Just a quick update:

The family are doing as well as can be expected.

What happened was this: they were driving down the freeway, in the middle lane. Ben looked in the rearview mirror at Thomas for a second, then looked back at the road, where he saw what he thought was a semi tire tread. He swerved to miss it, and overcorrected. The car went through the fast lane and the carpool lane into the shoulder, where it slammed into the concrete barrier and flipped onto the roof. They didn't hit anyone else, and no one hit them, which is a miracle. The highway patrol and the fire department came almost immediately, and three cars stopped to help right after the accident. Laura, Abby, and Thomas rode in the ambulance to a service station, where Mom and Dad picked them up while Ben stayed with the car until it was towed, then he got a ride with the Highway Patrol. The paramedics checked them all out and cleared them to go, but Mom and Dad took Laura to the emergency room up here just to be safe. The car flipped on Laura's side of the car, so she got the worst of it-- a few cuts on her face and on her feet (she was wearing flip-flops) from the shattered windshield, some bruising from the seatbelt across her chest and waist, and a nice abrasion from the seatbelt on her neck and chest. Ben has a bit of a stiff neck and some bruising from the seatbelt as well. Abby (who is almost 6 months old) seems to be unaffected, although it looks like the back of her head might have gotten nicked by a piece of glass. Thomas (who will be 3 in November) has three tiny little cuts just under the hairline on his forehead which may or may not have been caused by the accident (he's the kind of kid who falls down 87 times a day, so who knows exactly where he picked them up?). Last night he woke up with nightmares, and keeps coming up to us with a concerned look on his face saying "car broken," but otherwise seems to be the happy kid he normally is.

This morning Ben and Laura went to the towing lot where the car is being held awaiting an insurance adjuster, and they almost didn't recognize it. I'm really thankful that they had a larger car (it's a Toyota Avalon), because I bet if they'd been in a smaller one, things would have been much worse. Anyway, I expect that Ben will get pictures tomorrow, when the insurance guy is supposed to show up. The Avalon was their only car (Ben has a motorcycle that he commutes to work on when it's warm enough), so they're pretty much without transportation till they get word on how much the insurance company will be giving them. For the moment they're borrowing our old van, since we don't know if their insurance will pay for a rental yet, although they won't be able to keep doing that, because it's a clutch and Laura doesn't know how to drive one. I may end up lending them Lizzy, since she's an automatic and is the largest of our cars. They've already ordered new car seats, although of course they're still using the old ones till they show up (seats that have been in a crash are better than no seats at all!).

And we're all just so, so thankful that we're not planning a funeral, or trying to figure out how to care for a paraplegic, or something equally horrific. It's a miracle, plain and simple.

Oh, and the tire tread Ben was trying to avoid? Turned out to be a black coat. We all know for sure now what they've been telling us on the news lately-- If you see something in the road, just hit it. Don't try to avoid it. Even if it had been the tire tread he thought it was, it would have been so much better than this.

But I'm just so glad that I still have my sister, and my brother-in-law, and my niece and nephew. So, so glad.

Just a quick update:

The family are doing as well as can be expected.

What happened was this: they were driving down the freeway, in the middle lane. Ben looked in the rearview mirror at Thomas for a second, then looked back at the road, where he saw what he thought was a semi tire tread. He swerved to miss it, and overcorrected. The car went through the fast lane and the carpool lane into the shoulder, where it slammed into the concrete barrier and flipped onto the roof. They didn't hit anyone else, and no one hit them, which is a miracle. The highway patrol and the fire department came almost immediately, and three cars stopped to help right after the accident. Laura, Abby, and Thomas rode in the ambulance to a service station, where Mom and Dad picked them up while Ben stayed with the car until it was towed, then he got a ride with the Highway Patrol. The paramedics checked them all out and cleared them to go, but Mom and Dad took Laura to the emergency room up here just to be safe. The car flipped on Laura's side of the car, so she got the worst of it-- a few cuts on her face and on her feet (she was wearing flip-flops) from the shattered windshield, some bruising from the seatbelt across her chest and waist, and a nice abrasion from the seatbelt on her neck and chest. Ben has a bit of a stiff neck and some bruising from the seatbelt as well. Abby (who is almost 6 months old) seems to be unaffected, although it looks like the back of her head might have gotten nicked by a piece of glass. Thomas (who will be 3 in November) has three tiny little cuts just under the hairline on his forehead which may or may not have been caused by the accident (he's the kind of kid who falls down 87 times a day, so who knows exactly where he picked them up?). Last night he woke up with nightmares, and keeps coming up to us with a concerned look on his face saying "car broken," but otherwise seems to be the happy kid he normally is.

