Car Accident

After we moved out of our house we had about ten days in a hotel in Yokosuka just off base before we moved down to Sasebo.  In the Hotel New Yokosuka was not my favorite place, but it was short term.   Basically we had three seperate rooms and so we were constantly running back and forth outside between rooms.  It was freezing and the heat and lights turned off when we left the room so it took forever to warm everything back up.  Another small complaint was that we were not in the main building. So we had to walk about one small block to the building with the breakfast buffet.

One morning we were walking to breakfast and Calista bolted straight into the road in front of me.  That same moment a car was driving past and it hit her.  She went flew a few feet into the air and smacked the road.  It was terrifying.  She was trying to catch up to her older siblings and didn't look in the road at all.  She did not see the car.  I saw the whole thing as it happened about 5 feet in front of me, but it was so quick there was nothing anyone could do.  The same second she ran out I saw the car hit her.  Even though she was on the crosswalk there is no way the driver had time to stop.  He said he never saw her.  Looking back I think the only thing he could have done was to pay more attention to people on the sidewalks nearby.  But it wasn't like we were standing on the corner waiting to cross.  I was going to turn right and not walk straight across the road. 

I was right there and did not see it coming at all.  I quickly ran and picked got her and she started crying.  I didn't want to move her too much so I sat on the sidewalk and held her for a while.  Thankfully she didn't loose consciousness or anything so I felt confident that she was going to be ok.  Four Japanese people came up to us and were talking and trying to help.  One was the driver and the others saw the accident.  They called the police and we just waited.  The older kids came back and also stood with us and tried to call Bob on the phone. 

I called the base hospital but they didn't help at all.  They did tell me I could take her there if I wanted.  After the Japanese ambulance came and gave Calista a look over Bob also showed up.  I then got in the car with the kids and drove to the base ER.  The older kids walked to school from there and Penelope, Beatrix, and I took Calista in.

She had mostly stopped crying by then and was scared of getting a shot.  They checked her out and she was just fine.  Her face was banged up but that was the worst of it.  Her body wasn't even bruised, which is crazy to me because I saw the car smack into her and send her flying.  It was a small street and I think the car was going around 15mph.  Not crazy fast, but not slow for the street size.  To me it seemed to be driving at a normal speed.   We stayed for observation and to make sure she didn't have any brain swelling or anything else wrong, and we were on our way.  

She actually had a good time playing in the hospital with me and talking about My Little Pony.

At her follow up two days later they also confirmed things were fine.  I was pretty shaken up for a couple days.  And I definitely make her hold hands now when we are near a road not just when we are crossing one.  It was really really scary, and I'm so thankful she is ok.  

We took a picture of the location a couple days later.  She is standing near the spot.  It was so quick I can't say for sure.  But the witnesses said she was on the crosswalk and I know that I was sitting under the red canopy waiting for the ambulance (it was lightly sprinkling so I remember that).  I'm glad she wasn't thrown into one of those poles.

This was my (or Bob's) first time having to take one of the kids to the ER and I'm not a fan.  Hopefully we won't ever have to do it again.