I was up rather early this morning, out of bed by 6:45 AM and on the way to work by 7:10 or so, normal morning, if a bit early.

Stuart had gotten up WAY early and taken Erica to her daycare around 6:30 AM....trying to give me a bit of a break in the driving and dropping off department.

The moon was still out and hanging low in the sky and I was a bit mesmerized. I always try to take that perfect picture of the moon. So here I was off in lala land, driving along, glancing at the moon every so often as it disappeared and reappeared through the trees on the horizon.

I came to the stop sign and decided to take a digital pic while I was sitting there. I took the picture and then a flash of white caught my eyes in my left side peripheral vision. Actually, at that early in the morning, my brain translated that to a "puff of white" and a "what the HELL was that?"

It took me a few seconds to realize I had just seen a little white car whip around the corner and go flying into one of those big roadside ditches. The ditches that are like, 8 feet deep.

I'm ashamed to say that my first thought was NOT:

"I can save them!" ala Superman.

No, no. MY first thought was "oh SHIT! I have to stop and help. I have THE KNOWLEDGE. *whimper* I don't know what to DOOOOOO."

Hey. It was 7 Ay Em. My thought processes don't really start until at least 10 AM.

Honestly, I was just scared to death. I had no cell phone, no medical supplies and have never been present at an accident scene in my life.

There was a driver ahead of me who stopped and I parked behind him and got out, he motioned for a telephone and I didn't have one. He was a young Latino. He ran over to the nearest home to see if he could use the phone.

In that time, another group of Latinos came up and pushed the car away from the edges of the ditch so they could open the door and let the three little kids out. None of whom were in seatbelts/carseats.

THAT made me mad. So many people still do NOT buckle their kids into their seatbelts and it is just a tragedy waiting to happen. It makes me sick. I digress.

The car had buried itself, nose first into the mud, thank GOD there was very little water in it, and had sort of tipped forward until the edge of the ditch caught it from toppling completely onto it's roof.

The car was not on fire, the children weren't even crying or injured so I took off back to the road to flag someone down with a cell phone. Finally after the third try, I got a woman who called in the accident. Good thing I know the names of these backroads.

That finished, I go back to the car and the three little kids are all gathered around the car, watching the proceedings. I got them grouped together and moved away from the immediate vicinity.

A very short woman was trying to help pull the female driver from the car. I didn't know if that was the wisest thing to do and said that it might be for the best to have her just sit tight and not move. Of course, the woman became irate and demanded that someone pull her out.

Obviously, she wasn't terribly injured. At that point, I had to step back. The woman pulling the driver out is a CNA (Certified Nursing Assistant).

I felt that this was not the right thing to do. All my training had taught me to NOT move accident victims unless they were in life threatening circumstances (fire to the vehicle) or until they were immobilized.

The rescue squad showed up a few seconds later and took over. I gave what little information I had and left.

So did I do the right things?

I don't feel happy with the way I responded though I do give myself some slack on it just happening out of the blue and my never being involved in something real before.

I wish I had PPE's (gloves and such, stands for Personal Protection Equipment) and some other things with me, like a cell phone.

I don't know.

I was afraid to look in the car at all. I was so afraid of what I'd see and there I was, with nothing, 10 minutes away from the nearest rescue station and over 20 minutes from the nearest hospital.

That driver was damn lucky. It could have been so much worse, especially if one of those children had been hurt.

I did speak with someone who is an experienced MR (Medical Responder) and he told me that by law, I didn't have to do anything at all because I'm not employed by or volunteering at any rescue station. I also didn't have any PPE's and the first goal of the MR is scene safety followed by personal safety.

Man. I'm still freaked out about the whole thing.

-&-

My eyes and face are so puffy right after I wake up. Sunday morning by myself on the swings. Erica was at church and Stuart and Mikey were golfing. It was 70 degrees out.

If she doesn't look so sweet and charming, like an innocent little princess.

Then you get the next one:

The freckles scattered across her nose and cheeks are just pinchably cute. Little snothead.

Words fail me.