Today has been 4 years since the day of my accident. With time, the fear has faded, but I still remember that I am very lucky to be alive.
On May 16th I was out with Craig (my then boyfriend), Holly, and Kasi. We were in the middle of finals week at SJSU and decided we were going to Cold Stone to have an "ice cream for dinner" night. We all got in my car, headed to Cold Stone, and enjoyed our dinner.
On the way back, we were slowly approaching the stop sign less than a block away from my home when noticed some pedestrians looking above my car in fear. I watched them run out of the way, and looked up just in time to hear a loud cracking sound and see a HUGE tree branch fall right in front of my car. Fortunately, I was going slow, so I was able to stop in time for the branch to hit just inches from the hood of my car. The branch was so big that it smashed a big van parked on one side of the street and a little honda parked on the other side.
Just as we all let out a sigh of relief, we heard a soft buzzing sound. It only took a moment to realize that the tree branch had brought down a power line, which fell right over top of my car. The line draped from one side, all the way to the other, and electrified the entire car. While it didn't hurt at all, you could literally feel the electricity in your skin.
I am so fortunate that I was in a car with 3 level headed, intelligent individuals. We all knew that if we tried to get out, we would be electrocuted the second our feet hit the ground. We didn't want to stay, but we knew we couldn't leave.
That is when the end of the power line that was touching the ground started arcing, and caught the front passenger tire on fire. To be quite honest, this is when I first started getting emotional, as I knew that A. It was damaging my car, and B. the rubber was keeping us safe...if that tire popped and the metal rim hit the ground, we would be dead.
The car was filling with a very nasty kind of electrical/burning rubber smoke. It wasn't so bad that we couldn't breathe, but it was enough to burn your eyes and make things uncomfortable. The firemen were there at this point, and telling us to remain calm. They yelled over to us that we needed to stay in the car as they tried to put out the fire. They couldn't use water, because the electricity could travel through the water, through the hose, and to the man on the other end. Instead, they were flicking an unsteady stream of foam on the fire. Every time they put it out, it would start back up again a few minutes later.
This is the time that I only vaguely remember. We were all scared, and although none of us would admit it, we were all worried that we may soon die. What I do remember is that we all tried to keep a good attitude, and even started cracking jokes whenever we could to lighten the mood. I don't really remember what most of the jokes were, but I do remember it being all we could do to stay calm and rational.
This is when I called my mom. I didn't know if I was going to make it though, and I wanted to at least have a conversation with her. While she was literally falling apart on the inside, she never let me know it, and remained very calm and collected. She even called my best friend as soon as I got off the phone with her to let her know what was going on. Michelle immediately called me and I talked to her for a few minutes. I think my mom figured that she would want to talk to me too...just in case something really terrible did happen.
Fortunately...we were all very lucky that day. After an hour and 15 minutes, PG&E finally got the power shut off, and they were able to get the lines off my car. We all exited the car wobbly legged, teary eyed, and thankful to be alive.
We got a quick chance to talk to all of the firemen and policemen on the scene. They told us that even though they were telling us we would be fine, there were moments when they were not so sure about that.
At this point, there were about 100 people standing around watching. We couldn't see it before, but apparently every news station had brought their crews and were waiting behind the giant tree branch. The chief of police came up and asked us if we were up for being interviewed. We took a moment to compose ourselves and agreed to the interview.
Within an hour, we were on every channel from Fox to Telemundo. My uncle even called the next day and said he saw our story on the Weather Channel. ABC came by the next day and knocked on my door for another interview.
All I remember is wanting to get my car into the shop, and go get the rental car. I wanted these people to leave me alone so I could process all that had happened and be with my loved ones.
This first photo was taken by a neighbor shortly after it happened. You can see my little silver car wedged in there.
Taken by the same neighbor as the night wore on... you can see the fire here
This is on the OTHER side of the huge tree branch where we couldn't see
You can kinda see the fire here that was melting my tire
Much of bright light is from the arcing of the power line
Some of the fire damage
Where the line was dancing around on top my car
We were all just thankful to be alive. I think it caused us all to re examine our lives, and begin to take things less for granted. Even though I no longer speak with my ex, we will ALL always have a special kind of bond as a result of that hour and fifteen minutes we spent together in my car.
If any of my dear readers feel so inclined, I'd like to suggest that you all celebrate with me my 2nd chance at life by having some ice cream for dinner tonight :)
