A "Freak" Accident (from "My Short Stories (Book One)") - by Anne Shier (a.k.a. "Annie")

Have you ever experienced a traumatic event that had a one-in-a-million chance of occurring?  Have you ever thought that, due to some incredibly lucky coincidence, you are still alive, walking the Earth?  Well, a kind of “freak” accident really did happen to me.  It happened on April 14, 2000 while driving home from work.  It was a “freak” accident because it was something totally unforeseen, but I think that it could easily have been avoided by using just a little common sense.

At the time, I’d been working at a local high school as an LTO (Long Term Occasional) teacher of Computer Science.  Just three weeks prior to this teaching assignment, I’d been laid off permanently from the Royal Bank, Systems and Technology department, where I’d been working as a technical systems analyst, for the last 2-3 years.  It wasn’t that I’d wanted to go to work right away again after the layoff; it was that I’d gotten a job offer that was just too hard to refuse.  The reason that it was so hard to refuse was that I knew by that time the path that my career should be taking.

Teaching was something I’d been trained for and had wanted to do for some time now (I won’t say how long!), especially during the mid-to-late1990’s after I’d graduated from Seneca College as a computer programmer.  While I was studying at Seneca (and getting the best college education money could buy), in my second semester there, I discovered how much of an affinity I had for computers.  That is, I seemed to have a lot of ability when it came to working with computers.  At almost the same time, I also discovered that I wanted to teach computer programming (to whom though, I did not know yet).  After that, I told all my professors (and anyone else who would listen) what I wanted to do.  I asked them, “How can I become a Computer Science teacher?  Please help me get where I want to go now that I know what it is I want to do!” 

But, you know that old saying:  “Beware of what you wish for – you just might get it!”  This saying is far truer than you might think; finally, I did get what I wanted.  Not right away, of course; from the time I graduated till the time of my LTO assignment, three years had elapsed.  After all, I did have to put in some professional time on the job first.  It wasn’t really exciting work being a computer programmer/analyst, but it was good work experience.  Also, I did some part-time night school teaching for my alma mater, Seneca College, for a couple of years.  And, that was good teaching experience for me. 

While doing this LTO assignment, I quickly came to realize how happy I was in a teaching role and that I wanted to do a really good job of it.  I worked very hard at my lessons because I wanted my students to do well, reasoning that, if they did well, so would I.  There was only one problem – I still had to obtain that elusive Computer Science teaching credential and add it to my existing teaching certificate.  This was so I could get hired on as a full-time, contract teacher, with benefits and a good future.  And, that would not happen until July 2000 at the earliest, when summer school would begin.

As of the day of my accident, I’d been working very hard for the past week on completing my students’ report cards.  At the time, report cards still had to be completed manually and it was a lot of work, with a deadline!  But, I got them done on time and was rather proud of myself. On this Friday afternoon, after a particularly demanding work week, I was driving home.  I was tired, but doing my best to fight off fatigue.  I only had a half hour drive home, so I thought it would be relatively easy to keep on driving.  It was a hot day (for April) and I had the driver’s window rolled down for air, but the heat was still oppressive.  My radio wasn’t working or I would have turned it on and cranked up the volume.  For some reason, I thought that I’d make it home with no problem at all.  It would’ve been far easier (on later reflection) to just stop somewhere along the way for a cup of coffee, but I didn’t.  Two minutes from home, disaster struck.

On one of the busiest streets in Scarborough, in the middle of rush hour, I actually passed out at the wheel of my car and drove right off the road, unaware of what I was doing.  A freaky part was that it was a farmer’s field into which I drove; it could so easily have been a tree or hydro pole or deep ditch. While I was driving in this farmer’s field, I was startled suddenly into waking up because of the rough terrain, but I was still moving at close to 60 kph and yet only half conscious.  At that moment, I knew that I was very likely to hit something – a house, a tree or, worse, someone walking along – and that absolutely terrified me!  I was positive that my life was now being measured in seconds.  I was going to be lucky if I survived this or didn’t kill someone or both.  But, I guess that day in April 2000, someone high above was looking out for me because I didn’t die and I didn’t kill anyone.  But, what I did do was to hit another person’s car in a head-on collision!

The other driver, who I found out later was also a woman, was driving along at about 60 kph on the road when I hit her car.  What had happened was that, in my infinite wisdom, I had somehow managed to drive back onto the road, lost control of my vehicle, and ploughed into her car!  Another freaky part is that, for some reason, the other drivers in the immediate vicinity had somehow sensed what was about to happen and had backed off.  So, neither car was rear-ended, which is something that could have easily happened on that busy street at that particular time of day.

