It was a normal day, a day like any other day. I woke up, got dressed, and headed off to school as usual. It was warm, as warm as it gets towards the end of October. Math was first thing in the morning, then oral communications. I was tired, as usual. I decided that I wasn't going to go to oral communications, it was an easy class anyway and I had a good grade. I asked my friend Brittany if she wanted to skip with me, so we decided to go to the mall. I had been waiting to buy a new lip ring and possibly a new shirt. So we got into my gold 1999 Ford Taurus, left the school parking lot and jumped onto the highway.
Everything was fine, so far. We turned up the music, not too loud but just loud enough. A good song was on so we started singing.
Automobile touring, White River Valley
Veronica538 at work as truckdriver
2008 Ford Taurus photographed in Gaithersburg, Mar...We were having a good time so we decided to light up a cigarette. After we finished our cigarettes, we were almost to the exit for the mall. Like I said, everything was fine. I had no idea what was about to happen next.
I was in the right lane, waiting for the exit. The semi was on the on-ramp, so I knew I had enough time before he proceeded to get over in the lane that I was currently in. I thought wrong. All I had seen was the semi's tires moving closer and closer into my lane. As soon as my brain processed what was happening, I immediately screamed, "WHAT THE FUCK IS HE DOING?" I attempted to swerve in the lane next to me to avoid what I knew was going to happen if I did nothing. I looked over just in time to see an SUV right next to me. I tried to swerve back into my lane but the semi was already half way there. I smashed into one of his back tires, causing my car to bounce off of it and crash into the cement barrier.
There were many thoughts swarming through my mind as I was spinning out of control. As soon as the car stopped spinning I noticed that we had hit the barrier once more and again starting spinning. I felt the car teetering and was afraid that we were going to flip over, but once again we were stopped by that wonderful cement barrier, and spun out again.
The car finally stopped perfectly in the lane that I had previously been driving in. I couldn't move, I couldn't speak, and my breathing was unsteady. I was trying to bring myself to realize what had just happened. It felt like a dream, and I wished that it was. I was hoping that at any moment I would wake up and be perfectly safe in my bed. Well as you may have guessed, it wasn't a dream. I brought myself to get out of the car, shaking the whole time. People had stopped to see if Brittany and I were ok. One man had pulled his truck over and opened the bed so that we could sit down, as we were still in shock. Another man was also kind enough to call the police for us. The truck driver, who had started this accident, made his way over to us to make sure that we were ok. Which we were, my car on the other hand hadn't been so lucky. The front end was smashed and there was anti-freeze all over the car. I came to the realization that there was no hope for my wonderful car that I had only owned for a year.
The police came, as did my mother, and everything was straightened out. The truck driver received a ticket for being so careless and failing to yield for the oncoming traffic, I was very pleased with this. The event that took place that day left me scarred. For a month or so, I did not even want to get into a car let alone drive one. It took a lot for me to do so, but I still felt sick whenever I rode in a car, and light headed whenever I jumped into the driver's seat. I still get that uneasy feeling when I'm driving next to a semi, and I start shaking whenever I pass by the scene of the accident. If it weren't for that truck driver, I would still have my car and I wouldn't be so afraid to drive. I wish people were more careful on the road, don't you?
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