[Originally published on PiotrBein.net on October 9, 2022. Minor corrections, original on web archive. ]
Table of content
The accident scene
Airborne before soft landing
Slow motion movie
Decent Canadians
Guardian Angels on duty
Hotel rooms and car rentals sold out
Slaughter house
Piotr Bein, 12.10.2022
Reconstruction from memory and inspection of the crash site immediately after the accident, supplemented with witness account obtained by phone on September 18th, and a short account of the aftermath.
The accident scene
The collision happened on September 12, 2022, ca. 5:30 p.m. on divided highway 20 km north of Kamloops [British Columbia, Canada].
Site layout: https://www.google.com/maps/dir///@50.7966649,-120.3111157,139m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m2!4m1!3e0
The collision took place roughly where google places the Petro-Canada icon on the road. To cross the Yellowhead Highway, the other driver rolled across my pathway from my left. I was in the right-hand lane at the time of the collision. On the post-collision trajectory were the safety profiled curb of the south-west triangle island, as well as the meadow where my car “landed”.
I have missed the lamp post by 1 or 2 feet. The left wheels of my car skidded on the grassy top of the embankment, in a direction ca.10 degrees clockwise off the highway. Then the left wheels lost contact with the ground and became airbprne, like the right wheels did after passing by the lamp post a bit earlier.
Airborne before soft landing
The intersection is elevated ca. 1 m above the meadow. The “landing” created a bare soil spot. The soil cloud covered the trunk lid, so likely the landing was “tail down”. My car stopped ca. 10 m on. Counting from the lamp post, the trajectory was ca. 30 m long:
- several m of left-hand wheel skid marks in the embankment grass,
- ca. 10 m “flight” fully airborne,
- the “landing patch” ca. 1 m long,
- the remainder — coming to a stop.
The slight angle likely arose from a turn to the right due to deceleration of the right side of my car at the moment of collision with the other car’s tail, which ripped my front right tire. Then its rim hit the safety-profiled curb of the triangle island (I felt it like a jump up), different than the collision a split second earlier. The right-hand side of my car must have jumped up, then proceeded above the asphalt and shoulder ahead, as there were no skid marks on either. But prior to that, a distinct tire skid mark runs for couple a meters on the island curb surface.
Slow motion movie
Three possibilities of when the air bags deployed:
- impact on the other car
- the front right wheel hits the curb of the triangle island
- “landing” of the car in the meadow.
Assuming 100 km/h at the collision and a 50 m path to a standstill, this trajectory would take ca. 1.5 seconds. At 80 km/h, it would take ca. 1.8 seconds.
The extremely fearful pre-hit episode was mixed with hope to avoid the car and any obstacles ahead. I probably lost the forward view as soon as the collision activated the air bags, because I could see nothing ahead. In contrast, I remember, as if in a slow motion, the other car emerge from my left-hand side in the front windshield, followed by the sound of crash. But I had no idea on what my car jumped up immediately after (it was the the island curb), nor how close to the lamp post I came.
Decent Canadians
Fully inflated, the chest and knee air bags separated me from an intact windshield, no blood splattered, either. I got out to examine myself and car trajectory. The other driver, a decent young Canadian, came running towards me, asking about my condition, admittimg his fault and apologising. We were both happy nobody got even a scratch. He must have been in shock, too, after being hit in the tail which senf his car into a 3/4 circle spin, ending up on the edge of the ditch, his car’s tail at the edge of the ditch.
The witness was behind the offender in the left-turn lane for the opposite traffic direction. He told the RCMP officer what he saw and confirmed no fault on my part, while praising me for good control to minimize the damage. He told me personally on September 18th over the phone that he saw my car approaching, when the car in front of him rolled out to cross the highway from full stop, then stopped as if noticing my car, then tried to quickly proceed forward. By then, the witness said, I steered to the left, as if trying to avoid a crash, but hit his tail nevertheless. The witness watched the other car spin after being hit and also saw my car “fly” by and narrowly miss the lamp-post.
