Waylan relives the night.
Tuesday, November 20, 2001
my last post.. how ironic. true, but ironic. guess you can’t have good without the bad?
Dave is the first to recount. I shall be the second, but I’ll add some supplemental info. and maybe some details that won’t be appropriate for children and those with weak stomachs to hear.
I think it was more 1:30am when we swerved twice (right then left), overcorrected to the left, then hydroplaned (?) (rolled) for what seemed about a million times, but probably actually 4.5, landing upside down about 50 feet from where we started the automobile gymnastics. I awoke from slumber when we were perpendicular to Highway 5, when Dave screamed James’ name.
The sounds, sights were/are unmistakable, unforgettable: the crunch of metal and glass as the auto transformed into a death trap, rolling along the road like craps dice shot at 107 mph; the “ughs” and “aghs” as five bodies were shaken like beans in a rattle, held in only by 2.5 inch wide straps of polyester; immediately after the first roll I could feel the blood begin to gush out. by the time we stopped, the entire roof of the car was covered with our lifeforce.
The first thing I screamed out was “Is everyone OK?? IS EVERYONE OK!!!” then “lets get out, lets get out!! everyone out!! unbuckle and get out!!” I don’t fucking know, I was probably a bit hysterical at that point. Don’t blame me, it gave me flashbacks to the first crash/hydroplaning car accident I had been in. I managed to pop out of the window with relative ease after getting the belt off.
and THANK GOD for those seatbelts. My 120 pound body would’ve been a smear on the ground 100 feet from the car had I not been wearing that shit. BELIEVE THAT.
Dave was out, and John was out right behind me. and then came the great law enforcement of Fresno. those fucking pigs. James popped himself out first, with no help of those great law enforcement. Dan finaly freed himself after 20 minutes, ALSO without the help of that Dennis Franz knockoff and certainly not by that other Putty from Seinfeld rehash, despite his moaning and pleading for help. bastards.
John was taken away first. He seemed to have/has minor cuts to the head, but maybe a bad neck/spine injury. James was airlifted immediately. His hand was that color of red that makes you cringe when seeing it fictionally reproduced in a movie. That kind in the Vietnam scenes of Forrest Gump. where his knuckles were (and i don’t know if i mean were as in used to be), I saw craters. Dave, Dan, and I were ambulanced to Los Banos Memorial. Dave had relatively superficial injuries, nothing stitches couldn’t fix. Dan and I had similar injuries because we were wearing shoulder belts in the back driver and passenger seats, except he was worse. He had a fractured clavica, while mine was merely bruised. However we both had bruised lungs from the reactive force of the belts, so they admitted and kept us for 24 hrs. And I have a fractured nasal bone. slight though. Nothing really superficial on me except the fat lip and big nose. Everyone was in a different Emergency room, so we didn’t know how everyone was doing. just that everyone was in pain. I think we were most relieved when we found out James was ok.
The rest is hospital shit.
Lucky? for fucking sure. I can’t even verbalize how grateful I am to be able to type this shit into a keyboard. People thought that the Accord held up pretty damn well going at that speed and doing what it did. thank god it did.
One more thing.
The exact details of the event get overwritten by how insanely and disgustingly apathetic those Fresno Police assholes were. tell ME to sit down and shut up and watch as YOU fucking do absolutely NOTHING to help my two friends, TRAPPED in that car, moaning for YOU to help them goddamit. just so you wouldn’t have to dirty their neatly pressed uniforms and your flashlight-fit hands. tell ME to sit motionless as you WALK as nonchalantly as fucking possible to the car and shine a light at my bloodied friends, then proceed to socialize as they free themselves with their last bits of strength. “Oh, you’re out” surely describes the sincerity of your actions, you willingness to save a life. A life that manages to crawl out of the wreckage without any of your pathetic and worthless aid.
a big FUCK YOU to the Fresno Police and likewise ALL Law Enforcement from Fresno County. Paramedics weren’t that much better either. Screw you all for not recognizing a human life when it is near death IN YOUR HANDS. I said a lot of sincere thank you’s that night, but law enforcement deserve absolutely none of it. oh wait you managed to call the Emergency squad, seems that will be the only thing you’ll be good at, operating a two-way and letting others do shit that technically is out of your job description.
Seriously, thank you to that one man who stopped when he saw our car tumble. It was the fact that he was helping to stop our bleeding and calming us down and talking to us that really consoled us, acts unfathomable to those officers. We were cold bloody bodies, and he helped us out.
I’m alive and thats the gist of it. something, someone gave me another chance at life. too many things to think about. I love everyone out there. you might not know it or even think or expect it, but I’m grateful for every last one of you that has given or now gives your thoughts, hearts, words to me, to us.
9:53 PM
