Witness statement

I saw an accident happen today. I was sitting at a light two blocks from my apartment. It's not a perfect four-way intersection. The cross streets are at skewed angles and from where I was sitting, I could turn left, center-left, center-right or right. I was listening to "Leroy, the Redneck Reindeer" and then a car entered my field of vision from the right and began to quickly turn directly towards me. Which I thought was odd- the driver should have been aiming for the lane to my left. Then another car appeared from the left, the opposite direction, and slammed into the right rear fender of the car facing me. The woman inside looked stunned, then threw her hands up in the air, shouted something to herself and put her head on the steering wheel.

I looked at my light- it was green.

I had just enough room to turn left, but the car to my right, attempting to go straight across, was blocked. The cars across the street weren't turning either, even though they could easily have made it into any lane. We all watched the two cars, waiting to see if someone moved. I wondered if anyone was hurt, but I didn't know what to do. Since I was positioned to turn left, my car was in the middle of the road. I couldn't very well jump out and pull a body from a burning vehicle. The cars weren't burning. And they finally dragged themselves to the side of the road. The car next to me made the first exit, slowly driving around the piece of fender lying in the street. And I thought, well, if he goes, I can go. And I turned left, my eyes on the rearview mirror.

There was a fatality accident on I-5 yesterday near Marysville. This morning on the news they said that fellow motorists pulled the injured from their cars. They said they used the tow rope on a semi to heave one car off another. There was a person stuck between the two somehow. Traffic was backed up for miles and miles.

I saw an accident happen, but I didn't really. Because now that I think about it, the woman coming from my left had pulled into lanes of oncoming traffic. If she was trying to turn left, why was her car pointed directly at me? What color was her light? I'd been looking at my nails, singing along, trying to get my bangs to sweep to the side just so. Was it yellow? Was she trying to turn? Did she see the other car coming towards her and simply tried to get out of the way? By turning towards me she may have avoided a head-on collision. Maybe the other car ran a red light, but what, then, was the woman doing on the wrong side of the road? How long did it take me to look at my own light? It was hard to look away. Maybe it wasn't already green.

No one who saw it happen stuck around. As I turned left and headed for work, it occurred to me that insurance companies always ask about witnesses. When the woman calls her insurance company and they ask, "Did anyone see it happen?" she'll have to say yes, obviously. The entire intersection watched in grotesque slow motion. But is there anyone to leave a statement? Will anyone come forward? No. We all had somewhere to be.

I watched the smaller car smash into the bigger one. I saw the piece of fender fly off. I saw the expletive-laced thoughts of the woman in the first car. I saw her slump her shoulders and rest her forehead on the steering wheel. I wondered if she had a cell phone to call her husband. And the office. She was going to be late for work. I saw the smaller car with the busted front end hobble over to the barely-existent shoulder. And I saw the woman sigh, raise her head, shift gears and roll her damaged car backwards to the side of the road.

I would like to think, had a car caught fire, had one driver slumped over the steering wheel involuntarily, had the cars sat there without moving until they formed a twisted and smoking metal lump- I would like to think I might have done something.

But I picture it: an accident happens before my eyes, a caved in windshield, a glimpse of a person inside, a crumpled front end and glass on the road. And my thoughts: What can I do? I'm not a doctor or a nurse. I'm sure someone else has called 911 by now. No need to inundate those poor people who answer the phones. Maybe someone needs a ride, but everyone's on their cell phones. I'm sure help is coming. I could pull over, but I'll only be in the way.

I did call 911 once. I saw a washing machine- an entire washing machine- sitting in the middle of the carpool lane on the way to my grandma's house. Phillip was driving so I had my hands free to make the call. But it was the second or third large object I'd seen in the road that day. I didn't call about the couch or the mattress, so the guilt must have carried over.

That intersection is probably all clear now. It wasn't a big accident, or even very costly. No ambulance was required. No fire trucks. And on I-5 near Marysville people are driving over the spot where someone died last night. When that happened I was far away, driving home, listening to the radio. They advised everyone to stay clear of I-5 because a multiple-car fatality accident was causing horrendous backups. They moved on to the next inconvenience. It's always seemed kind of callous to me, to gloss over these things. If they're announcing a fatality accident on the radio, it seems the least they could do is tack a little prayer onto the end of the traffic report.

Comments

[Jolie Holschen]

You may not ever come back and read this comment... you may already know because of later news reports, but just in case... the name of the person who died Dec. 15th 2004, is Marijke Hoslchen. She was 18 years old, loved by her parents, her twin sister, 3 other siblings and tons more.