We were watching TV on Thursday night when the phone rang. Sam usually answers it as my voice is croaky and never comes over very well to the person on the other end of the line. I put the film on ‘pause’, and listened to lots of ‘Good Gods’, ‘Wows’, and ‘Bloody hells’. Of course as soon as he put the phone down I couldn’t wait to find out who it was and what had happened.
It transpired that our daughter-in-law Lisa had taken her 6 year old son to his school disco that evening, and had parked the car on a narrow road outside the school. The school is Victorian, and was built in the time of horses and carts and not Range Rovers and Chelsea tractors. Our son and his wife have neither of the aforementioned, but instead a much-loved Ford Mondeo that they’ve had since the early days of their marriage. The Mondeo was parked in the road behind 3 other cars.
My grandson was bopping away in his disco, watched by Lisa. Suddenly she was tapped on the shoulder by another mum, who was very agitated and told Lisa that an articulated lorry had crashed into the back of the Mondeo. Lisa ran outside and sure enough, a huge artic had shortened the Mondeo by a several feet, which had crumpled into the car in front, which had in turn smashed into the front car.
The Mondeo was unrecognisable. Lisa, acting on auto-pilot, phoned our son Marc who was at home with their other child. Marc drove to the school straight away, and by that time the police had arrived. The lorry driver was in shock and kept repeating that he had driven that particular road many times in the dark, but usually at that time of day there were no cars outside the school. No excuse really for going too fast – he could have caused absolute carnage. Only half an hour later and my grandson would have been sitting in the back of that Mondeo and my daughter-in-law in the front, ready to go home. Somebody else’s children could have been sitting in either of the other two cars involved.
It was only the next day that Lisa felt the effects of shock. She kept thinking of how she and our grandson had had such a lucky escape, but I tried to distract her with the knowledge that nobody was injured, and that a guardian angel must have been watching and protecting them from harm. Cars can be replaced; people cannot.
Jennie said:
Wow!
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dgkaye said:
Holy smokes Stevie. Happy to hear your family wasn’t hurt. 🙂
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Stevie Turner said:
Thankfully they were still inside the school.
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dgkaye said:
Definitely angels around! ❤
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tracikenworth said:
Reblogged this on Where Genres Collide.
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Stevie Turner said:
Thank you.
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Tigerman said:
Same thing happened once to my late Father-in-law. While inside a house, a coal lorry smashed into a row of parked cars. One was pushed up onto the central resevation.A cousin of his had arrived late at the party and saw the accident. He went inside and said your car has just been smashed up. Although he did not believe him, he found his car wrecked. The lorry had driven off, but a witness followed it to where it parked in the depo. The driver was later charged, with my fathe-in-laws car requiring a new rear wing and door.
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Stevie Turner said:
At least our lorry driver stopped and accepted blame. It’s even worse if they hit and run – it was good of the witness to follow it.
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Clive said:
Glad to hear everyone is alright, though it will take Lisa some time to get over her thoughts about it. I hope the lorry driver’s insurance company will pay for a replacement car.
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Stevie Turner said:
He accepted blame, so I think so. He was as shocked as Lisa was.
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Clive said:
Couldn’t really do anything else, could he? ‘These four parked cars leapt out and hit me’ doesn’t really cut it. Just as well no one was hurt or he’d be facing charges – still might, I guess.
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franklparker said:
What a horrible thing to happen – and thank whatever gods you believe in that it did not happen a while earlier or later when the lane would have been thronged with parents and children. Schools here always have speed humps either side. I hope the parish council in their village starts a campaign to improve safety on that lane. Lobby the county council and the local MP.
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Stevie Turner said:
Good idea.
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tidalscribe said:
I hate lorries, whether on the motorway or causing mayhem trying to deliver to local shops on narrow roads – yes I know we have to have our food etc. delivered somehow!
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Stevie Turner said:
Lorries were not made for the narrow roads around my son’s village, but still they come…
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tidalscribe said:
..and SatNav has a lot to answer for.
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jenanita01 said:
That will take a lot of getting over… starting with the imagination…
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Stevie Turner said:
Yes it will take a lot of time I think.
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jenanita01 said:
What could have happened would give me nightmares for a long time…
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Stevie Turner said:
My grandson is fine as he’s so young, but Lisa keeps having flashbacks. She needs lots of distraction therapy I think.
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jenanita01 said:
She has my sympathy…
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Darlene said:
Oh my. How upsetting, but thank heaven no one was hurt.
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Stevie Turner said:
Yes indeed. And thank goodness the car was insured too!
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jenanita01 said:
Reblogged this on anita dawes and jaye marie.
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Stevie Turner said:
Thanks ladies for the re-blog.
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jwebster2 said:
glad things worked out the way they did, life is too precious
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Stevie Turner said:
It sure is.
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