The Car Accident & Aftermath

I wanted to wait till everything calmed down and resolved itself before I wrote about the car accident that Cody and I were involved in on June 20th. I'm copying from a letter to my brother (I made some changes for third-party readability...for example: my grandparents are obviously my brother's grandparents, too):

We were on our way up to my grandparents' in Idaho. I was driving in the HOV lane in Salt Lake County (about 3300 S) when the person in front of us slowed to a stop, so I slowed down and didn’t hit them. However, the person behind us didn’t slow down quick enough and hit us from behind, pushing us into the car in front of us.  The airbags deployed and it smelled HORRIBLE. I put down all the windows, moved onto the shoulder and we got out of the car.  There were four or five cars involved in the pile-up, but no one was injured, which was a miracle. 

            My sister came and picked us up from the towing place. We spent the night at their place and then next morning, she took us to Cody’s grandparents’ in Cottonwood Heights.  Eventually we were able to make it back down to Provo and home when Cody’s parents drove us down. Both of us received blessings that night and they have helped make all the difference, I think.  I was really worried and scared after the accident, especially since I was the driver.  Cody wasn’t hurt at all; he didn’t even touch the airbags.  I did touch the airbags but I wasn’t burned or anything. I’ve had some whiplash problems and have been going to the chiropractor and it has been getting better.

So that's that.  Here are some pictures of our car. The insurance company decided that it was totaled (even though it doesn't look too bad; repairs would have cost more than it was worth).

The whole bottom fell off the car

The follow-up to that story is that first, Cody's younger sister let us borrow her and her husband's car for a while so that we could get groceries and make our appointments that next week.

Cody's sister's & her husband's car that made it possible for us to get around the next couple of weeks

Second, my grandparents up in Idaho (who we weren't able to see...) fixed up one of their cars and got it down here to us so that we wouldn't be without transportation.  Not only that, but my grandpa gifted it to us, so it's ours now.

2001 Buick Century--the air conditioning is amazing!

That was so thoughtful and helpful of them.  Also, we got the settlement check from the accident and we went and got another car: a 2012 Mazda 6.

Oh yeah, even though I've driven on the freeway since the accident, it was going south to the school where I work and it wasn't busy. However, this last weekend, I made sure that I was the driver when Cody and I drove south through Salt Lake. So I have officially done the thing that I fear the most since the accident: been the driver through Salt Lake County (which is always sooo busy!). Go me!