Crash

On my way to church this morning, I saw a girl about my age wandering standing on the side of the road, looking dazed. I stopped, rolled down my window, and asked "Hey are you OK?"

She answered "Me and my friend were in car accident and our phones don't work. Can you call 911 for us?"

I parked my car, called 911 and told the girl to take me to the accident. She led me back into the woods while I told the dispatcher where we were. I couldn't see the car from the road, and I don't know what I was expecting, but I was not prepared for what I saw. The pile of metal wrapped around a tree didn't look remotely like a car, though an hour ago it had been a Buick Riviera.

"My friend says she can't get up," the girl told me. Her friend was on the other side of the car, and I was really scared to look. It was miraculous this one girl had survived, and I was sure whoever else was in the car was either killed or badly mangled. I've seen corpses before, and I never want to see another one.

I rounded the car and saw the girl's friend laying on her back. "I can't feel my legs," she whispered.

"She keeps saying that, and she won't get up," the first girl told me. Then, turning to her friend insisted, "You have to get up!"

"No don't get up; don't even move," I told her. "Just chill there on the ground till the paramedics come." I asked the first girl, "Is there anybody trapped in the car right now?"

"No."

"Was there anybody else riding with you two?"

"I don't know."

At this point, A sheriff's car showed up and two officers got out. They first attended to the girl on the ground. She was able to move her toes for them, so I think she probably broke both her legs (they both definitely looked broken), but probably wasn't paralyzed. The first girl had a broken arm. Both girls said they didn't know who was driving, or if there had been other people in the car. This meant the police had to search the forest where the wreck had happened. Soon tons of policemen, firemen, and paramedics showed up. I managed to find one of the original officers and he took down my phone number and told me I could leave.

Going to church afterward was weird. I thought I had a pretty strong stomach for this sort of thing, but I was really effected. I had to play bass for both services, and I had to just not think about it cause I had to concentrate on the music. But I felt really shaky. Like I was nauseous and felt like throwing up.

It was just so dark seeing these girls who almost killed themselves. They were really sketchy about everything too, and it made me think they were lying -- either protecting someone else who ran away from the accident, or that one of them was driving drunk and/or without a license and they wouldn't admit it. And on top of everything else, just seeing how messed up they were -- broken arm, broken legs, cuts all over -- was gut-wrenching. It was one of those moments where you feel like you are looking straight into everything dark about the world.

I went rock-climbing this afternoon and calmed down a bit. If you think about it you can be praying for these girls. For their physical injuries, and for redemption in any area of brokenness in their lives that may have been touched by the accident. Pray that the accident would be an instrument of grace and redemption in their lives.