I got home from work and Ben asked if I wanted to go with him to Tenino to go get sized for his bunker gear. I had told him no because I just got home from work and I wanted to go wear sweat pants and relax. I told him I would have dinner done when he got home. He told me okay and he headed out. I told him to drive safe like I do every time he leaves.
I put on sweatpants on, grabbed my computer, sat on the couch and watched some TV for a bit. I got up and started making some dinner because I was getting hungry. I wasn't sure how long he was going to stay in Tenino so I saved him some to heat up when he got back.
Around 7:30ish, I got a phone call (I usually get a phone call when he leaves work just to know he left and when to start or heat up dinner) with him stating that he needed me to come pick him up. His voice was a bit shaky. Giving me a couple seconds to internalize, why? you still in Tenino? what happened? were all the things I thought about in those few seconds. I spoke up, why? He said, oh I just got into a car accident. He seemed very calm about it. Probably because of the adrenaline. My reaction was what!!? were are you? did they hit you? was it their fault? He told me he would tell me everything once I came and got him. He added that he wasn't too far from home off of Balustrade and Prism. That was literally right down the street and maybe less than a mile from our house.
I put some warmer clothes on and my shoes (since it was a rainy day), got in the Escape and headed to Prism. I had no idea what to expect or even if Ben's car was still drivable. I saw the flashing lights from cop cars preventing people from driving through the wreckage. There were pieces of car parts scattered all over the road...most of it was Ben's car. Ugh. I hope he isn't injured. As I got closer I couldn't tell what Ben's car looked like because I was on the other side of the destruction. I got as close as I could. I got out and asked a million questions. He answered them as quickly as he could because we had to take all of his stuff out of the car and transport it to mine. Meanwhile, I was horrified at the front of the passenger side...you could barely get the door open because of the damage. I kept asking Ben if he was okay. He said he was. He had a scratch on his shin and some signs of bruising and he said he was going to be sore tomorrow. We had to hurry and get his stuff out so the tow truck could take his car away. It was totaled.
I spent some time taking pictures mostly for documentation later for the insurance and to let everyone know that he was alright but the car wasn't. He had tons of stuff in his car. The back of my Escape had tons of stuff in it. We took one more sweep before we released the car to the towing company to make sure we didn't leave anything behind. I stole Ben's rear view mirror as a souvenir since I knew he probably wasn't going to see it again. I wrote the car's information and date on it when we got home.
Ben and I stood at the corner, we noticed a bunch of the people that lived on this corner were out on their porches or yards watching the accident clean-up. I was able to hear how the event unfolded and who hit who. Of course the people in the suburban were trying to throw Ben under the bus as they talked to the officer on scene. The woman was crying and her boyfriend and/or husband was trying to comfort her.
Basically Ben was driving down a one way street towards our house. There is another one way road going the opposite direction. There is also side roads going through those two one-way roads with stop signs at each of them to enter the arterial. Well there is an area between the two roads where you are suppose to yield if going straight or turning left. Well Ben was approaching that intersection and a lady driving a suburban didn't yield preceded through the intersection and Ben smashed into her. She did not give him any time to stop plus the road were wet from the rain. There was another vehicle involved in the accident at the opposite stop sign of Prism waiting to turn and his vehicle was hit by the suburban. Visually Ben's car and the man's vehicle looked totaled. I wasn't sure about the suburban. As I see it the woman totally barreled through the small intersection and Ben had little to no reaction to avoid from hitting her. Case closed. The officer totally agreed with us too.
We watched the tow truck guy load up Ben's car. He cleaned up the debris the car left behind and swept it into a bucket. He got back into the tow truck and started to drive away. It was an end of an era as we watched it drive away into the non-existent sunset.
Ben had just celebrated having the car for three years as of December 31st. So many things has happened to this poor little car in those three short years. When we got home, I got the rear view mirror that I had written the car info and date on and we played Taps for it. I was surprised Ben didn't know what Taps was. Well now he does.
The following night we posted on Facebook to let everyone know what had happened and that Ben was alright.
"Last night, I got a phone call from Ben asking me to pick him up and I asked why. I knew he was in Tenino getting sized for his bunker gear and he usually calls when he is on his way home. Well, about a mile from our house, on this way home, a lady in a suburban plowed right through the neighborhood intersection without yielding. Ben had no time to react and ended up hitting her into another vehicle coming out from another side street. His car is officially totaled and he's only had the car for three years. In fact, he celebrated his car's three year birthday just last week. I showed up to the scene to help Ben take all of his belongings out of his car. For fun we took the rear view mirror as a souvenir. We watched the tow truck driver load up his car and drive away with it. Ben is okay but sore."
Next Adventure: A Day Off in Dupont for Geocaching
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