Guardian Angels on duty
Had I hit the lamp post, it would be a different story — serious injury or death. It was not my time to go. Neither was it for the other driver. I remember that in the slow motion “movie” I thought to avoid the middle part of the other car, but had no control over it. I felt some relief when my car collided once the bulk of the other one’s view in front of me was “off the screen”.
Neither I had an idea where I was in relation to the lamp post and a thinner one beside it that I saw when glancing the field ahead to the right the moment I realised the other car was on a collison course. Hitting the other car in its middle under 90 degree angle at full highway speed might have been fatal for all persons involved.
The Guardian Angel made sure He would not screw up Boss’s order for either driver: waiting for a crew change (delayed by a flat tire of another ambulance), an ambulance was waiting by the gas station. All the ambulance needed to do was to advance ca. 100 m to the side road beside my “landed” car.
According to knowledheable persons at the scene, my car was a writeoff. The impact bent its frame, I could not open the front right door. Ejected forward by the momentum, the front bumper, lights, and crushed guts from the forward part of the engine compartment dotted the scene. The windshield fluid spilled out of its crushed tank in a straight strip along the island curb.
According to October 11 insurer’s letter, the car is repairable. A rapair shop told me that because the air bag system and towing from Kamloops are costly, the wreck should be sold for spare parts, more so that spare parts are in extremely short supply. Even if the car was repairable, waiting for spares might take months.
The ambulance crew took me to Kamloops hospital for a check-up. Their driver helped me collect stuff from the wreck and loaded it into the ambulance. At the scene and during the ride, a female paramedic kept checking my physical and mental condition. Similar questions were asked by the hospital emergency staff, as no doctor was on duty. My pulse and blood pressure were checked, but CT scan was not done. I was free to go, but having no cellphone, I asked for help with calling home, finding accommodation for the night and a rental car next morning.
Hotel rooms and car rentals sold out
A social worker was to help, but after waiting, I decided to take a cab to nearest hotel ar ca. 7 p.m. The cabbie tried a few hotels, as tourists flooded the town for a several days’ major event. Finally, I checked into Prestige hotel, hauled my baggage to the room, tried to call home but the telecom didn’t work. I walked to a nearby restaurant. On return to the room at ca.9 p.m., the humming of huge ventilators on a roof below the room windows bothered me. I requested a refund, but was denied it by the receptionist.
I had to call her boss to get the refund and set out ca. 10 p.m. to find a room by taxi. With no luck in nearest hotels, the cabbie took me to the most expensive hotel, where the pretty, cheerful receptionist was as helpful as the cabbie was — a stark contrast to the Prestige girl. The Chinese restaurant wish-cookie (“A pleasant surprise awaits you this evening”) came true after my ordeal of the day approaching midnight.
The tourists exhausted available car rentals, too, but this mustn’t delay a post-collision brain scan. In the morning, having inquired with all rental car offices, I decided, with a Kami cabbie’s help, to go home by bus. One was scheduled at 4:30 p.m. from the Sahali Mall — plenty of time to eat and relax from the accident shock and previous night’s hurdles. I re-packed my baggage to three items, got the ticket at about noon, and went outside to the far corner of the property. I had a meal out of my trip food and yesterday’s doggy bag, stretched out on the grass and napped. When I got up, next to my things stood a can of soft drink, placed there by a good soul.
Beside the nice receptionist and cabbies and a couple of other local people, this was another act of kindness to an accident victim. Some hotel receptionists and cabbies were outright nasty, like the Swiss chap of Kami Taxi who didn’t even open the trunk for my baggage. Once seated in the cab, he came down on me for not knowing the addresses of car rentals I wanted to go to. I replied — “Can’t you ask your dispatcher?” Unable to bear more, I set back to the hotel lobby. He called ME “asshole!” — apaprently goodbye in Swiss.
All things considered, I fared well. As I looked over the busy mall parking, I thought why me, out of all the drivers between here and Edmonton where I left at 7:30 on previous morning. I said prayers to my Guardian Angel and Saint Charbel again. But the best (or the worst?) was still to come.
