Monday rolled out like any other day and went places we really didn’t expect.
Those that know us will be aware that my fabulous husband and I travel about 40mins everyday for work. We usually do this together. We roll out of bed at 5am. I jump in the shower while he makes the coffee and clears dishwasher. I get dressed and do makeup and hair while he has his breakfast. I do minor chores like laundry while he loads the car and catches up on the news. After 5 years of doing this we are a well oiled machine and usually on the road by 5.45ish each day. I stabilise the coffee cups while he navigates the road.
This past monday was a little different in that we had separate vehicles as we came home vastly different times on Friday. This is rather unusual for us and would probably occur less than 2% of the time. Normally we are together.
Thank heavens we weren’t.
Gorgeous husband left about 10 minutes before me as he had hoards to do at work and not having to wait for me meant an earlier start.
About 10 minutes into my journey my phone rang, highly unusual as it was bang on 6am, and I figured that my darling just had something to tell me that he had forgotten.
Conversation went something like this.
‘Toni speaking. How can I help?’ (You never know when a customer will be on the other line)
‘You can help me lots yea um yea’ (Standard opening to all our phone conversations but with a weird trail off at the end)
‘What’s up honey?’ (concerned voice due to weird trail off)
‘Where abouts are you?’ (now I’m starting to get concerned as that’s an odd question)
‘Tikatimu. What’s the matter?’ (concerned voice cos he sounds odd)
‘Um I’ve had an accident.’ (he’s talking so can’t be super bad right)
‘Oh baby are you ok?’ (concerned levels are very high at this point)
‘Yea I am but the utes f#$k@d. I slid on some ice and I’m down a ditch. I’ve rung 111 and I’m just waiting on the police to arrive.’ (at this point I calm down because he’s talking, he’s making sense and he’s just waiting for the police so that tells me he’s not bleeding, all his limbs are intact and he’s probably perfectly fine. I’m also thinking along the lines of a minor fender bender type thing)
‘Ok I’m about 10 minutes behind you so I will be there very soon. I’ll see you when I get there.’
‘Yea you might not be able to see me as it’s a deep ditch so I don’t think you can see me from the road.’
‘You’ve rung the cops so I will just look for them’ (said with a smile 🙂 ) ‘Chances are very high that they will beat me to you’
‘Yea hopefully. I’m just going to look for my wallet and go stand on the verge and wait for them’
‘Cool. I’m nearly there so will see you soon. Love you’ And I hung up.
30 seconds later I gave way to a lone cop car and thought ‘that’s them’ and nothing more. I’m still thinking fender bender type thing.
Man was I wrong on that one.
When I go there traffic was backed up about 500m so I went inside lane with my hazards. Some dick tried to cut me off thinking I was undertaking everyone but I got there pretty quick.
There were 4 police cars, 1 fire engine and an ambulance . . . and no sign of my husband or his vehicle. They were also on the opposite side of the road from what they should have been.
As I got out of the car a cop came over and I explained that it was my husband off the road. He looked at me and told me he was fine and stopped the traffic so I could cross all 3 lanes. Man it was icy. We both slid across.
When I got to the other side I nearly shat. Ditch my great-aunt Fanny. He was standing on the back guard of the ute as it was nose first down a bank and they were helping him up . . . via rope . . . because he was 20 metres straight down!
The only reason I could see him was because he had the lights on so the emergency guys could find him. The ute was covered in gorse so you really could barely see him!
A few hours later once the sun came up friends got some photo’s. If you look real close you can kinda make out the utes rear end.
The tow truck guys got this one. Its video so I screen shot it.
The only thing stopping further dropping is the tree and it was another 4m to the bottom. Really lucky for that tree because he was about to start rolling.
He came out of this with just a bump on his head, some minor body aches and a bit of bruising from the seat belt. Incredibly lucky. Even the cops were surprised that he walked away from this.
The couldn’t retrieve it until 3am because the road needed to be closed and its a state highway.
This brings me to the blessings part. For something that went so horribly wrong and amazing number of things went incredibly right.
- He was passing a truck when he hit the ice and spun across the road before tanking in down the hill. There was no traffic coming towards him and so he hit no other vehicles
- He manage to miss a large tree at the top of the bank and instead went through the fence and down. That tree would have hurt if he had got it because he was still doing 100kph at that time
- He slid down left side first so all damage was to the passenger side allowing him to be remarkable unscathed.
- I wasn’t there. All the damage was to the passenger side including a large branch through the window. I would not have walked away from this. I would have been hit with the fire extinguisher when it came loose along with the shovel he was returning and the tree branch that came through the window. They were all on my seat when he came to rest.
- The tree that stopped the ute from going over and ending upside down in a creek. If that had happened then he would have been in real trouble.
- People saw him go over the bank. If they hadn’t no one would have found him and it turned out that he could not have climbed out on his own. The ute was suspended well above ground still so he had to stand on the door and hoist himself up on to the back window then hoist himself again on to the rear fender and they sent him down a rope to climb up with.
And these are just the ones that I can think of right now. He was so so so so very lucky.
Makes you wonder if there are such things as angels and if they were looking after my darling that day 🙂
Oh, if anyone finds a banana on the road along SH29 please let us know. Apparently it flew out of his lunch box so is probably in a tree.
Ka Kete Ano xxx
A Handmade Life 