Random Traffic Through Nick's Brain

Let me say up front that everyone is perfectly fine. Thankfully, yesterday could’ve just been a bad dream as far as permanent effects on our lives… i.e., there are probably none. Everyone is doing well.

That said, Dina had a[nother] bad bout of mastitis yesterday. She stayed home sick from work, with a 103°F fever, hardly able to move out of bed.

You know it’s going to be bad when that’s the lesser roughness in your day.

Short Version: As we were walking to the square, Alex’s stroller was hit by a car. The car was not going that fast. Alex’s car seat was thrown from stroller about 15 feet… the car seat was not strapped into stroller. Alex was strapped into car seat. He was crying immediately after the accident, a good sign. There were no signs of injury. Went to children’s hospital. Immediate diagnosis: all well. After 2 hours: all still well. So we went home. After 4 hours: all still well. After 24 hours: all still well… he’s his normal cheery / moody / grumpy / playful / Alex self.

Long Version:

We were heading South, about to cross Franklin St. at the corner of Pleasant, I in my bright red fleece, and Alex in his bright orange stroller. A pick-up truck, heading North, stopped at the intersection. I waited to cross. Driver started to make a left turn, then stopped. I took this to mean that he saw us and was letting us cross. I started to cross the street. After I was about 1/4 to 1/3 of the way into the street, the driver decided to continue his turn. He had about 5 to 10 feet to accelerate into the stroller. I’m pretty sure I started screaming right away and thinking that this just couldn’t be happening. I may have tried to back up, I don’t know. I actually couldn’t say for certain if he hit me or not because I was so worried about Alex. Based on lack of pain or bruises, I’m betting that he didn’t.

The front bumper hit the stroller, pushing it some distance. The car seat flew out of the stroller, landed about 10 feet away, and rolled over a few times. I picked up the car seat, put it on the sidewalk. Alex was crying. I remember hearing onlookers exclaim and come running. They say you should leave an the infant in their car seat in case of an accident… so I did. I checked his head, which could’ve hit the ground while rolling, it seemed fine. Called 911 (actually, first I called 9111, then I started calling 911). A lady in an orange coat was very helpful, she told me to give her the phone and she’d deal with talking to 911. Alex was still crying, though, not the worst crying jag he’d had.

Then I called Dina who got up, out of the house and ran to find us. On the good side, I guess it means that adrenaline will help us in case of emergency. On the bad side, at least for Dina, now I know she can get dressed and out of the house in less than 2 minutes flat. :-)

It was hard to resist the temptation to take him out of his car seat. ‘Thankfully’ the driver chose that point to be a pain. He was out of his car, and spouting excuses. You don’t have a crosswalk. I didn’t see you. You should be more careful crossing the street. I yelled “Because I don’t have a crosswalk means you can hit a kid in a stroller?” That didn’t seem to phase him much. I screamed at him to go sit in his car lest I beat the shit out of him (he was smaller than me, and I was very mad at that point).

The lady in the orange coat helped me try to distract / cheer up Alex. He eventually stopped crying for a bit, though she started up again. Then Police, Fire, Ambulance, and Dina all arrived. Police didn’t really take a look at the kid. Fireman said that things seemed fine, that the car seat did it’s job. Paramedics did more thorough examinations and came to the same conclusion. They took us to the Children’s Hospital.

At the hospital, things slowed down a bit. Nurses saw us. Doctors saw us. Alex finally was taken out of his car seat. He was mostly himself once we could hold him in our arms.

• Thank you to the lady in the orange coat for making a statement to the police, calling 911, and trying to comfort Alex. Very much appreciated.
• Thanks to Jim for picking us up, and to him and Jim & Kris for dropping by to chat, comfort us, and feed us.
• Thanks to M for dropping by to hang out.
• Thanks to M&T for giving us chocolate chip bread.
• I didn’t punch out the driver. Though I’m sure that was the right thing, I think it’d make me feel better. I’m resisting temptation to call the number he left on the police report and yell at him some more.
• Police took the stroller to the police station. I picked it up today. There was a gallon of milk, still in the cargo pouch, from yesterday’s errands.
• Alex is lucky (besides being a white American male). He survived his first emergency trip to the hospital with no ill effects. He won’t remember a thing.
• Yesterday we bough a new stroller (old one was damaged, and we need one over Thanksgiving weekend), a new car seat (you’re supposed to replace the car seat after an accident as it may have been damaged despite no visible signs), and a new car seat adaptor. Didn’t buy a new gallon of milk though. We’re lucky to just be able to go out and quickly get the things he needs. Hopefully the driver (or his insurance company) will be kind enough to reimburse us.
• One of the main reasons Alex was OK is because the bar on the car seat was up. We sometimes put it down so he can see better when he’s in the stroller. Never again.
• Would things have been better or worse had the car seat been strapped into the stroller? Hard to say. Dina thinks worse, as the stroller would have fallen on the car seat. I’m not sure. I’m happy with the current outcome, so I’m not playing what-if.
• I was really careful crossing the street. I stopped on the sidewalk waiting patiently for the truck to go… the nice part about being a stay-at-home dad is that you’re rarely in a rush to get anywhere so you can easily stop and smell the street corners. Only once the truck stopped the second time did I start crossing. Heck, in crosswalks across busy streets I frequently walk across backwards so I’m crossing the street before the stroller. Unfortunately, this didn’t seem like it was dangerous enough a situation to warrant that.

Lessons Learned

• Always strap the kid into the car seat.
• Always have the car seat bar up.
• Drivers can be idiots. Or at the very least, inattentive.
• No matter what I do or how careful I am, I can’t protect him from everything. That’s sad.

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