I didn’t know at the time that I was injured, but it later turned out that I had a broken right ankle and right hand, and a deep slash across my left knee.  It was quickly becoming obvious that medical attention was necessary, however, I didn’t know how badly either driver was hurt.  Still, I was thankful to be alive.

My car, which wasn’t really mine since I’d borrowed it from a friend, was totalled except for the driver compartment which was considerably squished, but still intact.  Immediately after the crash, I remember very clearly thinking that I was going to die and would never again see my teenage son.  I also vividly remember hearing a passerby driver’s voice, speaking to me very quietly and calmly at my driver door, but I don’t know what he looked like.  He told me that he was an off-duty paramedic who had been in the vicinity of the accident and wanted to help.  I’m sure now that he stopped to talk to me, knowing that if I did not remain calm, I could very well go into shock.  Shock can kill you very easily when you’ve suffered a physical trauma of some kind and your body reacts to it by ensuring that your vital organs have enough blood circulating in them, while your limbs don’t have nearly as much blood.  It’s, in essence, a survival mechanism, but you still need medical attention as soon as possible. 

While sitting in the car, trapped there by the caved-in driver door and a crunched up steering column, I felt numb from the neck down; I couldn’t feel anything.  There was absolutely no sense of pain or of being injured; no sensation that I can recall.  After a while, I felt like I was fading fast.  Without the fire fighters to free me from the wreckage, and the EMS guys to give me emergency first aid, I still don’t think that I would have made it.  They also gave me some kind of pain killer after I was pulled from the wreckage because the pain that I began to experience then was excruciating and like nothing I’d ever experienced before.  I imagined that the other driver was in the same bad way as me.  Then, the paramedics had us airlifted to the hospital, but by that time, I was totally out of it again.  To this day, I have no memory of that trip to Sunnybrook Hospital.  All I remember after the helicopter picked us up was waking up in the emergency department, confused.

The trauma of this car accident resulted from the two vehicles colliding – each going 60 kph in opposite directions.  This resulted in a crash that happened at about 120 kph.  A crash at even a much slower speed can kill a person.  That crash could have killed us both easily.  While I was glad to be alive at the crash site, I was equally glad later on, upon learning that I had not killed the other driver.  I also remember praying to God while trapped in my car, begging for forgiveness for what I had just done.  I was so sorry for everything that was wrong now, but I wasn’t ready to die just yet.  My son still needed me and I needed him; he was really my only immediate family.

Later on, at the hospital, when I had revived a little more, I was on the portable gurney having just arrived there by helicopter.  The police officer who had written up the accident report on me was there and asked me what had happened (because he wanted my version).  After all, no one really knew why I had driven off the road, in the first place.  And, even I didn’t really know.  So, I said to him as honestly as I could, “I guess I passed out.  I’ve been working very hard.”  And, it was true – I had been working very hard – doing my report cards that week.

As it turned out, six months later, when my court hearing came up, I found out that this same police officer told my lawyer that he, himself, had thought that it was a “freak” accident, with no explanation for it other than what I had told him that day.  Thus, he told my lawyer that he had no wish to testify against me.  If he had elected to testify against me, I probably would have been convicted of a fairly serious traffic offense and faced some rather serious penalties.  But, instead, he did not testify against me, and so, I was convicted of failure to share the road, which carried some less serious penalties.

To this day, I don’t know why I passed out at that moment or why the accident even happened at all, except that I was far too foolish to keep driving when I could easily have pulled over for a brief time.  I’ve tried my very best to learn a valuable lesson from this horrific event in my life, and that is, not to repeat it under any circumstances.  I might have been able to forgive myself for making a mistake like this once, but doing it again would be unforgiveable, in my mind.  I could not afford to take that chance.  One thing’s for sure – I’ll never forget the abject terror I felt just before the crash, as well as the aftermath that resulted.  I’ve heard from various people since that time who’ve told me that there were occasions when they also came close to dozing off at the wheel, but for some reason, managed to resist the temptation.  By some miracle, they did not put either themselves or anyone else at risk of dying.  If you are one of those lucky drivers who’s managed to survive a serious car crash like mine, you should count your blessings, like I did, and consider yourself extremely fortunate to be alive to tell about it.

published by Authorhouse, copyright 2011, Anne Shier.  All rights reserved.