How Precious Life Is (85/366)

Wednesday March 28, 2012

BIG scare today! 

After I got Hannah on the bus, I sat in bed drinking a cup of coffee, watching The Today Show.  My phone rang around 8:50 AM, and when I looked at the caller ID, it was Hannah's school.

My first thought was oh, geez, she got bus-sick again!  So, when I answered, an automated message said the following:

"Bus #xx has been involved in a traffic accident.  All students and the bus driver are unharmed.  More details to come later."

Ummm, WHAT?!

My heart leaped into my throat.  My first instinct was to totally FREAK OUT!  So, I called my husband and the first words I said to him (frantically) were, "Ok, just listen to what I tell you then tell me to calm down and then tell me what to do."

He listened patiently, and when I was finished with the story, he told me to calm down and call the school.  So I did.

I was told that there would be a counselor at the school to meet the kids when they got off the bus that picked them up from the accident, and that the school would contact any individual parents of children that were having a particularly hard time.

RED FLAG!!  REALLY?! If it was a simple accident/fender bender, why would the kids need a counselor?

So I called my neighbor who has kids that ride the bus with Hannah.  I assumed she would know.  She always knows.  And she usually has TONS of details.

She didn't know.

Between her phone calls and mine, we figured out what happened.

The bus stopped 1/4 mile from my house to pick up 2 kids.  Just before the bus driver locked the bus brakes to stop the bus and open the door, a car traveling at full speed (55-60 mph) didn't see the bus and plowed into the back of it.

The car was driven by a 19 year old girl and she was the only passenger.  I don't know what she was doing, there were no skid marks indicating she tried to stop, and the entire front end of the passenger side of her car was underneath the bus.

Had the bus not been pulled to the side of the road, she would have been decapitated. 

Had she been positioned 6 inches more to the right on the road, she would have been decapitated.

(Photos Courtesty of woodtv.com)

As it turns out, she jumped out of her car and ran through the yard where the accident took place.  She was bloody from cuts, her arm was clearly broken and her neck was already swollen from what appeared to be some severe whiplash.  She was concerned about how her dad would react to her having wrecked the car.  I'm going to give her the benefit of the doubt on this one and say she was in shock - I'd like to think she was horrified that she hit a bus-full of young elementary school students, and not at all worried about her car.

The bus driver said that had she locked the bus brakes, most or all of the kids on board would have sustained pretty serious injuries.  They would have been thrown about the bus like marbles in a bag.  Instead, the kids did all jerk forward and hit their faces or their heads on the seats in front of each one them.

Had the driver of the car swerved to the left to miss the bus, she would have hit an oncoming car.

Had she swerved to the right to miss the bus, she would have run over the 2 kids waiting to board the bus.

I called Hannah's teacher and spoke with her just after Hannah got to school.  She was a little shaken up, but okay.  I figured if I went to the school to see her, she would have fallen apart.  So, I just asked her teacher to keep an eye on her and if there were any problems that she call me right away.

As the morning went on, I couldn't stand the fact that I hadn't laid hands or eyes on my sweet baby girl.  At Hannah's lunch time, Ava and I made a trip to the school to see her.

All of the kids swarmed us. I got hugs from at least half of Hannah's classmates.  Ava was poked, prodded, tickled, touched and hugged on too.  And when I saw Hannah, I fell apart.  Not Hannah - she was strong as a rock, seemingly unaffected by what had happened.

Of course, I couldn't let her see me fall apart, so I quickly composed myself and just hugged her.

I know, I know, given that everyone was okay I should have been a little less emotional about the whole thing.  But with all of the phone calls, the texts, the calls to school, the bus garage, my husband, my mom and mother in law, etc. I was so worked up and just needed to SEE her.  I just needed to see that she was handling what happened alright.  It was her first vehicle accident, and I'm sure seeing the other car trapped under the bus, and seeing the young girl bloody and running through our neighbor's yard was somewhat traumatic.

But she was fine.  She was happy to see her sissy and me, and she was fine.

I can't say that I've ever experienced the panic/fear/worry/concern/eager/curious emotions that I felt all at once today wondering if Hannah was alright.  I know the phone call said there were no injuries, but for a 6 year old something like that is scary!

The Lord was looking out for the kids on the bus, the bus driver, my neighbor's kids waiting on the lawn to board the bus and the driver of that car.  There were angels on our road today.

In a split second, life can change.  So many people have experienced that already in their lives.  Today, I got a small snippet.

I am done running the scenarios through my head.

I am just thankful that it turned out the way it did.

And I will hug my kids a little tighter tonight.