This morning Ben and Laura went to the towing lot where the car is being held awaiting an insurance adjuster, and they almost didn't recognize it. I'm really thankful that they had a larger car (it's a Toyota Avalon), because I bet if they'd been in a smaller one, things would have been much worse. Anyway, I expect that Ben will get pictures tomorrow, when the insurance guy is supposed to show up. The Avalon was their only car (Ben has a motorcycle that he commutes to work on when it's warm enough), so they're pretty much without transportation till they get word on how much the insurance company will be giving them. For the moment they're borrowing our old van, since we don't know if their insurance will pay for a rental yet, although they won't be able to keep doing that, because it's a clutch and Laura doesn't know how to drive one. I may end up lending them Lizzy, since she's an automatic and is the largest of our cars. They've already ordered new car seats, although of course they're still using the old ones till they show up (seats that have been in a crash are better than no seats at all!).

And we're all just so, so thankful that we're not planning a funeral, or trying to figure out how to care for a paraplegic, or something equally horrific. It's a miracle, plain and simple.

Oh, and the tire tread Ben was trying to avoid? Turned out to be a black coat. We all know for sure now what they've been telling us on the news lately-- If you see something in the road, just hit it. Don't try to avoid it. Even if it had been the tire tread he thought it was, it would have been so much better than this.

But I'm just so glad that I still have my sister, and my brother-in-law, and my niece and nephew. So, so glad.

Just a quick update:

The family are doing as well as can be expected.

What happened was this: they were driving down the freeway, in the middle lane. Ben looked in the rearview mirror at Thomas for a second, then looked back at the road, where he saw what he thought was a semi tire tread. He swerved to miss it, and overcorrected. The car went through the fast lane and the carpool lane into the shoulder, where it slammed into the concrete barrier and flipped onto the roof. They didn't hit anyone else, and no one hit them, which is a miracle. The highway patrol and the fire department came almost immediately, and three cars stopped to help right after the accident. Laura, Abby, and Thomas rode in the ambulance to a service station, where Mom and Dad picked them up while Ben stayed with the car until it was towed, then he got a ride with the Highway Patrol. The paramedics checked them all out and cleared them to go, but Mom and Dad took Laura to the emergency room up here just to be safe. The car flipped on Laura's side of the car, so she got the worst of it-- a few cuts on her face and on her feet (she was wearing flip-flops) from the shattered windshield, some bruising from the seatbelt across her chest and waist, and a nice abrasion from the seatbelt on her neck and chest. Ben has a bit of a stiff neck and some bruising from the seatbelt as well. Abby (who is almost 6 months old) seems to be unaffected, although it looks like the back of her head might have gotten nicked by a piece of glass. Thomas (who will be 3 in November) has three tiny little cuts just under the hairline on his forehead which may or may not have been caused by the accident (he's the kind of kid who falls down 87 times a day, so who knows exactly where he picked them up?). Last night he woke up with nightmares, and keeps coming up to us with a concerned look on his face saying "car broken," but otherwise seems to be the happy kid he normally is.

This morning Ben and Laura went to the towing lot where the car is being held awaiting an insurance adjuster, and they almost didn't recognize it. I'm really thankful that they had a larger car (it's a Toyota Avalon), because I bet if they'd been in a smaller one, things would have been much worse. Anyway, I expect that Ben will get pictures tomorrow, when the insurance guy is supposed to show up. The Avalon was their only car (Ben has a motorcycle that he commutes to work on when it's warm enough), so they're pretty much without transportation till they get word on how much the insurance company will be giving them. For the moment they're borrowing our old van, since we don't know if their insurance will pay for a rental yet, although they won't be able to keep doing that, because it's a clutch and Laura doesn't know how to drive one. I may end up lending them Lizzy, since she's an automatic and is the largest of our cars. They've already ordered new car seats, although of course they're still using the old ones till they show up (seats that have been in a crash are better than no seats at all!).

And we're all just so, so thankful that we're not planning a funeral, or trying to figure out how to care for a paraplegic, or something equally horrific. It's a miracle, plain and simple.

Oh, and the tire tread Ben was trying to avoid? Turned out to be a black coat. We all know for sure now what they've been telling us on the news lately-- If you see something in the road, just hit it. Don't try to avoid it. Even if it had been the tire tread he thought it was, it would have been so much better than this.

But I'm just so glad that I still have my sister, and my brother-in-law, and my niece and nephew. So, so glad.