We had dinner that night, with most of the family here and our missionaries and a friend's son, Arik, that just moved here from Arizona. Thayne needed something from the shop and I thought we could just run there after everyone left. But Wyatt, with his brand new learner's permit in his hand, asked, no, he BEGGED to get some night 'minutes' in. He asked his dad if he could take Josh and run to the shop. I didn't really want him to go, but mostly for selfish reasons, because Thayne had been really busy and I had several things I wanted to talk to him about, and running to the shop seemed like a nice time to do that. Next thing I knew, I heard that they were leaving and taking the little kids. I stopped them and told them I knew that the car seats were not in the car so they better not take the little boys. The boys wanted to go with them, so they put the car seats in and left. 4 miles to the shop. That's it. 4 miles there, and 4 miles home. No problem. No worries. We make that trip numerous times a day. Wyatt is a good driver, I wasn't really worried, yet I felt nervous. But, I started cleaning the kitchen and didn't think another thing about it until my phone rang and I missed the call trying to get my hands dried. As I was redialing Wyatt's number, Thayne's phone rang. And I could tell by his voice that things were NOT okay!
Thayne and a couple of kids left immediately and Arik drove me a couple minutes behind them. Wyatt had told us that everyone was okay, but that the car was totaled... but still... my BABIES were in that car! I NEEDED to see them and know that they were alright.
We made it to the intersection and see a big, extended cab, older truck. And my car. Airbags had deployed. Kids were out walking around but pretty upset. Wyatt was in tears, sorry about my car. I admit seeing my kids were fine, I did look at the car and think.... ARGH!!!! But that's the after thought, knowing that everyone is just fine AND that it could have all been prevented! You see, a man didn't just run the stop sign.... he sped up trying to get through it! An older guy. Thankfully Wyatt has great instincts and he slowed as much as possible and knew he needed to somehow turn into the wreck so that the damage wouldn't be any worse (to the kids in the car). The police said if he hadn't done what he did, the man would have t-boned the kids and probably done devastating damage! He would have hit right where Noah was, and likely the car seat wouldn't have prevented some serious injury. After impact, Wyatt quickly kicked open the door, ran around to check on the babies, and then ran to check on the man who ran the stop sign. He knocked on the window and gave the man a 'thumbs up' asking if he was okay. The guy didn't get out but finally gave him a thumbs up and shook his head yes. It seems when the police went to talk to him... he lit up a cigarette. Interesting don't you think? And then when Thayne went to talk to him, he also lit up another cigarette. I wondered what in the world would make this man speed up at an intersection like he did, and asked if he was drinking. The cop said he thought maybe he smelled something but he lit up a smoke and well, the cop didn't do anything. Until the EMT's got there. When the EMT checked him out, she came back to the cop and told him he better go check to see how much he had drank because he HAD been drinking. It kind of bothers me that they didn't do things the right way in the first place, because if it goes to court, just the breathalyzer won't be admissible because they didn't do the field sobriety first! However he blew just barely under the legal limit. Which my son in law says they want to lower anyway! Matt said that in the county he works in, they would have immediately arrested him because running the stop sign AND being barely below the legal limit proves he is impaired! Not once did he try to check on the little kids, which is very telling to me. Whether he felt embarrassed or if he was just too buzzed to care, I think it was pretty cowardly to behave that way! Also, we had to wonder how much he really had to drink, because it is likely that he hadn't registered the actual blood alcohol level!
Thankfully Arik was able to take the little boys home and got them settled watching a movie. We had to wait for the EMT's to check Wyatt, Josh and Hyrum, because the airbags deployed and because Hyrum hit his eye pretty good on impact. They checked out fine... well Hyrum got pretty serious whiplash and over a month later he is barely starting to feel relief, but it could have been SO MUCH WORSE!!!
I was counting my blessings and thanking our guardian angels. Also, thanking our earthly angels who happened to be there at the exact moment. Three of our friends who are nurses or work in the hospital were right there, and ran to offer help, but when they saw who it was, they stayed and comforted the kids until we got there. So many tender mercies and small miracles. So many blessings!
So what is it going to take to STOP drunk driving??? Why do people continue to do this? What will be a tough enough consequence that people will just not do this anymore??? How many lives have to be touched by this? It is bad enough that they get caught once, twice, but three, four and more times... how many times do they drive buzzed or drunk that they do NOT get caught! Just STOP!!! Do not let others get behind the wheel when they have been drinking, and for heaven's sake, if you are going to drink, let someone else drive!!!
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