Slaughter house
Inside the mall, close to its entry was an emptyish covid vaccination station. A youngster in a vest with a red cross on it guarded the place. He had no idea about the plandemic fraud and answered my questions with a babble that didn’t justify his compromise on tainted money for pursuing higher education.
I rested on a bench inside the mall near the bus office. A few grownups entered the jabbing place. I felt sad but restrained myself from informed warnings. At ca. 3:30, kids carrying teddies started to arrive, trusfully holding the parental hand. Looking up to the parent for assurance at the entry, they obediently disinfected their palms and put on the useless masks in submission to covidianism.
At such sight, something uncontrollably let lose inside me, and I knew instantly that timely return to Vancouver would be jeopardized. Despite, I could not contain myself and shouted loudly from my seating. To be heard better, I walked over to the long harmonica door as the guards were closing it to separate the jabbing hall from reality. I returned to my bench, but kept shouting to the ignorant guards on my left, for others in the mall to hear my message, too.
Then someone roared on my right, I felt saliva droplets falling on my head: “HOW DARE YOU TO SCREAM AT MY WIFE!!!” As a matter of fact, I just said “I have the right to be here as a customer” loudly enough for her to hear me after she screamed “IF YOU DON’T LIKE IT, LEAVE!!!”
With his deafening scream, he threatened me with his fists. I stayed calm, so he grabbed my backpack and furiously threw it away some 20 m onto the tile floor. I rose, collected it, and walked to the bus office to collect my baggage and wait outside by the bus that had arrived.
None of your business!
Bold-shaven head, gym&steroid body, 8 inch diameter tatooed bicepses sticking out of a black T-shirt inscribed “Blackbird Security” on the back. He anxiously rushed to-and-fro inside the mall most of the hours I was there. Black pants complement his uniform of the new world corporate police. Protest grafitti from freedom-minded undesirables dot the mall building outside.
He rushed into the clamour by the end of my warnings about the bio-weapon deployment in the Sahali Mall. As I was walking to the bus, he SHOUTED furiously at me: “It’s none of your business!”, “Leave the mall property!”. He made sure I stopped at he bus cashier, who was preparing a refund — “You are not allowed to travel on our bus, given what has happened.” Then he made sure I picked my stored baggage and took it out of the building, as if I was to leave it behind. “This is the bus you could be riding home”, he pointed to the parked vehicle and called a cab: “Come and take him away immediately, I don’t want him here!”
While the taxi took its time to come, the mall security guard substituted f-words for reason and knowledge. Impressing into my face, he said: “It’s none of your business, understand?! I’ve had enough of this f_ing bullshit!”. I replied more or less: “It’s my duty as a Christian Canadian citizen. The kids are a victim, their parents don’t know it’s a genocidal fraud. We all will pay for the damages.” He condemned me in passing and retrospectively — for lounging outdoors on the mall property where he saw me around noon. Where elese was I supposed to wait for the bus and try to recover from the accident trauma and shock, waiting room being open an hour before departure…
The taxi arrived and took me back to the hotel where I started in the morning. I had only one option left: ride home by taxi. But for how much? I asked around about the rate and called Yellow Cab, requesting a full-size vehicle for the trip. My cabbie was delayed. Another one from Kami Cabs entered the hotel lobby after waiting in vain for his customer. I asked if he would take me to Surrey. His offer was the lowest, toyota prius hybrid has its advantages. I was home at 8 p.m., half an hour before the bus was scheduled to arrive quite far from my place.
Next day, a CT scan at local hospital proved: nothing to worry about after the accident. It remains so to this date.
As to the mall incident, perhaps Notices of Liability to Blackbird Security and the bus company?
Published October 9, 2022 [on PiotrBein.net as seen below in web archive that copied my blog days before the blog was destroyed in October 2023.]
https://web.archive.org/web/20231003161401/https://piotrbein.net/2022/10/09/accident-on-sep-12-2022/