't open. I tried several times. Smelled what I thought was something burning and tried to get out... but was pressed up against the steering wheel. Finally I thought to see if the seat would still move backwards and it did! So I climbed out from the passenger side.

Have to admit that I'm still in shock over this incident. I've gone all these years without an accident and thought I was a pretty cautious driver, but now...   All I can say is that I'm so very happy that no one was seriously hurt. But now that I've experienced this, my mind keeps replaying that moment of impact. 

And... Hurricane Lane is due to arrive around Honolulu sometime in the next few hours.  Keeping track on CNN.