November 15th 2006 - 1:15pm

:The Accident:

I will probably never forget this date, time, the intersection or the Dosa craving I had, for my entire life...& thats because I met with an accident.

Me & Tweetu had a very strong Masala-Dosa craving & decided to have it for lunch. We left our house & were @the closest intersection, taking a left turn onto a street when suddenly we were hit by a speeding city tree maintainance truck, which was taking a reverse.

Bam...Bam...I think we were hit twice before the driver of the truck realized that he had just hit a Black SUV.

I remember looking right @the behind of the truck coming right onto me before it hit us...& I was thinking to myself, why isnt this guy braking - why isnt the truck stopping...!

After the impact, I lost control of my SUV & glided from the right side of this small street, to finally stop on its left side. Both out bodies literally shook from the impact & in those initial moments, I quickly realized - we were not hurt!

The entire left side(the drivers side or my side to be precise) of my SUV had caved in...

I tried to get out of my Van but the door wouldnt open; the alarm was on...thankfully, I was calm & could think...I switched the engine on & off just to nullify the auto-lock system of the vehicle...till then, I hadnt realized that the impact to the Van was much severe than I had anticipated...the left side doors were jam closed & were banged in...I couldnt move or turn over, as my seat was strongly locked into its position. I was frantically searching for my cell but couldnt find it as the impact threw it away.
None of the cars, crossing the intersection stopped...
A couple of minutes later, the driver of the truck, approached me with a question mark expression on his face...more like he was trying to tell me that it was my fault!

I was in no mood to discuss anything with this un-educated senseless guy who had got me & my baby into this situation.

I lowered the right side window & asked him for his cell phone.
Dialed our home phone on the first attempt, which obviously went to our answering machine! Feeling stupid, I then dialed TD's cell, hoping he would answer & not disconnect, looking at an unknown number.
I, very calmly told him of what had happened...his only question was 'how are you? Are you hurt?'...I gave him the location of the accident & he left his his office the very next second.

Then I made the 911 call...the most useless call I would say!
You know, everywhere in the US, we are told that in case of any emergency, we should dial 911. Even a kid knows what to do in certain situations..
Now you ask me- why I called it the most useless call?
Its because, when one is in trouble, in an accident, you need support & can only think of the Police & that is why you dial 911.
Unfortunately, this call is always directed to an answering machine! If you are lucky, a 'live person', typically the Dispatcher, after a wait of good 2-3 minutes, might come up on the line & try to gather information from you. This person then transfers your call to a nearby patrol car ie to a Cop. Again, the Cop spends some time, asking you, his/her set of questions & decides the next plan of action, ie whether to visit the crime/accident scene(???!!) or just to leave it to the victim to deal with the situation, entirely on his/her own! Do you know that if you are not physically hurt or injured, the Cops wont even show up at the site of the crime!

This is exactly what happened in my case! I was shell-shocked when this lady Cop calmly told me that she wouldnt be showing up & that I needed to deal with the situation by exchanging information(drivers license, insurance, vehicle number etc) with the other party & let our insurance companies take care of it!

All this time, this driver of the truck, was getting very restless & wanted to leave! But because, I had his cell phone, he couldnt do anything about it. His plan was to just take off. All his 5 other truck companions, were giving me this weird look...but I held on to the phone... & I was not giving it back, until I made the calls.

Then, holding onto the phone, I asked him(truck driver) his name, his drivers license number etc. He could not speak in English & so could not communicate with me. One of the guys from the group, the 'smart' guy, who kindof understood & could speak broken English, became the Translator. He too told me, that he was getting late for his job & that he had to leave & that all this, was indeed my fault!
I gave him a stern look & calmly told him that I was not going to discuss anything with him & that our insurance compaines would do the talking.
This 'smart' guy, then produced a paper on which he had a statement from a 'witness', ie one of his other friend, stating that I was at fault!
I reiterated my statement.
He then pressured me to give him my information first before he would give out his(his driver friends)! I said OK!

By then, TD called on the cell phone & asked for me...the guy had to give me the phone! He(TD) was worried...was not sure how I was doing...he was just 5 mins away...

& during this conversation, between me & the 'smart' guy, to my relief, TD arrived & took over! I gave him my sheet of information, that I had collected & he started doing his investigation - took the same stuff from this unwilling guys! He then called the insurance company, which came on line in a lightning speed(this is what is expected of the 911 call - but well...!), and asked if we had to file a report as the other party was not agreeing to their fault. He also tried calling 911 & was told the same old thing - TD went speechless!

He then helped me out of the Van, through the passenger side of the Van. & that is when, the rest of the guys noticed that I was pregnant. They started chit-chatting amongst themselves; I could almost feel their eyes on my pregnant tummy.

A couple of cop cars passed by us - no one stopped!

Few minutes later, we were done. The guys left & TD & I got back home in his car - my Van, parked in emergency, on the site of the accident.

TD took off with our camera to take pictures of our destroyed Van & the location of the accident. Meanwhile, I called the clinic. The advise nurse asked me to proceed to the emergency ward of the Hospital.
No sooner did TD get back, we went to the emergency unit. Heres another interesting thing. There was Clergy parking, ambulance parking, single child parking(I dont know what that means!), medical staff parking, attending doctors parking, green parking(limited time) but NO stork parking! We had to drive around the hospital to find a regular parking slot! & they call it 'emergency' unit! Anyways! @least the wait wasnt that bad! I was taken in within 5 minutes.
Photo courtesy: Atangledweb