On a Lovely Sunday Afternoon

Jake had just left for a Senior Follies rehearsal. It was a little after two o'clock. I was enjoying a few minutes of quiet time, and my girls had just started watching the Little Mermaid. I was looking at a swimsuit on-line when I heard a car coming down our street. I could tell that it was going quite fast, but I could also tell that it was still pretty far away. We live on a corner lot, and admittedly, there aren't enough stop signs in our neighborhood on the streets that run north and south between the major streets at either end of Mesta Park and Heritage Hills. There have been many times at night where I try to guess how fast a car is going, and it's maybe 40 miles per hour, with the exception of a few that were closer to 50 mph.

As the car got closer, I could tell something wasn't right. It sounded like it was going faster and faster, and as it went through the three intersections leading up to our cross streets, I could tell its tires were leaving the ground and coming back down because they would screech as they rejoined the pavement. My heart was pounding. I turned to look out my bedroom window to see a flash of black moving north. And within an instant, I heard the impact. I ran for my phone and out the back door. My street looked like a small tornado had hit.

Right across the street from my girls' bedroom was where the black Tahoe clipped the first tree, and the telephone pole next to it was no match. It took out another tree, snapping it at its base. The telephone pole and live wires were laying down our street and across the sidewalk between our driveway and our neighbor's. As I was looking at all of the damage, one thing was missing: the SUV. It had continued on for another block, taking out two more trees before rolling and landing on its side in the parking lot behind Orange Leaf, Pizza 23, and This Land Yoga.

Neighbors were running down the street around me. They'd all heard this car barreling down the road, past some of them as they mowed their lawn, past cars parked in the street. Some reported it going 60, 70, 80, 100 miles per hour. A neighbor one block south of me had already called 911. Several people had as the car went past, before the accident ever happened. I don't know exactly how fast he was going. The average of the guesses is 80, and I believe he was going every bit of that, if not more.

I can't begin to express how unnerving it is to hear a car going that fast through your neighborhood, right past your house. It's like knowing someone is pulling a trigger, but not having any idea where they're pointing the gun. Everyone who heard any part of the vehicle's path down our street and then the impact was clearly shaken. Things like that shouldn't happen.

It was so unfortunate that it did happen. At last check, the two people in the car were in critical condition. It could have been so much worse though. Had he lost control at any other block, he would have ended up going through someone's home. It was a blessing that no one was on the frequently travelled sidewalks when he hit the telephone pole and trees. It was a blessing that he lost control as he was passing Dot, because the trajectory of the car after he lost control would have sent him ramping up the little hill Dot sits on and straight into our home. Had he not lost control where he did, he would have made it out to 23rd street, where it would have been very likely that it would have been more than a one car accident. And at that speed, it would have been even more devastating than it already is.

I've already said many prayers for those who were in the car, and I've prayed for the hearts of all who witnessed it. We've been through something in our 'hood today.

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