Fortunately...

December 6th 2009

Today I was up at Coyote Point to check on the Santana before this series of storms comes in. Just wanted to check the dock lines and make sure everything was as it should be, cockpits drains clear etc.

There was a cyclocross race finishing up, I was a little bummed that I didn’t get to see much of it. I had brought my bike up with me, not to race, but to be able to look around. There is a cool bike trail running alongside the bay and I followed it a little south before turning and heading north.

Coyote Point has an area where you can windsurf and I hadn’t really checked it out yet. Looks cool and I am looking forward to warmer weather to give it a whirl. After passing the beach I decided to head a little further north to a point that could be seen from the trail. 101 was off to my left and I glanced over there and noted a stopped acura (I think) parked about 30 meters away in the street (Airport Blvd I later found out).

I looked back right and missed the cause of a horrendous shreaking sound, but did see a flurry of wreckage in the air and an enormous splash next to 101. I thought a car had come over the railing. Cross country bee-line to the accident. Told the guy standing there to call 911, he already was, it was his car, the parked one that had been hit. The other car ended up on its side in the water of the ditch horn blaring lights on. This car was a Honda CRV and the side facing up was pretty deeply crushed from where it hit the other car. I think what happened was the CRV hit the parked car a glancing blow. This may or may not have tripped the air bag, the right front wheel was then torn away from the car by a curbed island, when that happened the car swerved left through the fence and into the ditch.

The windows were up and the doors locked, car full of smoke from the airbag, I couldn’t see the driver it was that thick. I thought that deployment of an airbag was supposed to unlock the doors. I was trying to get the doors open and occasionally a hand would come up from the smoke and try to unlock the door, at least the occupant was semi conscious.

In a surreal turn a gentleman in a full wetsuit was the next guy to show up, we were discussing breaking a window when the rear door popped free. The guy inside was up to his waist in water and mumbling about how screwed he was. He didn’t appear outwardly injured, no blood and he said he wasn’t, but he was obviously not coherent and was very distraught, maybe in shock.

I was worried about hypothermia seeing as he was partially submerged when he decided he wanted out. The Burlingame police showed up at this point and I tried to have him stay put till the emergency people looked things over. The officer looked at the situation and told me to help the guy out. He could barely stand. Me and wet suit guy managed to get the injured man ½ way up the embankment. The officer and deputy? Literally had to grab his arms and drag him up the remainder of the way. The emergency folks showed up not long after and began the processing of immobilization etc.

I am writing about this for a couple of reasons. The first was this guy was spun, both by the impact and his being intoxicated. He kept going on about how screwed he was, the car was his parents (he looked in his 30’s) and that his sister had cancer over and over. I kept thinking that his parents might be more upset to have lost one or possibly two kids. My thoughts, after a little time driving home and going through the experience, were along the lines of how I hoped he would be grateful that he only wrecked a car and didn’t kill somebody. I’ve been the first to arrive at many accidents in my life (and have even attended a couple of my own) and I’d say half of those accidents (not mine) involved alcohol. I saw a family get creamed in downtown Redwood City (nobody died) by a flamed driver who could only say his light was green (it wasn’t). There was a poor non-english speaking woman who was hit from behind one night on Hwy 87, I found her walking in circles and held her hand till the ER guys showed up. Their were the drunk hypothermic idiots who were rafting in Northern California, one of whom was absolutely trashed and likely concussed with a huge lump on his head.

I think about my own grandfather who when appearing with tire sized bruises across both legs said simply that he had driven over himself, we think one of his drunk friends drove over him. I thought about the ER people and found my self momentarily envious of them as I waited for my turn to make my statement, watching them do their job. These people make an absolute contribution to us, I envied their clarity of purpose, until I thought about how many time they must deal with situations where people don’t just go to jail, but where lives are permanently destroyed…watching that must be beyond hard.

So, I’m grateful to be once again reminded that I have been fortunate in my life. Fortunate that my risks taken for whatever reason haven’t claimed me, friends, family or strangers as victims. That my own lack of responsibility hasn’t left me trapped in a car, repeating over and over how screwed I am without realizing that this might have been a day to be counted as “Lucky”, as I didn’t introduce another unfortunate to their end.