So we left Thursday night. About 1/3 of the way to my inlaw's where we were spending the night, we stopped at Manning Park Lodge for a rest stop. (This is in the mountains, about 2 1/2 hours from our home. As we were getting out of the car, 4 young guys (28-ish) were just coming back to theirs and warned us about the slush and ice on the way into the lodge, since it was dark. Then they wished us Merry Xmas, told us to drive safely and piled into their car.
We had our break and got back into our car and drove out of the lodge area, passing a discarded beer box and two empty cans on the way out. Obviously they had come from the guys-they were not on the ground on the way in and we had seen them with the same blue cans when they were leaving. Fast foreward 6 minuted down the road and we see a light in the gully, about 50 feet down. We were all like "What the hell is that?!?" "Oh my god it's a CAR!!" Then we see a bunch of people frantically waving us down and we pull over. (We would have anyway!)
Before any of us can get out of the car, our son opens his car door and this guy leans in, all wild and crazy eyed and bleeding like crazy from his head and behind his ear. Turns out it's the guys we talked to in the parking lot at the lodge. They somehow went off the road, the car rolled about 5 times and came to rest about 50 feet down in the gully. Luckily the water they landed on was frozen and they all managed to get out. How they got up the embankment is beyond me!
The driver was freaking out and after I figured out everyone was still breathing and not in immediate trouble, I told them we were going back to the lodge to call for help. (There is no cell phone service in the park.) We drove back and I called for the ambulance and the police. While I was talking to the police, the driver walked up-some woman had driven him to the lodge. I am not sure if he overheard me saying they were drunk but while I was on the phone, he starts telling me they don't need an ambulance. I insisted they did and that he was bleeding too. (He insisted he wasn't bleeding!) Anyway, the police dispatcher started asking a bunch of questions I didn't have answers for so I passed the phone off to the driver and left.
I don't think he wanted anyone to show up to help because they were clearly drunk and at first I felt kind of bad telling the dispatcher they were. Then I thought about what if they had taken someone else off the road with them or what if those guy's parents had had to get a call saying they were all dead and I knew I did the right thing. It was bad enough WE had to see it. Anyway, we drove back to the accident and told the other three we had called for help and it was on the way. There were other people waiting there with them, so we carried on.
So...that was how we kicked off Xmas. I KNEW we were going to be somehow involved with an accident even before we left home. It's a miracle none of them was seriously injured or killed.
Please everyone, DON'T DRINK AND DRIVE! The life you save may be your own.
No comments:
Post a Comment