Driving Experiences.... When your name is Emily T.

I had the scariest car experience this afternoon, I was going to Target to pick up a few last minute trip things during my lunch break. I started up the car and drove to the bank first to make my mortgage payment before heading to the store and the car was stuttering a bit, but I thought oh maybe its settling a bit.

I go into the bank get the bill paid, hurry to the car, started the car up and am heading towards the freeway. I get to the red stoplight (This is the last one before the ramp entrance and the road curves and you are under the freeway) and while I am waiting the car stuttered really bad and then died!

Frantically, I am trying to get the car to start, I call Jeff to find out where the emergency lights are on his car and he tells me by the radio and then the light turns green, I start the engine again and press on the gas tank harder and the car lurches forward.

I am thinking great, I just need to keep it going. I turn the car onto the expressway and then the car starts shaking violently and I start panicking and telling Jeff who is still on the phone, that the car is going to die and I don’t know why, he says call the police before we get disconnected.

I am trying to maneuver to the left side of the ramp and right as I get it there it completely dies. My mind is reeling a mile a minute, I feel like a sitting duck in this car, there are cars coming so fast from one turning lane and then there is another turning lane that might not see me in time because of how it curves.

So my thought process was, someone is going to hit me and I am going to end up dead a week before my wedding or have some kind of injury to my face or body. Can you just imagine the terrifying feeling of those thoughts, maybe a little dramatic, but I have had bad experiences with cars!

At this point, I am talking to the police dispatcher and physically shaking, everything I say is echoing on the phone as I am talking to her. I felt so dumb, because I could not think of the name of the road I had just been on or the freeway I was getting onto. There are three names people use for this freeway so it was hard to know if the one she was telling me was the freeway I was using.

We eventually figure it out and she sends a police officer to help me. So I hang up with her, call Jeff and I let him know I am okay and he said he is on his way to help me. I quickly jump out of the car, figuring I would be safer on this pavement area then sitting in the car.

The police officer comes and is the sweetest man, he tells me to try to get the car started, we try for 5 minutes, it is fighting to start, but quickly shudders and dies. The officer said he thinks it is water in the gas tank or the gas filter is clogged and we need a new one. We had a lot of rain Monday throughout the night and water had gotten into the gas tank.

Jeff comes at this point and we move the car to the safer part of the road on the other side of the ramp. Then we go back to the white Ford, and Jeff tells me to go back to work and he will call and wait for Triple A to come and take the car to a mechanic. What a sweetheart!

This is the second car issue we have had this week, we got a flat tire (same car) on Sunday and now this today. But thankfully the Lord has so much mercy and nothing happened to me except my nerves being shaken badly!

What I have learned from this experience is to remember what road I am driving on and what freeway I am heading on and to have Jeff drive 90 percent of the time (10 percent is going to be me going to work) so my unlucky car experiences can be kept to a minimum. I learned Jeff has a calming influence on me too, because when he got there he gave me a hug and I felt a lot better inside.

Here’s a run through if you don’t believe me about my car experiences….
I have been a passenger in 3 car accidents, experienced 3 minor car accidents caused by other drivers hitting me, I caused one fender bender and also backed my parents van into a pole at Pizza hut. And then the really serious car accident happened, Christmas 2004, where I was rushed to the hospital in an ambulance, and somehow walked away two hours later with only two black eyes, a swollen face (my eyes were closed shut, it was so swollen) and lots of bruising and a big hospital bill.

I was lucky in this one, because I could have died on impact if certain small things had been different (as a side note…the accident was not my fault, someone cut in front of me so close in the fast lane, that I swerved to miss him, overcorrected to where I lost control, (at this point, I just closed my eyes, I did not want to see how my life was going to end, I learned later, reading the police report the details of what happened, I only remember hitting the barrier once) spun and hit a cement barrier twice and had been going 75 miles an hour (before the car swerved in front) the second time hitting the cement barrier it came to a stop.

I remember being happy to be alive, when I looked in the mirror I was covered in my blood, and that freaked me out. The cement barrier kept me from falling down below this grass area, I am guessing it would have been a 10 foot fall).

When I reflect on all these experiences, I see that my Heavenly Father has been merciful in sparing my life many times and protected me from serious injuries.

What car accidents have you been in or caused? Any thing crazy happened a week before your wedding?