Hellobee

The Dolphin family has had a rough weekend! I found out that my foot was fractured again and ended up in a walking boot, we learned that our daycare might be forced to close down in six weeks due to a lease renewal issue, and then we were sideswiped by an SUV.

On Sunday, we were heading back from a church near our home, which is less than two miles away and only requires two turns. Mr. Dolphin was driving and we were in the far right lane on a fairly large and busy boulevard. An SUV was driving in the far left lane, two lanes over, and suddenly pulled across and into the side of our car. We were hit on the driver side door and the side mirror came off, the door dented, and part of the window shattered. We basically were hit into the entrance of a shopping center driveway. The other driver either lost control of her car or jerked her wheel in the other direction, ended up crossing back across the lanes, over the center median, across the three lanes of traffic going the opposite direction and crashing into a wall.

Panda started screaming at this point and Lion was completely silent, which actually worried us more. We quickly pulled into the parking lot and checked on the kids. They seemed to be shaken up, but fine. Mr. Dolphin tended to the kids while I crossed the street to see if the other driver was okay. By the time I got across the street, three other cars, including one witness, stopped to help. One person helped the driver, an elderly woman, out of the car and to the side of the road where she sat down. She was obviously in shock, complaining that she was cold, and in no condition for me to approach her to exchange information. Someone called the police, while another person called the other driver’s daughter.

When it became clear that there was nothing I could do at the moment, I crossed back to where Mr. Dolphin and the kids were standing outside our car. Mr. Dolphin initially thought our car was not drivable because he had trouble opening the door to get out and wasn’t sure it would open to get back into. He had managed to get the kids calmed down and everyone seemed fine.

An ambulance came on the scene first, followed quickly by a police car and a fire truck. Lion was very interested in the rescue vehicles, so I picked him up and walked him back over to the other side of the street. He kept wanting to talk to the police officer and whenever the officer walked away, he would ask, “Where did the police officer go?” He also repeatedly told me, “My car is broken!” The paramedics quickly determined that the other driver needed to be taken in and the firefighters indicated that they thought her SUV was leaking oil and would need to be towed. I do hope that the other driver was treated for shock and that there were no additional injuries beyond that.

After the rescue personnel got the other driver into the ambulance, one of the firefighters went to check on our car and determine whether we needed any treatment. Mr. Dolphin and I insisted that we were all fine, and that our kids seemed fine, just a little shaken up immediately afterward. He said, “You know your kids better than we do, so if they start acting funny, you should take them in to get checked out.” He noted that one of the concerns for children in a car accident is a concussion, but that it isn’t something the hospital would check for if we took them in. He told us to watch out if our kids seemed lethargic or particularly fussy.

Any time you are in a car accident with car seats in the car (whether or not anyone was actually using the car seats), there is a question of whether the seats need to be replaced. They should always be replaced after a moderate or severe car accident. The last accident I was in, I was rear ended at a pretty decent speed by a truck on the highway, resulting in a complete shattering of the rear windshield. Luckily, Lion was not in the car at the time (though Panda technically was; I was eight weeks pregnant then) because there was safety glass everywhere (we actually found safety glass in the car for months afterward) and I was terrified. The insurance company immediately said that the car seats would need to be replaced. This accident was less severe, though.

Car seats do not need to be replaced in the event of a minor accident and ours has almost all of these features: the air bags did not deploy; we drove our car away from the accident (though I drove my car away last time even though it was later deemed non-drivable); only Mr. Dolphin’s door was affected and not the rear doors; there is no visible damage to the car seat itself. However, Mr. Dolphin and I may also have sustained some minor injuries (whiplash/minor back issues), in which case the car accident would no longer be considered minor for purposes of determining whether the car seat needs to be replaced. Additionally, some car seat manufacturers recommend the replacement of car seats in any accident; Maryland law requires compliance with the manufacturer guidelines, in which case they would need to be replaced.

Ultimately, the Dolphin family was very lucky. Panda was the most shaken up, but calmed down relatively quickly once Mr. Dolphin comforted him. Lion was scared, but then excited once he got to talk to the police officer and see all the lights and sirens; it took about an hour to get the police report done, but Lion was very patient because of all the activity. I do think that kids often feed off their parents’ energy, and Mr. Dolphin’s calm demeanor (fueled by adrenaline) definitely helped. We are thankful that both Lion and Panda were in rearward facing car seats, which is safer than forward facing. While Lion meets the requirements to be forward facing, we wanted to keep him rearward facing as long as possible for this very reason. No matter how much Lion begs, he is staying rearward facing until he meets the height or weight limit!

Our poor Honda Fit has now been in two accidents in the last sixteen months.