Sunday 26 August 2007

Lucky escape

I haven't thought about blogging since my first post. Had too much on my mind. On the night of Sunday 5th August I received a phone call from my desperate son telling me him and his family had just been involved in a terrible accident on the motorway and could I go and pick them up. He assured me the were all ok and they were near exit 14 of the M5 motorway.
Problem was how to pick them up. Four of them and our cars are not big enough. Couldn't take 2 cars because I had just had a couple of glasses of wine so couldn't drive.
Phoned friend Bob who has a 7 seater car and fortunately hadn't been drinking. He agreed to take us.
Now how to find them. Tried phoning him back to find exact location and no reply from either his or his partner's phone. Called the number he had called me from which turned out to be the phone of a person who had stopped at the scene of the accident and had since travelled on. He told me it had happened at junction 21 not 14. Next I phoned my friend Edwina, Bob's wife, and asked her to check which county this junction was located in and then find me the number of the police for that area. Wise Bob had said he didn't think we would be allowed to just stop and pick them up on the motorway. Fortunately we found out the correct location before we arrived at the point where we would have to turn either north or south on the motorway as junctions 14 and 21 are in different directions.
Next I phoned the police to find out where we could pick them up and they kept me holding on forever. They had the location of the accident but didn't know where they had been taken to or even if they were still at the scene. They advised us to travel to the service station a few miles before the scene and call them back.
Bob settled us down with a cup of tea and I phoned the police again. After another long wait They still had no info. Whilst I was holding for the police I missed a call from my son. On calling him back his phone was answered by a paramedic who told me he was restrained on a body board and they were taking him to Weston Hospital. He also informed me that the motorway was closed while the vehicles were being recovered.
We started on to the hospital and left the motorway early hoping to find another route to the hospital using the sat. nav. Shortly after leaving the motorway the police phoned to tell me where they were being taken and told us we could leave the motorway just before the accident scene as it was closed just passed the exit. So we returned to the motorway to take the easier route.
When we arrived my son was still on the board waiting for a spinal xray. His partner and children appeared ok although she was very badly shaken up. The xray showed no fracture so he was allowed to get up and after the rest of them were seen by the doctor we were allowed to take them home. The police told us where the car had been taken to so we collected some of their luggage on the way home.
We arrived home at 3.30am and eventually got to bed but don't think any of us really slept. They stayed with us for 3 days till they were feeling a little better had had purchased new child car seats so we could take them home safely.
It was a very worrying time but from what they told us of the accident they must have been the luckiest people alive that night. My son has written his blog about it and it is on: http://www.lancerregister.com/showthread.php?s=8c431bbcae72e9d84fc52bf86e832bf3&threadid=164440

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