davintosh

Here are some photos of a Honda wagon we once owned. It was a very nice little car for us, at least before we had a nasty run-in with a cow. It happened late one evening in September, 1989, whilst driving back from the inlaws’ house in Sioux Center, IA…

We were driving down the highway, about a quarter-mile behind another car. About ten miles from Sioux Falls the car ahead suddenly pulled over to the shoulder and backed up. It was dark out, so I didn’t know what they were doing… I figured they were changing drivers or something, so I steered to the center of the road to give them some extra room, straddling the center line, cooking along at around 60mph. What I didn’t realize was that the other car had hit a 900lb heifer that had wandered onto the road just then.

After hitting the cow, the driver of the other car pulled over and backed up to where the cow lay dying. Of course it lay dying right in the middle of the stinkin’ road. And of course it was a black cow. And it was about 9:30pm, so it was nice & dark so I didn’t see the cow… all I recall is seeing something large and black for just a split second in the headlight beams.

And of course, we hit the blasted thing dead-on, with an early ’80’s Honda Civic Wagon. As you can see from the photos of the car, the results weren’t pretty.

As near as I could determine, the bumper hit the cow’s belly, and enough of the cow was under the bumper that it just rolled under the car, which had the effect of launching the car — with 18 month old Emily, a very-pregnant Yvonne, and me — into the air. We landed upside down on the right-front corner of the car, then flipped & rolled a number of times… I’m sure the folks in the other car got quite a show!

I remember pushing up (down?) against the roof of the car to keep my head from banging against it as we rolled, and with the windshield blown out my hand hit pavement at least once (I’ve still got some scars on my left pinky from that!) As for the car, there wasn’t a piece of sheet metal that wasn’t scratched or dented.

The car came to a rest facing the opposite direction on the other side of the road. I couldn’t open the door, so I climbed out the side window — they were also blown out. The woman from the other car came & got Emily out, then I pulled Yvonne out through her window. (The next day when I went to retrieve some things from the car I discovered that the doors were only locked — they opened just fine!)

As for us, we were in much better shape than the car. The accident happened about 500 yards from the home of Dr. Bess, an internist MD from Sioux Falls. The folks from the other car drove Yvonne & Emily to his house. The Worthing, SD, Fire & Rescue guys arrived on the scene, and after seeing the car, apparently assumed we were in bad shape, so they called in the Sioux Valley helicopter to carry us to the hospital. An ambulance was also dispatched & arrived about the same time as the helicopter. Dr. Bess determined that none of us was hurt very badly — Yvonne was about 7 months along with Bryce, and started having contractions right away, so that was a concern; Emily had a slight concussion; I think I may have had a concussion as well, as I was definitely not thinking straight for a while after (some may say still!) — so he figured we could go by ambulance.

The ambulance ride was a bit hair-raising as well (but not quite to the level of the crash!) The ambulance crew was so focused on Yvonne & Emily that they forgot to strap me to the stretcher I was on. I had to hang on for fear of falling off!

Yvonne ended up spending the night at the hospital for observation; the contractions eventually stopped, so they turned her loose the next day (Bryce was born almost on schedule the following November, and suffered no ill efects.) Emily & I went home that night… I didn’t get much sleep because the E.R. doc told me I needed to keep a close eye on her to see if any symptoms of a concussion came up. She slept fine, but wasn’t herself the next day so she went to the doctor for some tests, which confirmed the concussion. There wasn’t much they could do for her, and she was back to normal in the next couple of days. Guess what my Dad used to say about Thornton heads was true; good thing she hit her head, otherwise she would’ve been hurt! About the only thing that bothered Yvonne & me was the spot in the middle of our chests where the shoulder belts hit us on that first impact. The belts did their job — we stayed in the car — but man oh man did the breastbone hurt! Couldn’t take a deep breath for a couple weeks.

The scary thing is that we were tempted just before the accident to pull Emily out of her car seat; she was tired & had been crying, but we decided that we’d be home shortly and she could tough it out. If Yvonne had been holding Emily in her lap when we hit that cow…. I am so thankful that we always used the car seat. That incident made us a bit fanatical about using them for the other three kids!

The car was towed to Lennox after the accident, so the next day I borrowed my brother Greg’s truck & drove down there to retrieve some things. I about kicked myself when I realized my camera bag was in the back of the car, and I hadn’t thought of snapping some pictures at the scene of the accident! At least I did get some of the car as it sat in the wrecking yard.

At that time Yvonne & I were working at Sioux Falls College as head residents in one of the dorms. A week or so later the college was having a safety awareness week, so before the car was hauled off for salvage we had it towed to the college & put on display. Everyone was amazed that the car could be so banged up & we just walked away from the accident. (Strangely, some dirtbag decided that the cheapo stereo in the car needed to be removed while it was on display. Amazing.)

The lesson learned from that ride is to depend on seatbelts & guardian angels. Without them… well, let’s just say Honda’s are expendable; family members are not.