Freep Friends:
Saturday morning, circa 1000 hours, I received a call from a stranger informing me that my #3 daughter was involved in a "very serious accident".
My world exploded!
Turns out my daughter was struck by another driver as she crossed a major suburban parkway. The other driver ran a red-light and struck my daughter.
She was driving our family SUV (Saturn Vue) and was struck on the driver side, right between the doors ("on the pillar"). The car that struck her was traveling at an estimated 50 mph; her speed was 45 mph.
The car, once struck, was lifted from the ground and rolled twice, landing on its wheels approximately 125 feet from impact. Both front airbags deployed as did the left-side curtain airbag. My daughter was wearing her seat belt.
She walked away and has only some scrapes, bruises and "soft-tissue damage" (aka: whip-lash).
I write this now for several reasons. Catharsis is one.
Another is to encourage each and every one of you (and your loved ones) to buckle-up when you get in your car. All three investigating officers said that when they arrived on the scene, they expected to call the coroner. The lead officer told us that he was going to buy a Vue for his next vehicle.
This brings me to another reason for posting this. Our 2004 Vue performed exactly as advertised and designed. The passenger cage crumpled, the airbags deployed and the roof structure maintained its integrity. I'm not advertising the Saturn Vue. I am telling you that today's safety design for vehicles is excellent. I will go so far as to say that ^your^ next vehicle should have a 5-star crash-safety rating.
After 5 hours in the ER, my daughter was discharged with powerful prescriptions and is at home resting as comfortably as possible. I, OTOH, went to sleep at 0300 Sunday morning.
God clearly holds His children in His Hand of Providence. By His Grace and Mercy, many things coincided such that I went to the hospital instead of the morgue.
- When buying the Vue, I insisted that we have side-curtain airbags.
- I insisted my daughter borrow my car instead of taking her 2-door coupe.
- She doesn't routinely use her seatbelt (that has changed, now) but yesterday, she buckled-up.
Solo Deo Gloria
Everything had to be right for her to survive: the structure of the vehicle, the front airbag, the side airbag, the seatbelt buckled. . . .
Praise be to God!