Teapot and I took the girls to town for a little shopping, yesterday... We didn't go far and we didn't buy clothes as we had planned. That will come later in September. We just got them their paper, binders, and pens and stuff. We had a lovely afternoon driving along in the fall sunshine. When we got to town though we noticed some pretty dark cloud rolling in over the mountains so we knew that the sun would be short lived. Of course, that was no deterrent from our shopping. After the girls were happy with their purchases we decided to pop into the grocery store for a barbeque chicken and some salads, that way neither Teapot nor I would have to cook when we got home. Little did we know that it would be really late when we finally got our supper. We left town around 5:15 p.m. and the drive home would take about fifty minutes. By now those ominous clouds were pretty much right overhead and we knew that they were carrying rain. We headed out of town chatting a gabbing and generally enjoying ourselves.
The road that takes us home from that particular community skirts the rocky mountains and takes a generally northward direction. It was just as we were coming up the hill that leads out of town that it started to rain. 25 minutes later we had passed through one of the most torrential rains that I have ever, in my life, driven through. The visibility was next to nothing and it was like someone had opened a tap and we were under it.
We slowed down on the road because there was so much water on the road that driving conditions were difficult at best. Meanwhile other vehicles were passing us as though we were Grandma and Grandpa Mose. Just as we were getting back to our own community I happened to look in a ditch on my side of the road. It was quite a deep ditch and there were no guard rails. There in the ditch was a beige coloured car with very little glass left in it, with dents all over it, and a man dangling out the passenger side window. Obviously there had been an accident.
Nobody else in the traffic ahead had even seen the car, let alone pulled over to help.... we were the last vehicle in a line of about 5 or 6 vehicles and I knew that nobody else had seen the results of the accident. Telling Teapot to pull over because I had just seen a car in the ditch, didn't take me long and Teapot pulled over and turned around to go back. We weren't sure what we were going to see. Teapot jumped out and disappeared over the edge of the bank and by the time I got to the edge of the road the man who had been dangling from the passenger side window wasn't there and I couldn't see Teapot for all the brush that was in the way, but I could hear voices. I called out to see if everyone was ok and if I needed to call 911.
Teapot yelled out that there were two people but they were walking and ok. I stayed where I was because by now the Daughters were wondering what was to be done.... I let them know that their dad had things under control and that it looked like nobody was seriously hurt.
By the time Teapot and the two people climbed up out of the ditch several more cars had passed along and had stopped to see if I needed assistance.... among them was one of the local police guys who lives in our community. He walked down to them and met them coming up a much less steep way of getting out of the ditch. Apparently the fellow who was driving was driving his Auntie home from our community to the community where Teapot and I had just been shopping. The accident occurred because his vehicle hit a patch of water on the road and hydroplaned. They went over the edge of the embankment and rolled once and landed right side up in the ditch. Both were wearing seat belts and neither one was seriously hurt. The lady had multiple cuts and scrapes from broken glass and both were badly bruised but they were ok. When I had first seen the man dangling from the passenger side window he had been trying to get the insurance papers out of the glove compartment. The police took our names so that they could call us if they had any questions and then when we left the two people were being taken back to town by the police.
Teapot and I have come very close a few time to being at the scene of very bad accidents and it never ceases to stir me and make me grateful that I am alive. I know those two people in that accident yesterday are very lucky they are alive. The vehicle was completely destroyed. How they weren't killed is beyond me....
I am so glad it wasn't us.
There but for the grace of God go I.....
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