“Perceptions,” by Gerry Warner

Op-Ed Commentary

Call this a column from the dead. I’m not kidding. What happened to my wife and I last week could easily happen to you because most of you reading this have been in the same situation. Not once or twice, but many times and many of you in the exact same spot. It’s unavoidable.

We left town around 12:30 p.m. Dec. 30, headed to Spokane for New Year’s festivities the next day. The roads were mainly slushy with lots of bare pavement and the only real problem was the slush bath you got when you met a vehicle going the other way or got too close to the vehicle ahead of you. Consequently, I slowed down to avoid the slush showers and had my wipers and windshield washer fluid going full time as we proceeded south in our old but reliable SUV with two heavy bags of sand in the trunk sitting right over the wheels for traction and snow tires all round.

We passed through Moyie as the sun started to come out and caused a bright glare on the mostly bare Highway 3/95. So, I slowed down as an extra precaution against the annoying reflection. Maybe it’s because of precautions like this I’d never been in a serious accident in driving 57 years other than once when a driver blew a stop sign and T-boned me. I had my share of fender benders, but nothing serious. Never rolled a vehicle either or been in one that had rolled. And the conditions that day were wet but mostly bare and we were really looking forward to a movie in Spokane and maybe a drink or two as we walked back to our downtown hotel.

We were only a couple minutes south of Moyie when I had the worst experience of my life.

I was doing about 85 clicks driving with both hands on the wheel on a flat, perfectly straight road with no hills or curves. There was a rock bluff on my left and train tracks on my right. A train was moving slowly south on the tracks towards the Eagle’s Nest Resort. Then it happened – I felt airborne – and lost complete control of the vehicle.

The ABS (Anti Brake System) didn’t engage or make a sound and I was sliding down the road at a right angle in a 360-degree spin. It seemed like a slow spin, but it was probably the Hollywood slow motion effect hitting me while my whole life flashed before my eyes. I think another vehicle went by missing us by inches as I slid towards the shoulder while frantically trying to regain control over the steering.

I didn’t.

The SUV hit the shoulder, kept sliding another 10 or 20 feet and then it was over the bank.

Thud. And I mean THUD! And there we were; the SUV on its roof, wheels still spinning in the air but at a stop about 20 feet from the train tracks while we dangled at a severe angle from our belts. But we were alive! Thank God for that. And I’m serious about thanking the God I believe in. You can thank your own God.

At least that’s how I remember it. The vehicle came to a rest at an angle on its roof and we were both staring upside down at the snow and brush through partially-smashed windows while the train slowly shunted past. I yelled to my wife Sandra and thank God again I got a muffled response and at that point I realized we were both alive and miraculously there was no blood or broken bones. But there were hairline fractures and trauma that needed hospital treatment and now we had to get the hell out of our crumpled vehicle while still hanging from our locked belts.

This could go on for quite a while, but I want to save the rest for a later time because you probably want to know how we were rescued. I knew my wife was O.K., but she didn’t sound good and was deeply traumatized. Then looking up through my cracked window I could see a woman – for all intents and purposes an angel – standing on the edge of the bank yelling down at us.

I could hardly hear but I could make out she had called an ambulance and was waiting for it to come. And there she stood while the cars whizzed by and she didn’t move for close to half-an-hour. Then I heard an ambulance siren and as fast as it came it went right by us. What the hell was going on I screamed to myself?

But soon two ambulances arrived and we were rescued very professionally and skillfully and I can’t give enough positive praise to the medics about that. We also fell into the equally skilled and professional hands of East Kootenay Regional Hospital and Freightliner Towing about which I’ll say more later.

But at this point, I want to again thank the Good Samaritan Lady who stood there all that time until the ambulances arrived.

And I don’t even know her name.

If you ever read this piece Good Lady, thanks for your care and compassion. I’m also thankful for the quality of people and services we have in this blessed area. Without such people, winter driving in this area would be even more dangerous than it already is. And that’s too much.

More next week on how this near tragic accident happened and what you can do to prevent this from happening to you.

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