Literally. I am not exaggerating at all. What started out as a friendly expedition to Ikea turned into black ice, mutilated metal and a near death experience. Stupid Ikea.
Lisa, Colby and I all had yesterday off and we all needed/wanted things from Ikea. Perfect! It'll be the middle of the week, in the morning, no one will be there. Turns out we won't be there either. We wake up Wednesday morning and it is snowing. It's not snowing super hard but it's snowing. Lisa and I went to the grocery store and I could see little patches of blue sky to the North and East. I didn't notice the angry black cloud that was hovering to the South and West...right where we were going. Not that it would have stopped us from going, but I just didn't notice it.
10:30, we pick up Colby at his apartment. He is, of course glued to his cell phone, texting who knows who. The three of us banter and talk about Lisa's inability to change the time on her radio in her car. I comment on a passing man, to me, looked like a guy from our Ward. We pass the BodyWorlds exhibit and Colby mentions how he needs to buy tickets for his date on Friday night. We stop and a 7-11 and Lisa fills up her gas tank. All seemingly normal activities and events. It still isn't even snowing that badly.
10:40, we are on I-15 and heading South. Traffic is pretty normal, if not a bit slower due to the increasing snow/sleet/wet stuff falling from the sky, the further we move south. I tell Lisa, It's a good think she doesn't mind driving in the winter because I hate it. She responds saying it's just because she doesn't freak out and act stupid when it starts to rain or snow. At this point we're in the carpool lane. We're talking about driving in winter conditions and nothing of any real importance. And then, as if someone pushed the back end of our car, we start swerving back and forth. Lisa stays calm and tries to correct the car but to no avail. We fishtail and do a 180 so we are in the other lane facing the wrong direction. A huge white van is heading straight for us but some mysterious power pulls us west...away from the van as the van moves east towards the lane we were just in. The mysterious power was a semi. We had been pulled under the trailer of a semi truck and it went up and over the rear driver side window, the back window shattered, spilling glass all over the back seat and somehow getting into Colby's shoes. And destroying the entire back end of Lisa's car. After the semi lets go of us we fish tail again so we are now facing the right direction but sideswiped by a huge black Yukon. It hits at an angle on the driver side and pulls Lisa's bumper clean off and sends it about 10 yards up the freeway. The force from the hit of the Yukon sends us right into the concrete barrier on the other side of the freeway. If we had gone about 3 yards further south we would have missed the barrier and gone rolling down the hill on the side of the freeway.
10:50, the car has stopped. The entire time Lisa had been repeating "Oh my gosh! oh my gosh!" with each "oh my gosh" getting faster and faster. In the back seat Colby was silent and I had been screaming the entire time. Screaming at a decibel that I have never reached before in my life. Once the car stopped we immediately started to check to see if everyone was ok. I was afraid to open my eyes because I didn't want to see just how badly injured everyone else was. Colby had made a peep the entire time, I was sure the semi had finished him off. I was pretty sure Lisa was ok because she was already twisting around checking on everyone else. I was pretty much in shock. I couldn't believe what had just happened to us. I wasn't sure whether I should start crying or laughing. Instead I just started to hyperventilate. Eventually I get out of the car by climbing into the back seat and out Colby's door. The semi stopped, the Yukon stopped and another woman who had seen the accident stopped. Eventually the EMTs showed up in a fire truck and an ambulance. Lisa by this point is almost passing out and Colby and I are trying to keep her vertical.
11:00, the police show up and start to question everyone. We are standing around in the snow completely bewildered. Well, actually, I was probably the only truly bewildered one. Colby was pretty calm the entire time. He was calm and totally together. He was talking to the police and making sure both Lisa and I were ok.
11:15, I call my parent's to have someone come get us because Lisa is in no state to drive neither is her car, which at this point is being lifted on to the flatbed truck. The conversation goes something like this:
Dad: Kelly, call your mom on her cell. She's getting her hair done.
Me: Um..Dad. Hang on, this is kind of important.
...silence...
Me: Um, we go into an accident. We're all ok but we need someone to come pick us up. Lisa's car is being towed and.....(I sort of started to babble here but I gave him enough information for him to understand where we were and the urgency of it)
The next 20 minutes are so were filled with us waiting on the side of the road for my dad to arrive. Colby was at least useful. He made sure that all of Lisa's stuff was out of her car and that she was sitting down and writing the accident report. We all ended up sitting in a car of a girl that had pulled over when she saw it happen.
11:45, my dad arrives. I see his car through the foggy windows of the car we're sitting in and I jump out of the car and bolt to the passenger side of his car and jump in. I throw my arms around his neck and I start sobbing. Literally sobbing. Colby and Lisa got in the car and we waited until the police officer completed his report. We were the only car that didn't drive away from the accident.
We spent the rest of the day at home, occasionally breaking down into tears and occasionally laughing at ourselves. Colby sort of hovered around both of us, making sure we weren't passing out or falling down, which at the time, was a real possibility. We spent the day together just watching movies and talking. Every once in a while someone would say, " Dude, guys...we almost died today!"
This morning Lisa and I woke up and felt pretty good. New aches and pains but nothing serious. Lisa's Dad came down from Logan to take us over the the car tow place to get pictures of the car. So all three of us (Colby, Lisa and I) drove over with her father to get a look at the car. (photos to come). We should have died. We all should have died. Lisa should have been crushed by the Yukon and Colby should have been crushed by the semi trailer. The trunk is gone, the back window is gone. And you can see the line up the side of the car over the driver where the semi rolled.
After the shock of seeing all the damage, because I really don't remember much of the accident or seeing the car, we drove home. Lisa's dad thought it would be a good idea for us to go back to the sight of the accident...on the freeway. I was not ok with this. I was sobbing by the time we got off the on ramp. Every time a big truck came barreling down the freeway I flinched into Colby's side. We took State street back and every sharp turn and every speeding truck that went by freaked me out more and more. Eventually I just turned into Colby's shoulder and just shut my eyes until we got home. When we finally did get home I went straight into my room, closed the door, and started sobbing. Sobbing. The kind of sobbing that you see in really sad movies.
I know that we are blessed that nothing happened to any of us. Last night I had a dream and both Colby and Lisa died and I was covered in their blood and car parts....pleasant, I know. But seriously...I am freaking out. I know that's normal but seriously...I almost died yesterday. And I'm not even exaggerating. I have no idea why I'm still alive...not even that, why I'm not seriously injured and in the hospital.
Stupid Ikea.
