Close call on the 605
We were running late, headed home on the 605 after a visit to Grandma and Grandpa's in La Mirada. Firstborn had school tomorrow, and Hubby was planning to put in a 10-hour day too, so we would have been zipping on the carpool or fast lane of the 605, a trip we've taken with our two boys hundreds of times.
But my husband was tired, so he decided to stay on the No. 2 lane and drive a leisurely 70 or so. There wasn't much traffic, thank goodness, or else we'd be on the carpool.
We never saw him coming.
But my husband was tired, so he decided to stay on the No. 2 lane and drive a leisurely 70 or so. There wasn't much traffic, thank goodness, or else we'd be on the carpool.
We never saw him coming.
All I saw was a light blur, some dust kicked up on my husband's side of
the truck. The boys were chattering away in the backseat, Firstborn
complaining that he didn't want to listen to another Miley Cyrus song
on Radio Disney.
My husband didn't have time to react, too. Before he could do anything, the car had quickly passed him, straddling the carpool and fast lanes.
"Did you see that?" he asked me.
"Was it a crazy driver, Papa?" Firstborn piped up.
Hubby and I looked at each other, the close call dawning on us.
"Should I call 911?" I asked, phone already in hand. Hubby had to take a couple of breaths before nodding yes. I know how livid he gets when someone drives recklessly around us, especially when our boys on on board. It was 11:14 p.m. Memorial Day.
My first call didn't get through, the second one had me waiting for a 911 operator for a minute or two. By the time the operator got on the line and I had reported the wrong way driver, she saw on her screen that an accident had already occurred on Valley Boulevard, now two or three exits behind us. My husband thinks the wrong way driver couldn't have driven a minute more asfter passing us before hitting someone.
"He was going really fast, how can anyone avoid that?" he said out loud.
The boys are asleep now, and after a family prayer of thanks and prayer for those hurt in the crash, Hubby feel asleep too.
I'm still awake. I see on SigAlert.com that a mother and child were hurt in that crash. They were following us. I see also that someone died. I think it must be the driver. Was he drunk? I'm going to be scouring the Whittier Daily News to find out.
You live your life and you do the best you can. Some things you can control. So much more you can't. If we had left a few minutes later, we could have been involved in that crash, seen it happen, hopefully could have offered help. If we had left La Mirada later, we would still be on the 605 now, stuck because of the fatality investigation.
Life happens. I feel the impossibly smooth skin of my baby boy and pray for another mother, now in the hospital, with her hurt child. I hope my prayer will be powerful enough to make everything OK tonight.
Tomorrow is another day.
My husband didn't have time to react, too. Before he could do anything, the car had quickly passed him, straddling the carpool and fast lanes.
"Did you see that?" he asked me.
"Was it a crazy driver, Papa?" Firstborn piped up.
Hubby and I looked at each other, the close call dawning on us.
"Should I call 911?" I asked, phone already in hand. Hubby had to take a couple of breaths before nodding yes. I know how livid he gets when someone drives recklessly around us, especially when our boys on on board. It was 11:14 p.m. Memorial Day.
My first call didn't get through, the second one had me waiting for a 911 operator for a minute or two. By the time the operator got on the line and I had reported the wrong way driver, she saw on her screen that an accident had already occurred on Valley Boulevard, now two or three exits behind us. My husband thinks the wrong way driver couldn't have driven a minute more asfter passing us before hitting someone.
"He was going really fast, how can anyone avoid that?" he said out loud.
The boys are asleep now, and after a family prayer of thanks and prayer for those hurt in the crash, Hubby feel asleep too.
I'm still awake. I see on SigAlert.com that a mother and child were hurt in that crash. They were following us. I see also that someone died. I think it must be the driver. Was he drunk? I'm going to be scouring the Whittier Daily News to find out.
You live your life and you do the best you can. Some things you can control. So much more you can't. If we had left a few minutes later, we could have been involved in that crash, seen it happen, hopefully could have offered help. If we had left La Mirada later, we would still be on the 605 now, stuck because of the fatality investigation.
Life happens. I feel the impossibly smooth skin of my baby boy and pray for another mother, now in the hospital, with her hurt child. I hope my prayer will be powerful enough to make everything OK tonight.
Tomorrow is another day.
http://www.whittierdailynews.com/ci_9390941
I'm glad you guys are ok.
I am so tired of these idiotic wrong way drivers destroying innocent peoples lives. We must put up spike strips.So if you enter the freeway the wrong way.You will get a flat tire,Why isn't this done? If a stupid drunk gets a flat too bad.If someone messes up too bad.The innocent must be protected.I'm glad you're okay.I'm sorry for the innocent one .
Thanks for the comment. It's scary to think of how little control we have in so many aspects of our lives and people can take away what means so much to us, all too easily.
It's sad to say, but I was on the 605 as well when we saw the wrong way driver. We were driving in the carpool lane, we saw the cars ahead of us swerving, so we slowed down a bit. We didn't see the headlights until after the turn and we had to swerve towards the median to avoid the wrong way driver who was driving REALLY FAST.
It all happened SOoo fast, we weren't sure if we should call 911 or the non-emergency number. We tried 3 different cell phones callin 911 and we kept getting a busy signal for a couple minutes. When we finally got through we were on hold for another few minutes until we actually spoke to a live operator. She told us there have been numerous calls about the driver and the police were enroute.
I've been trying to search on the web to see if the driver was intoxicated or trying to commit suicide and I stumbled across your blog.
I was there too--he must have hit the people right behind us. My roommate was driving me and three of our friends in the carpool lane and had to swerve to avoid the oncoming car. We had just passed Valley Boulevard and immediately called and reported it to 911. Thank God we were all right!
It was a definite wake-up call to be alert and remember that holidays are dangerous on the roads because of people who insist on drinking and driving. None of us had been drinking and had just had an innocent celebration of some friends' birthdays at the beach. I think about what almost happened sometimes and am curious if the driver was drinking or trying to commit suicide or what. On another news report a couple people who knew him commented and said he was a wonderful person and father.
The driver was young, too, 32, right? I'll bug the guys at the news desk to follow up on this story. I'd like to know what literally drove him to that freeway too.