We have had a lot of questions from several friends online and offline and I am going to spend some time now and tell you whats going on in our life.
On Friday May 11th at about 4:30 PM on our way to work an accident happened. My lovely wife Sunshyne and our 13 year old daughter along with myself were heading down HWY 321 N doing a lower then posted speed limit rate of speed (About 30-35 MPH) when a car pulled across 2 lanes of traffic cutting off a pickup truck that was in the inside lane and us in the outside lane in front of Browns Creek Shopping Center in Maryville, Tennessee. Even though the accident only took about 10 seconds to happen, for me it seemed more like minutes. Even now 2 days later I can clearly remember each and every detail.
As I was coming down the hill a small blue car cut across the road in an attempt to enter the shopping center. At the entrance of the shopping center was a red Dodge Dully pick up truck waiting to exit the plaza. In the lane to my left was a pickup truck as well as other vehicles. On the right was a sidewalk with a steep slope after it and a ditch. There was no way I could miss that car unless I had never left home. A Horrible feeling came over me as I realized that this accident was going to happen. Having no where to go all, all I do could was attempt to turn the wheel and turn into the shopping center on the right. As I tried to make the turn to avoid the accident I realized that the driver of the little blue car was an elderly lady. I also seen the driver of the red dodge truck at this time. He wore glasses and a ball cap. I watched as he hung his head as he must have realized that this accident was going to happen and it was also out of his control.
Finally I locked the brakes up on my durango to try and minimize any damage that was about to happen. As my brakes started squealing my daughter and my wife both screamed out in terror and I watched as both of them threw their hands up in an attempt to shield their face. Then the front corner of our vehicle struck the little blue car. I watched as the 1st wave of glass broke out of that car and flew into our windshield. Our vehicle pushed that little blue car into the red pickup truck and then the second wave of glass flew onto our vehicle. Then it became quiet except for my wife and child crying and screaming. Its a horrible feeling to hear something like that.
I realized that other then being shaken up our family was not seriously hurt. I quickly told my wife to get our daughter out of the vehicle. I unbuckled my seatbelt after turning the engine off and setting the brake. My concern was checking on the other people involved and calling 911. The elderly lady was obviously dazed. She was pinned in her car and the guy in the pickup truck was shaken but appeared to be ok. I got a cell phone and called 911.
Several people stopped to help us to which I am thankful. It was only a couple of minutes before a fire truck showed up along with several police officers and a rescue squad. The elderly lady had some blood coming from a spot on her forhead where she had gotten cut. More then likely this was from the amount of glass that had been broken. The Maryville Police department was very efficent in taking thier report and making sure everyone was ok. The fire department was quick in getting the eldery woman out of her demolished vehicle and into an ambulance. During all of this my wife was taking pictures of the damage that was needlessly done.
After we were certain that our daughter was ok Sunshyne called the babysitter who lives close by and asked her to come pick our daughter up so that we could figure out if our vehicle was ok or not to drive. Thank Fully the babysitter showed up within 5 minutes and took our daughter away from the scene.
Sadly someone on the scene pointed out the handicap stickers on the car that caused the accident. After they took the elderly woman and put her in the ambulance an officer reached into her car and came out with her WALKING CANE!!! He gave it to an attendent who placed it in the ambulance with the woman who had caused this accident.
Thats when I realized that this accident had been caused by an elderly woman which I guessed to be in her late 60's to early 70's. She was handicapped and required a cane. The realization of this made me angry. This woman had no right to be on the road. I am an avid reader of the local newspaper and I watch the news daily as well. Most of the accidents I have seen or read about in Blount County seem to be caused by elderly people. Some have had medical problems that have caused the accidents while other have just made bad judgement calls. So now my family and myself are now statistics!!! What a pile of crap.
After the elderly woman was taken to the hospital the vehicles that were involved were moved. I watched as the guy who was driving the Big Red Dodge peeled and unbolted the broken pieces of his truck and threw them in the bed so that he could drive his truck home. I looked at my dodge durango and realized that if I could get the bumber bent back off of the front tire I could probably drive as well. Our vehicle parts that are damaged and need to be fixed and replaced as of now include: The hood, The front left fenter, The inside peice for the tire well, the front grille, The front bumper, some lights and other items that are not clear to me as I am not a mechanic nor body repair person.
After spending some time cleaning up glass off my vehicle and with the help of a couple of gentlemen we were able to get the bumper pulled off the tire so the vehicle could be driven. At this time other then being shaken up Sunshyne and I thought we were fine and headed toward work. Driving the vehicle I realized that the steering was knocked out of whack so I am sure a front end alignment is in order.
We arrived at our store about 30 minutes or so later. Within a little while we both started to calm down. The shock and adrenline rush must have started wearing off. Sunshyne was complaining of chest pain. She was very sleepy and speech was starting slur. I then noticed I was starting to have some problems. I was being obnoxious with customers which for me is not normal. My thoughts were jumbled and I was starting to feel some pain in my back, left arm and center of my chest. This was the last thing that we needed. We decided to go to Blount Memorial hospital to get checked out. Like they say its better to be safe then sorry.
