So my day started good, I went for a 4 mile run in the morning. The last almost 2 miles I ran without listening to any music. This was a nice change and it was very peaceful, as it was so quite at 5:30 on the Katy Trail. I had sent a message to fellow colleague Patrick, asking him if he could pick me up at the U-Haul Shop where I was having a hitch installed on my car. I was having a hitch installed so that I could get a bike rack and haul my bike and friends bikes without having them scratch the paint on my trunk lid. I had arranged the previous night to go help Sarah shop for a road bike and she would be taking me to pick up my car in the afternoon. Well Patrick and I drove into work and started our day. At about 9am that morning Patrick got a call from an old friend who he used to work with at Turner's Corporate office in Dallas. Patrick's friend Dean had been in a car wreck and wanted Patrick to bring a camera to take pictures to document the scene. Patrick obliged. 45 minutes later Patrick came back to the office with the camera and the first thing he says is... "Brett I now know how your car would preform if it were ever in a wreck." Patrick uploads the pictures to his computer and to my surprise his friend Dean drives an Infiniti G35 just as I do. Turns out Dean was waiting to turn left at a light and so was a semi truck and the truck was in the outside left turn lane and took the turn a bit sharp and dragged and crushed his car almost 50ft. The car was a wreck and totaled. However most importantly Dean was uninjured and everyone was okay. It was interesteing to see the car similar to the one you drive in pieces.
A shocking and interesting experience to say the least. So the day passed and Sarah came to pick me up at work and at this point she had decided against going bike shopping and was nice enough to still take to pick up my car. I get to the U-haul and it was sitting out front and all complete. The hitch looked great and you could barely see it. I went in an paid and left to go to the bike shop to buy my bike rack so that I could use my hitch.
The bike rack was purchased and I really wanted to get my car washed it had rained this week and was quite dirty. See if you don't know I sold my Red truck in Janruary and purchased a 2006 Infiniti G35. It was a slate blue 4 door car. It was a wonderful car and I couldn't have been more pleased with it.
On my way to the car wash Patrick sent me a message asking this one question " Car OK?" I responded " Yeah its great the hitch is on and you can barely see it"
No less than one minute later I approached a green light and had to turn left on green. Everyone has done this 1000 times before. I pulled up to control the intersection and there was another car attempting to turn left who was facing me. I looked and carefully examined the situation and saw and opening between cars to go. So I stepped on the gas to pass through the intersection and what I failed to see was a 2007 VW Rabbit. I immediately slammed on the brakes and turned the wheel all the way to the left in hopes to correct my position some more that I wouldn't hit him. My effort was worthless. For those of you that have been in a car as the driver in an accident there is a moment when you are in the car that you almost feel that the car that you have been controlling is no longer in your control. No matter how hard you press the brakes or turn the wheel you cannot change what is about to happen. At this moment I take my hands off of the wheel and relax my arms and watch as my car collides with the VW Rabbit. I sit in my car and wait for our all of our kinetic energy of my car and the other individuals cars to come to a rest. During the course of this crash, my airbag deployed and there is a smell in the car of cap guns or firecrackers. This is from the explosive reaction that is required to expel the airbag at such a velocity to protect the passanger from injury. I however, was wearing my seatbelt and didn't move an inch in the car. This is the second bad accident I have been in, in which the seatbelt has thourghly protected me.
My first reaction after the cars come to a stop is to turn off the car and get out. I get out and immediately ask the other individual if he is okay. He indeed is okay. I then tell him to turn off his car as well. We then both get out and begin to inspect the damage. I immediatly apologize and say tell him it was my fault, because it indeed was. A bystander had already called the police so I begin the process of getting on the phone with my insurance company, and taking his information. This is a long drawn out process and it takes some time. The Police officer writes up the statement and both myself and the other individual are in agreement with his assessment of the situation. At this point the officer indicates that he will not be citing me for any violations of any sort. This was nice, because it may help the long road of my increased insurance premiums be a little less.
As we begin to part ways and watch the tow truck driver load my vehicle a individual begins walking towards me and hands me a card. He introduces himself as Ken. Ken is an employee of Sewell. Sewell is a company that owns numerous car dealerships throughout Dallas. I in fact bought my car at Sewell Infiniti. Ken said he saw this on my licsence plate frame and wanted to see if he could help me in any way. He offered a ride and I gladly accepted. He said just let me call my wife and we can leave. I wrapped things up at the scene and left with Ken.
This is when things got a little weird. Previously when Ken handed me his card I noticed that he was a LEED AP. I too am a LEED Accredited Professional. For those of you that don't know "LEED" stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. Its Green Building and sustanability. So I begin some small talk and ask him what he does for Sewell. This is where he indicates that he is the Faclilites Manager and in charge of new construction. This is very interesting to me since, my company Turner is working with them on building a few of their upcoming buidlings. We shared talk on Turner and Green Building, and it was nice to hear from one of our clients the things he likes about Turner. I will be sure to share them with the people I work with on Monday. Ken ended up taking me to the collosion center and back to my apartment. It is amazing that Sewell employees have that kind of dedication to their customers, especially since there was nothing in it for him. It was a selfless act of compassion. I have already written Ken a hand written thankyou note and will also write one on behalf of Turner Logistics to their entire company.
So my weekend didn't start like I had planned. But it happend, so I tried to just be happy that I was alive and could see another day. It was weird how intertwined everything was with the G35 being wrecked that morning, having Patrick ask how my car was, all the way to meeting a Client of Turner Construction. Its a small world. So keep scrolling and you can see the pictures. If you get this in your email you may not see the pictures Just go to this website.
So on Sunday I woke up at 5:30 so I could go volunteer for a Half Ironman race here in dallas. It was a great experience. I got to be at the bottle hand offs on the bike route. This is a fun thing to do. You basically have to hand off bottles to the riders as they are riding by. Some are going really fast too, so you have to run along side them. It was truly nice to see how appreciative everyone is of the volunteers, I mean in every race I do I thank them all the time. I realized in my Half Ironman that without the volunteers at these races they wouldn't happen and no one could ever race. I am going to try to volunteer as much as possible for events that I am not racing in.
1 comment:
Brett so happy to here you are ok!!
Post a Comment