Prayers for John at RightWingNews.com after car wreck

Rightwingnews.com ^ | 6.17.03 | John Hawkins

[mhking]

I like to think of John Hawkins (along with a number of other bloggers) as part of our extended family here; John had a pretty nasty car wreck yesterday - he's OK, but some prayers both of gratitude and for his healing would be in order.

Of course, he tells the story as no one else can...

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Next Update On Wed: So as I'm heading back from the beach today, it's raining lightly and I'm doing about 55 MPH today. My half Jack Russell Terrier Patton was nodding off in the passenger seat and there was a way cool painting on a window that I had bought and was taking home in the back seat (***foreshadowing***). All was right with the world....well not really. As always I had a lot to do. I have interview questions to prepare, an update to do, I need to clean the apartment, I need to do laundry, etc, etc. What can I say...I always have a full schedule.

Anyway, about a hundred and twenty miles out of Charlotte, I start hydroplaning. Not the normal little, "hey, I lost contact with the road for a quarter of a second", but more like, "Mother of God, when is the road coming back?!?!?!?!" So I'm about to veer off the road to the right and that's bad...very bad. There was not much room to maneuver on the shoulder because of a large ditch. I was desperately trying to straighten out before I nose-dived into that ditch at 55MPH and I overcompensated and turned the wheel too far in the other direction. I'm not sure if that was because of pure adrenaline or because I was still hydroplaning, but things quickly got much, much, worse.

I say that because I made about a 75 degree turn at about 55MPH and on the other side of the road was ***again*** a narrow shoulder and another pretty good size ditch. At this point things were completely hopeless. I was fish tailing and heading for the ditch almost BACKWARDS.

So I hit the ditch and the car FLIPS over...while it's almost BACKWARDS...at I'm guessing about 40 MPH. Now supposedly when you get into situations like this, your life flashes before your eyes. That didn't happen for me, but I do distinctively remember one thought going through my head, "So this is how I'm going to die".

The impact was extraordinarily violent. At first I thought my seatbelt had snapped, but actually the SEAT ITSELF broke and I ended up in the backseat. I was momentarily stunned and then very surprised to find myself alive. I rose up on all fours facing the back windshield and felt basically OK, although there was blood trickling down from my head to what 15 seconds ago was the roof of the car. Out loud I said to no one in particular, "Wow, I can't believe I'm alive." Then I thought of the small furry mess that was probably behind me and again I spoke aloud, "I bet the dog's dead." But as I turned my head to the left, there was Patton walking up and looking fine except for a small cut on his head.

Shortly thereafter, I saw feet through the window and heard someone asking if I was all right. They also asked if I could turn off the car, which turned out to be a problem because the key was jammed in the ignition...but finally, I got it stopped. I then crawled through the glass from the window painting to the only door I could open, the driver's side door in the back. I handed Patton out to the good Samaritan and crawled out. My face was covered in a crimson mask because a couple of shards from the window painting were embedded in my scalp. The first was small, but the second was about the size of a shark's tooth you'd find on the beach. As I stood there bleeding, almost every person who drove by stopped to ask if I needed any help. That speaks well of the sort of people who live down here in Eastern North Carolina. Soon enough, within 10 minutes, the ambulance was there.

A few hours later, I walked out the hospital with a variety of abrasions, bruises, cuts (especially on my scalp which looks like hamburger), 4 stitches in my right arm and a hairline fracture of my right pinkie finger...which the doctors initially didn't catch by the way. But, they did call me back later to let me know they missed it...great, nothing like wrapping up your finger in tape and Popsicle sticks.

Now I'm still at the beach, but tomorrow I'll get a rental car and head home. Of course, tomorrow I expect to be sore, very sore, and dealing with insurance points and settlements and trying to decide if I'm going to personally cut my stitches and yank them out in a week. But in any case, RWN returns Wed and I've got to say I'm feeling pretty yippy-skippy for someone who almost bought the farm a little earlier today...

[Constitution Day]

I've been to his site a couple of times & pray for his speedy recovery.
From the sounds of his accident he is lucky he isn't paralyzed, or worse.

He said:

As I stood there bleeding, almost every person who drove by stopped to ask if I needed any help.
That speaks well of the sort of people who live down here in Eastern North Carolina.

Having lived there most all my life, I can say that he's 100% right in that assessment.

I remember stopping years ago to change a flat tire for an old couple from up North.
At first they didn't want me to help at all, and then were incredulous when I refused money.

That's just the way we do things here.

Regards,
CD

[dennisw]

I thought you said this guy needed our prayers :)

[Search4Truth]

Count your blessings Mr. Hawkins. And may the Almighty bless you with a speedy recovery. (And new tires :)

[Vigilantcitizen]

Sounds like Mr. Hawkins was very lucky. One basic rule I always follow, even though I'm a speed demon, never speed in the rain.

Constitution Day, bump to the following...

"That's just the way we do things here."

[Clintons Are White Trash]

Three weeks ago a similar accident turned tragic. My brother drives over the road and a car came up next to him and started hydroplaning in the rain. Unfortunately the tires apparently grabbe when he was sideways and he drove directly under my brothers truck. He died 2 hours later at the hospital. Fortunately, my brother was able to stop the truck without wrecking himself but was terribly shaken by what happened. He found out later the guy (age 43) was on Meth.

BTW - his assessment was the same - this happened south of Atlanta and he said everyone was very nice to him - the State Police offered to take him to a hotel and have someone else drive his truck to wherever it needed to be.