From what was already an insane and exhausting day of hunting down car prowlers to recover my little sisters belongings, I didn't think the day could get any more crazy, but I was horribly wrong. I was driving down the freeway, heading Southbound on I-215 and calming down from the adrenaline filled morning. There were no other cars around, as myself and the future accident car were in the Redwood Road exit lane. I have a policy when it comes to driving to always follow a greater distance than most drivers do, so I was about 50 car lengths behind the car in front of me when the car just veered off the road and slammed into the sound wall that protects the outlying houses. When the car flew off the road it sent up a massive cloud of dust that extended at least 20 feet into the air.
I remember exclaiming 'OH MY GOSH!' as I slammed on my breaks and I pulled off to the side of the road.
After stopping my car, I turned on the flashing hazard lights of my van so that emergency or any other vehicle would stop to help me. I remember conscientiously leaving my car running, for what reason, I'm not sure. Grabbing my cell phone instantly, I ran towards the wreckage while dialing 911. When I got to the car the 911 dispatcher had just picked up. "911 what's your emergency?" I was winded because my van was a good distance away, and I had ran at a full sprint. "There's been an accident. I think the woman is dead. She's hurt bad and not moving." I looked in the front seat and saw that the driver/man. He was conscious, but his face was torn open at the lips and blood was steadily dripping from his mouth. He was confused and had no idea what was going on. I asked him if he was okay, but it was clear he was not. Although he was conscious, he did not respond. There was no doubt in my mind that by the way he was acting he was in shock. I moved on to the next person to check to see if she was okay, or if she was dead like I initially thought. The passenger/woman was crumpled up into a ball, her side had taken the brunt of the impact. One leg folded over the other like she had been forced to cross her legs, and her head was bent horribly to the left. There was a good deal of blood covering her, and anxiety made me not reach for her neck because I had never really checked someone's pulse in a life or death situation. The passenger side was smashed so far inward that the dash board was pinning her in. Unlike the driver, the passenger's air bag looked like it hadn't deployed, so I automatically assumed she was dead after I shouted asking if she was okay.
and then I heard the screaming.
Little, tiny, baby cries.
At the time, I was breastfeeding my 10 month old daughter, so biologically my body reacted the way it should when a mother hears an infant cry. I looked into the back seat, and saw two infants, both about 6 months old, strapped into their car seats. Something hit my stomach and my heart at the same time. Every mommy instinct in me kicked in, and I pulled the first infant out of the back seat. Making sure she stayed fastened in her car seat, I checked her for any lacerations. She had no visible wounds aside from what looked like upholstery burn, so I set about checking her reflexes without pulling her out of her car seat just in case there was further unseen damage.
It was very difficult for me to focus. I had trouble remembering where we were at, and the direction we were heading. Then it was difficult to explain our position because we were on a turn from North to East, but I finally managed to tell the operator where the accident occurred on the freeway.
By that time other drivers had finally started showing up. I yelled at the first lady I saw to grab the other screaming infant out of the car, but made it clear to leave him in his car seat. She sat him down next to me, and I started checking him for any obvious signs of bodily harm just like his sister. It then that I made the connection that the babies were twins because they looked exactly the same age and a great deal alike, just different genders. Unlike his sister, I had to examine him more carefully to see if he was bleeding from anywhere because he had blood splatter marks all over his face. I realized, with little examination that it was his mothers blood. The shards of glass that were stuck to his face were from the window that was smashed in on his side of the vehicle. He had been positioned directly behind his mother.
A man came up and asked if there was anything he could do and I told him to go check the woman's pulse because I hadn't yet. He went and checked the women to make sure she was dead, but she wasn't. Her pulse was faint and her breath weak. Having told the operator that someone else was checking on the woman, the operator told me to put the man that was checking the woman's pulse on the phone. I ran over and gave him my cell phone, then returned to the babies. He said he was a doctor to the operator, and he started to apply pressure to the bleeding wound on the woman's forehead. Ambulances started to arrive at this time and took over on the lady/passenger and the man/driver. The crowd that had gathered stayed around for a time, but slowly started to dissipate while I stayed sitting with the infants on the ground. They had to break out the jaws of life to get the woman out, and it was then that I stopped paying full attention to what was happening with the vehicle. They police officers that had shown up, and the EMT's had ominous looks on their faces, letting me know the news was grim for the woman.
One of the babies was still screaming, the one splattered in the mom's blood, so I told a woman that was watching me to go and see if there was a diaper bag in the back of the car. Luckily there was and I looked for the formula and a prepared bottle of water. I was grateful to the mother for being prepared for her babies. It is funny how moms always know how to mix formula; One scoop formula for every two ounces of water. I started to feed him the bottle that I had prepared, but he had a hard time taking it at first because of how upset he was. He cried on and off between bouts of drinking his bottle, and I wanted nothing more than to pick him up and comfort him. After he had finished his bottle he finally started to calm down as I sang 'Hush Little Baby' to him and gently rocked his car seat. I was slowly picking off shards of glass around the babies eyes and mouth so that they wouldn't fall in by accident. The lady standing by me wanted to be helpful and appeared with a washcloth. I'm not sure where she got it from but she started to rub the blood off of him somewhat roughly. He started to scream again and I quickly swatted her hand away and explained to her why I was worried. There was still glass on him and with the rubbing she was doing she could have easily caused the glass to cut into him. The other baby started to cry at that point so I made her a bottle as well with the formula that was in the diaper bag.
The girl baby finished off her bottle and started to cry again so I just rocked her and her brother back and forth in his car seat as I kept singing 'Hush Little Baby.' A different lady tried to remove him from his car seat, and again I had to swat a hand away and explain to her that there might be unseen damage to him like an injured spine. The baby just needed some comfort so I searched for a pacifier in the the diaper bag and unfortunately there wasn't one. At that point I told the lady standing nearby to watch them and not let anyone remove them from their seats as I ran to my van and found one of my daughter's.
Running on my way back from the van to the baby, my flip-flop caught on something and broke so I was stuck limping back to the babies with only one shoe on a yucky shoulder. I know it seems silly, but it bothered me that it happened because all I was trying to do was help. At that point I filled in the EMT's about the babies so they could take over because the police had asked me to fill out a report. I was surprised that I had been the only one that saw what had happened. As I was filling out the report, two police officers stood near to me; I overheard one ask the other how bad it was and the other officer just shook his head and said that he didn't think she would make it.
After getting home I was really shaken up, the images of the man bleeding and disoriented and the woman balled up were burned into the back of my eyes. Every time I pass that section of freeway I remember them.
The man was in critical condition and the woman died later on when she arrived at the hospital. Later on I found out that the father made it just fine and they were able to lay the mother to rest a few days later.
UPDATE 6 months later:
The babies are both fine, healthy and growing.
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