Mike Munhall

I was in a wreck last night. Nobody was hurt. Here’s what happened: It snowed all day and the temperature had been just right to turn all the heavy, wet snow to a solid sheet of ice after the sun went down. I was coming from home school and driving up Wildcat Reserve around 7:45. I was traveling about 50 yards behind a white Bronco-like vehicle. The Bronco was simply going too fast and just lost control while going up a hill. He (or she) spun 180 degrees and into oncoming traffic in the opposite lanes. A guy traveling in the opposite direction in an Avalon had to swerve to avoid hitting the Bronco and, of course, couldn’t control his car on the sheet of ice. He spun out of control and into my lanes. I swerved to the right and braked to avoid a head-on collision. I avoided the head-on wreck, but the back of the Avalon nailed Hans on the driver’s side door.

My Jeep bounced off the Avalon and I was thrown slightly toward the passenger side. After I got my senses back together, I tried to pull off to the side of the road, but realized that I was already halfway on the grass embankment on the shoulder. Meanwhile, the Avalon that hit me was sliding down the hill that I was just traveling up. It eventually came to a rest. I was near the top of the hill, the Bronco was on the opposite side of the street on the other side of the crest of the hill, and the Avalon was on the bottom of the hill about 100 yards away.

The driver of the Avalon got out of his car and started walking up the icy street. We met about halfway, made introductions and verified that we weren’t hurt. The driver’s name was Dave, and he turned out to be one of the nicest guy’s I’ve ever met. Too bad we had to meet in an auto accident. Dave and I waited for the driver of the Bronco to get out of his car and walk over to us. However, he just turned around and continued driving to wherever he was going.

We called the police, who said that because they were on accident alert they don’t respond to accidents unless someone was hurt. Because the driver that caused this accident took off, however, the police considered the incident a hit-and-run so they came to investigate and try to track down the criminal prick that bolted after the wreck.

Anyway, I sit here now, after about an hour and a half of phone calls with insurance adjusters and rental car agencies. Hans was towed to the house last night and is awaiting a visit with adjuster tomorrow morning. He has two flat tires, some wheel damage, a bashed in door, some dents and scratches along the entire driver’s side, a shredded steel step side, and possibly some damage to the frame from where the side step was attached and then torn off.

I’m not upset at all. This is just simply a pain in the ass to have to deal with. The wreck wasn’t terribly bad. I wasn’t shaken from the impact since I could see it all about to happen in slow motion. Not the kind of “Nnnnnoooooooooooo!” slow motion where everything slows down to a surreal speed like in the movies, but a 25 mph slow where you can literally see it coming from far away and just can’t do anything about it and you say, “Well, here it comes. Position yourself. Hang on. I wonder what’s for dinner? Dorrie’s going to panic when I tell her I was in a wreck. These roads are really slick.”

And then, BANG! ARGH! SCREEEEEEEETCH! Hissss…..

Here are more photos: Flickr Photo Set

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