Blogs - Challenger Blog
Valentine’s day wreck
As I pulled to the front of the left turning lane, everything got quieter. I looked at my dashboard and all my lights suddenly turned on. When the light turned green I released my brake.
Nothing happened.
This had only happened once or twice before. I stayed calm and attempted to restart the car. The engine started, the radio played and the heat came on, but the car would not budge. That’s when the cars behind me started to honk and yell at me and there was nothing I could do.
I looked over at my girlfriend and we both knew we were going to be stuck there for a while.
She called her mom to try and figure out what to do. When she was done I reluctantly called my own. She wasn’t mad at me, but was frustrated by the situation and comforted me, saying she was calling a tow truck and she’d pick us up so we could finish our date as soon as she could.
After about 20 minutes a cop knocked on my window and wanted to know what was going on. When I told him I couldn’t get the car to move, he called in a high priority tow truck so we just sat there and waited.
The car’s heater, radio and hazard lights soon went out as well.
We were now trapped in a car in the middle of winter without any heat, entertainment or any way to let anyone know there was danger. To add insult to injury, my hood was frozen shut. I couldn’t even pop it to let other drivers know not to enter the lane.
Eventually another cop arrived and instructed me to put the car in neutral so he could push me out of the lane with his car. It was only after he was gone that I found I couldn’t shift the car’s gears.
I became frantic. If he pushed us and we couldn’t move at all on our own, my girlfriend and I could have easily been tossed into oncoming traffic and killed.
The moment his covered bumper hit mine was easily one of the scariest moments of my life. Both of us screamed in fear and hoped that he would hear us. When all else failed, I ripped open my door and screamed at him to stop.
When the officer demanded to know what was going on, I said the gears would not shift and invited him to try himself. When he came up empty handed he walked back to his car frustrated.
After an entire lifetime adding up to one hour, my mom and the tow finally arrived. My girl and I were both freezing, terrified messes. I remember we both embraced close, both about to cry in terror and joy.
We finally made it to the mall, exchanged our presents, ate dinner and saw our movie, not forgetting how lucky we were we’d made it. It made the date all the sweeter to finally enjoy.