At the hospital we were sent to what they call a triage unit. This is where they do an initial medical assesment and history. Lots and lots of questions. After they finished with each of us there we were sent to the registration area. At this area I was greeted by a lady that was quite rude and basically asked the same questions that I had just got done answering in the triage area. Sunshyne had a young pregnant lady that was attentive and took care of her quickly. As I was finishing up with the registration process my wife was taken back into the emergency room area.
Soon I too was taken back. I was seen very quickly by a nurse and soon a nurse practitioner. I explained where I was hurting and the NP decided I needed Xrays for my back only. She was not concerned with any other injuries. I was quickly sent back to the xray area where several were done. Within about 20 minutes the nurse and NP were back in my room. The NP said my back was bruised and said I needed pain pills and muscle relaxers. I was officially discharged at this time and my other medical concerns went unanswered and untouched.
At this time I went and joined Sunshyne in her room. She had also had a bunch of Xrays taken. We sat in there for an hour and finally the Doctor came in. (Yes she actually seen a real Doctor). She was diagnosed with bruises on her wrist, chest and leg. She was also discharged.
If you are in this area where you need medical care and Blount Memorial Hospital is where you need to go you can expect to meet some of the nicest people around that work there. From our experience there Friday night the service and care given by them as well as the cleaniness of the place is a plus for them. However you can expect that chances are you will not be seen by a real doctor just a practioner. If that is the case then like myself you can expect they will not check all of your injuries. This care put out by the nurse practioner basically sucked and should be questioned.
Its now 2 days since the accident and here we are both at home. Whats changed? Well look for yourself:
2 days loss of work for both of us as well as wages.
2 days so far basically doing nothing
2 Days of Pain
Extra expenses for the care of our child
Medical bills - Even though we do have insurance we have a $5000.00 deductable before BCBST will pay any bills. So we are stuck with all of the bills from our visit to the hospital Saturday night.
Prescription Costs - Luckily BCBST did cover part of the cost we still had to pay to get them.
Vehicle Damage - While I am not a mechanic nor body repair person I am sure we are looking at at least $10.000 in damage. Yes we do have full coverage but we still have to pay a deductable.
Extra Employee Pay - Because we did miss 2 days of work, we had to lay out extra money for employees to cover our shifts and this also took them away from their family.
Increased insurance costs in the future - You can believe that even though this accident was not our fauly our insurance rates will surely increase.
We know that our insurance company will attempt to collect from the elderly ladies insurance company that is if she had insurance. But as of this writing we are in the red of about $13,000.00!!!!
While this accident was out of our control and was caused by an elderly lady making a bad judgement we will suffer today and I am sure many more days to come. But I wonder who really caused this accident????
What I mean is this. We are talking about an accident caused by an elderly lady that had no business behind the wheel of a vehicle. Yes I am sure there is plenty of responsible drivers who are elderly that can drive just fine without any problems but this lady had no business driving. She was elderly and was handicapped and required a cane to walk!!!
More then likely because she is elderly she will probably not be charged with any traffic violations as that is just way things are done here. If she has some money it don't matter because she will probably be able to buy her way out.
This accident could have been prevented a couple of diffent ways.
If the state of Tennessee did more rigourous testing of elderly drivers. For instance I believe that once a person becomes age 65 that they should be retested to see if their driving skills are still up to par. I do understand that would place an additional burden on the state but the amount of lives and property that could be saved would be worthwhile. After all you can not put a price on a human life.
In the state of Tennessee a person that has an expired license can go online and get it renewed for as long as 10 years without ever having to take any further tests or see someone in person. This practice should be done away with once a licensed driver reaches a certain age.
The elderly lady Obviously had been under the care of a doctor as she had a cane and handicapped license plates. Perhaps doctors of elderly patients should be held accountable by issuing a certificate to drive or not to drive that should be shared with DMV.
Friends and family of elderly people should be held accountable to make sure that a person who has a license and/or vehicle is healthy enough to handle the skills required to operate a motor vehicle.
Police officers in traffic patrol should be more alert for elderly drivers and the way they operate a vehicle. Its not uncommon to drive down the streets of Blount county and see elderly people having difficuly driving. Don't belive me? Just visit any grocery store parking lot. Expecially Food City on HWY 411 S in Maryville.
I understand that it is very difficult for elderly people to not do the things they have done all of their lives but lets face it. As a person ages the body starts to break down. That breakdown of the body is not just limited to more wrinkles and gray hair but also includes loss of hearing. Difficulty in seeing and probably most important of all is the ability to react and/or make correct judgements.
Has any of these above ideas been in place on Friday the 11th of May then this writing probably would not have taken place.
Whats really sad is that we will be forced to take some kind of civil action to try and recover some of the damages that I outlined above. Its something that we will have no choice but to do because we cannot afford the losses that has been handed to us. But where does the civil action begin? Against the elderly lady? Against her doctor? Or against the state of Tennessee for being so lax with the issuances of licenses without mandatory retesting?
Maybe someone can explain to our 13 year old daughter why this accident was allowed to happen? See if she understands!
Feel free to email us if you have the need.
