Karla's Blog

August 28, 2021

August 5th (I know, I’m really behind). It was time to head back to Spokane since the RV should be close to getting finished. We had a motel reservation for one night in Wenatchee again and so we left Blaine and headed southeast, avoiding the busy interstate by traveling mostly on state highways. While driving through the town of Sedro-Wooley, we had a sudden encounter with a Tesla on a roundabout. Larry was driving and never saw the Tesla. I was talking with my sister via text so I didn’t see anything. The impact was devastating. It was like an explosion! This was the first time I had ever experienced airbags being deployed. There is some kind of powder that comes out of the them that filled the car with what I thought was smoke and knew I should not be breathing. I thought the car was on fire and all I could think of was to get out and get the dogs out. But, when I tried to exit the car the pain in my legs was so bad that all I could do was get the door open. I looked back to see if the dogs were ok. They were visibly shaken but not visibly injured. Larry was out of the car already so I knew he was ok. He ran around to check on me thinking I had hurt my back or neck. I realized I was screaming, partly because I couldn’t get out of the car and partly because of the excruciating pain in my legs. I was watching them bleed and swell up right before my eyes but not understanding what caused the injuries. Larry was checking my legs for any breaks or other injuries. As he stayed with me a guy came up and started talking to me, asking me questions to get me focused and calm down. I asked if he was who we collided with and he said no, but he had been there when it happened. I thanked him for helping me to calm down. In just minutes paramedics and police showed up and the guy disappeared without me getting his name. The paramedics said that it was the airbag that caused my injuries. They checked out my neck and spine and helped me out of the car to see if I could walk, which I could, but barely. I declined to go to the hospital. I was thinking that our car was totaled and we would be stranded in this small town with no lodging, no transportation and nobody we knew. God help us.

While being attended to Larry dealt with the police officer, the exchange of information, etc. and they learned that the car was still drivable. Thank you God!!!! What a relief. However, the seatbelts were not usable. Apparently when the airbags are deployed the seatbelts lock up. We could not pull them out enough to buckle them. Crap! We drove to a nearby fast food to get some food and discussed what was next. We finally decided that Larry would drive the  three and a half hours to Wenatchee, we would go with no seatbelts and hope for the best. He tucked the side airbag, that ran the entire length of the car from behind the driver’s seat, back up the best he could (for visibility) and the steering wheel bag back into the wheel as much as possible. Both the upper and lower bags on my side were still hanging out. The hood of the car was pushed over and inch and a half or so. Plenty of damage inside and out.

We made it to Wenatchee and to our hotel. By this time we realized that Rex was limping on his right rear leg. Our room was upstairs and it was difficult for him and I both to navigate the stairs. We asked if we could stay for a few days. They said yes and were able to move us the next morning to a downstairs room.

These pics were taken a couple of days after the accident.

WTH???? How could an airbag do this? After talking to our insurance company Larry was able to cut most of the airbags out so they were out of the way. We found that the bag that did this was made of different, heavier material than the other bags and it also has a lot of rough, heavy stitching both inside and out! 

That’s what injured my legs! Crazy huh?

I’ll spare you the later pics. They’re much less pretty than these. Guess I won’t be doing any leg modeling (wink). While in Wenatchee we spliced heavy strap into the seatbelts so they would be usable until we could get the car in for repairs.

By the way, Rex stopped limping after a couple of days and seems fine. This experience sure hasn’t deterred them from going in the car. Those sweet boys still love a nice car ride!

To be continued . . .