Crash Updates

I saw a hand doctor today, and he said I could take the splint off.  Since nothing hurts, I’m typing for the first time in over a week.  This is a huge thing because I need my fingers to think.

Here’s what happened with the accident:

View Larger Map

We were traveling westbound on Massachusetts Avenue, a few feet behind where the red car is in this picture. The cross street to the north is Blake. A driver on Blake wanted to cross both westbound lanes of Mass Avenue and turn left (east). The traffic in the right lane was stopped, and someone in that lane stopped and let her through. Instead of easing out into the right lane and waiting for the left to clear, she punched the gas in hopes that if she ran fast enough through the raindrops, she wouldn’t get wet. On the positive side, given all that’s about to happen, you can see the fire station at the interection of Blake and Mass Ave.

I was a passenger in my car. Unlike my spouse, who was driving, I could see her coming and realized that she was committed and that there was nothing we could do and started screaming my head off. I do not remember screaming. I remember a really loud, really horrible impact, and suddenly I had an airbag in my face. Airbags do not smell nice; I could have gone my whole life without smelling the insides of one and been happy. The stupid bitch had gotten just in front of us, and we hit her so hard that the make of her left front tire is readable from the impression in our front bumper (Dunlop). She claims to have been traveling 30 mph; since neither of us saw the other there are no skid marks on the ground to show you.

I was ok but too stunned to climb over the shifter, so I was stuck until the helpful firemen and first responders unhooked the cars. When they started the cars up and started moving us apart, I was struck with the feeling that my car was screaming. I started to cry, but I quickly discovered that I could not draw a breath because of how badly my chest hurt, so I was stuck with a really stuffy nose and the world’s worst case of hiccups. Furthermore, my ring finger hurt and it was starting to swell. With a fracture (albeit a finger) and some seriously messed-up ribs, I ended up on a board in an ambulance headed for Mt. Auburn Hospital. All along the way the spouse and I gathered lots of ferverent thanks from EMTs who were glad to hear that we were wearing out seatbelts.

I lucked out in the emergency room. The nurses, who have a lot of practice at these things, were able to remove my rings without cutting them off. Also, once the staff got organized, they left me take some of my own pain relievers that I carry along in case I get a migraine while away from home. I actually carry better drugs as a matter of course than the emergency room is willing to hand out. And then I spent the evening staring up at the doorway under which my stretcher was plunked, with a break for a CT of my neck, x-rays, and an ekg. My spouse had a big bruise on his shin from an unfriendly encounter with the steering column. Given the traffic of seriously mangled people in the ER, he declined to be admitted and walked all the way to Harvard Square for some otc pain relievers. I was released with a confirmed broken finger and a bunch of negative tests, a testimony to exactly how much more soft tissue injuries hurt than broken bones.

So a week on I’m pretty well sore still. The worst of it is the migraines. I’d been getting ahead of those, but most days I’m swimming in drugs to keep them tolerable. The other driver admitted 100% fault, so I expect to throw a lawyer at her, turn her upside-down, and see what comes out when we shake.