where did that come from?!?!

So I went delivering with Josh yesterday. We usually find that fun. We get to spend the day together and work together and drive around the DFW metroplex in a box truck full of bottled water. Well, we were about halfway done with our route when we come up to a stop sign. Josh makes a complete stop and then we see a white car coming from our right make a complete stop after us. At least we're pretty sure she did. We figured "hey, they must have a stop sign, which would make it our turn to go." After all, we were on a somewhat main road. When I say that, it means that on the Mapsco page it was on, the name of the street was in bigger capital letters than the other ones around it. Not bolded, but bigger. So since it was our turn, Josh proceeds out into the intersection to continue going straight on that street we were currently on. I look over to tell Josh something and I see this late 80s, early 90s Ford truck within feet of the driver's side door, heading straight at us, coming with lots of speed.

BAM!! All of a sudden, the box truck that we're in is turned almost a complete 90 degrees from where we just were. We were in a major car accident. The Ford must have hit us at a pretty high speed (my guess is higher than the limit on that road) in order to turn this big delivery truck 90 degrees. The damage? The Ford didn't seem to have much damage. It was crunched up nicely, but it didn't look like anything under the hood got broken. Guess they really do build them "Ford Tough." The delivery truck? Well, the radiator got busted, and the driver door could not be opened. Basically, the driver's half of the cab took it pretty hard. The side window shattered, the gear selector, which was between Josh and myself, was angled and bent and could be put into park. As for the white car that seemed to have made a complete stop; well, let's say it was a miracle that the girl driving got out of her car easily and without a scratch on her. Apparently when the Ford turned us, the hood of her car got trapped under the box part of the truck. Her windshield was pretty shattered and kind of flattened in a little bit. Again, a miracle she walked away unscathed, however, very understandably shaken up.

The fireman/EMT guys happened to be just down the road and got to us within about 3 minutes of the accident happening. By the time Josh and I got out of the truck through the passenger side and to the side of the road, they were already there. The police got there just a few minutes later. All of them were very nice. They checked all of us out and there were no serious injuries.

Even though we were in the biggest vehicle, Josh and I were the only ones with apparent physical injuries. He has a small bump on his head and a scratch across his left shoulder (where he hit the door on impact), his left leg is sore and he has a bruise on the inside of his right knee. I, on the other hand, got it worst of all. The gear selector decided to have a field day on my left leg. I have a bruise that extends from the middle of the top of my thigh, down the outside, to the middle of the back of my thigh. It is about the size of a sweet potato, as far as the width of it. Since the only seatbelt I had was a lap belt, my lap is pretty bruised up. Plus I have a bump on the side of my nose. And I ache all over.

Everything happened so fast. I saw the truck coming after it was too late, then I feel pain in my leg and my nose and all of a sudden, we're face a totally different direction. I thought my nose was broken once we came to a stop. I new what had hit my leg, but I still have no idea what bopped my nose. My best guess is the clipboard I was holding in my lap. Luckily my nose isn't broken, but it hurts like heck. I feel pretty beat up.

Last night Josh and I kept thinking of how this could have been avoided. Had we doubled checked where we were going, had we left sooner, all sorts of things. But we are still baffled about a couple of things. Number 1, where did that Ford truck come from? Josh is a safe driver. He looks both ways before going. He comes to complete stops, and I mean truly complete stops, whenever he's delivering. Number 2, if that truck was there and Josh just wasn't looking hard enough, why didn't the truck see us? We totally admit we were at fault, but just keep wondering, how did this happen?
Number 3, how could a truck (granted it was an F-250) move and turn our big box truck almost a complete 90 degrees when we had just started to accelerate from a complete stop? He must have been moving pretty fast to do that. Number 4, how in the world did that girl in the white car walk away without a scratch on her? When I got to the side of the road and saw that car, I was amazed to see the driver walking around.

As I look back on yesterday, I can't do much else but thank God. So many things could have happened. There could have been pedestrians around, the damage could have been a lot worse, that girl in the white car could have been severely injured. God had His hand on us yesterday. Even though we're beat up and bruised, we're okay. And everyone else involved is okay. I'm sure they're sore today, too. Now comes the fun part. Dealing with company insurance, our medical stuff, all the wonderful things that come as a result of being in an auto accident. But we're trusting God to take care of us. He's gonna have to. And we know He will. We witnessed that yesterday. Praise the Lord.