Accidents Happen...Sometimes right outside your bedroom window

Screeeeeeeeeeeech....boom!

I was startled awake at 1:08 am to the sound of squealing tires and crunching metal.

In a fog, I think, "Did a drunk driver take out our utility box again? No, the electricity is still on."

A minute later I am on the phone with the 911 operator. "I live at the Ponderosa Pointe Apartments on 72nd St. and there has been an accident."

"Did you see the accident?," the operator asks.

"No, I just heard it."

They are getting other calls and sending help.

I still do not see the accident, only a car on the side of the road with its hazard lights on. When I go back to my room I begin getting dressed. Bo is up and sees that there are two cars right outside our bedroom window and they are a tangled mess of metal and shattered glass. Two other cars have stopped. Someone has approached one of the vehicles and is talking to the victim. She is not getting out but is conscious and seems OK.

I pull my jeans from yesterday and grab some slip on boots.

Bo is giving me a play by play. The girl in the other car has gotten out, did something in the trunk and is walking away. You could call it fleeing only she is very calm.

Screeeeeeeeeeech....CRUNCH!

"Holy crap," Bo says. "The police car just hit the car with the girl in it."

The Douglas County Sheriff is the first responder and boy is he sorry about that now I'll bet. He is busy looking on the other side of the road at the parked cars and completely misses the fact that the accident is right in front of him. Boom. Hitting one of the cars he jumps the median and is now facing the wrong direction on the opposite side of the street. The siren is still blaring.

Now it's chaos. Screaming. A woman with a baby is standing there freaking out.

Many more police vehicles arrive now....the Omaha fire department...An ambulance. I am dressed, but I have nothing to offer that isn't already there. Instead I pray out loud for everyone involved. I thank God for all of the emergency responders who are dealing with every aspect of the situation in a matter of minutes. Police are questioning witnesses. The blue car lady has been retrieved with her hands behind her back. The Sheriff is trying to explain how he ended up in the accident he was supposed to be helping with. The girl in the car is out and taken away by ambulance. A Hazmat truck comes to start cleaning up. The witnesses get in their cars and drive away.

It is almost 2 am now. Bo looks over and asks if I had been sleeping in my jeans. "No," I say, "I was going to run out there, but I don't think they need me." I take my jeans back off and crawl into bed.

We lay in bed watching the flashing lights bounce off our walls through the curtain cracks. I wonder if I will ever be able to fall back asleep, but I have to sleep...I am the guest reader at school and might not be able to handle a simple children's book if I pull an all-nighter.

I am vaguely aware that they are loading the demolished vehicles to haul them away. I don't look, you can tell by the scraping metal sound. I must have dozed off eventually because I was startled awake by the alarm clock. I wanted just a few more hours of sleep, but the thought of hearing about our accident on the early morning news was enough to shake me out of bed early enough.

The news report was vague. They didn't tell us anything we didn't know. We had seen it ourselves.

If I look like a I need a nap it's because I had a brief moment of almost going to help someone in the middle of the night. Aside from that little Sheriff car smashing incident, I'm sure they are glad there are actual professionals who are dedicated to that role since they were there before I could even get pants on.

This really happened last night. I didn't make it up, though I do have a wild imagination sometimes. It turns out that I have no lack of material to write about. Happy Monday!