After the trial in Pearblossom we were heading home on a stretch of road that is a pretty dangerous stretch. Lately I travel that a lot because it is the way I have to go to get to my agility class in Acton, and how I get to a lot of the fun runs, and things we do like that.
So on the road I see this huge motor home, one of those that is basically the size of a bus, and he is hauling a big, huge trailer like the ones that haul ATV's. Several times this yahoo tried to pass me and another car and a big gas tanker over a double yellow line. I thought to myself, this guy is going to kill someone.
A couple of miles down we got to town and a big intersection, the light turned yellow a way before I reached the intersection, so I stopped right as the light turned red. I felt a HUGE crash, and you guessed it-I think this yahoo had seen the yellow light and floored it to sail through the intersection, and he slammed right into my rear end.
Luckily he tried to go around and he hit about half of my back end and they scooted along the side of my car. It took him all through the intersection and then almost half a block to stop with all the weight he had and how fast he had been going.
I got over to the side of the road and this guy was yelling and swearing about how he could not believe that I stopped-I kept telling him, you mean that I stopped at a RED LIGHT, before a busy intersection???
As soon as I got out of the car I realized I had Liz and Breeze in crates in the back of the car right where the impact had been. Breezes side had been hit from behind and on the side of her. The whole back was smashed and there was no way to get in the car and I could not even see the dogs but I could see their crates were just full of glass. Finally a lady started helping me rip things out of the car and we yanked and pulled the crates until we could get the dogs out. I felt so bad for them, while we were pulling they were sliding and the glass just kept raining down on them.
Thank heavens they were in crates, the windows were all gone and they were freaked, there was heavy traffic, and if they had panicked and ran into the street-it would not have been a good ending. As I was digging to get to them all I could imagine was finding them all cut up or smashed and dead-you know where your mind goes in such instances.
Thank heavens for good friends, my friend Collette dropped everything and ran to my aid so she could take the dogs home for me, I did not know how I was going to get them home. Alicia went to get my stuff from the trial because I had left my whole set up and knew I would not have transportation to the trial the next day. I had double staked my easy up because it was windy, and poor Alicia had to deal with that whole mess.
It could have been so much worse, luckily I did not get hit or hit anyone when I got pushed into the intersection and the dogs were ok, I had crates to contain them because it took a long time until the police were done with us and if the guy had hit us more squarely with how big that thing was and how fast he was going, it probably would have been a different story. Even the fact I left the easy up, that does not fit that well in the car and is always sort of hitting my head or shoulders, gosh if that had gotten pushed up into my head, that would not have been good.
ONE LESSON LEARNED: I am getting crates for the car that open on both ends. Mind open on one side, the back by the tail gate and then on the side, but if I could have opened the back, I could have got the seats down and then got to the dogs a lot easier.
So the picture is just a small part of the damage, it is the back corner of the car where Breeze was-check out how it could twist and pull apart that metal, YIKES, imagine the forces that can do that!
I missed the second day of the trial because I couldn't get there and I really wanted to run Breeze after the great run we had had, but.... luckily there will be a next time.