Sound Mortgage Planning Blog

came at around 11:30pm last night. Our nephew was on the other end when my wife picked up the phone. Most phone calls from a teenager that come at or after their curfew normally mean they are letting you know they are going to be late or something has happened. Something happened...

Rewind four hours earlier to a phone call from our nephew. He was just getting off of work and asked if it was alright if he went to his girlfriends house. After conferring with my wife I said it was alright and then he asked what time he had to be home. Again, after conferring with my wife I told him to be home by 11:30pm. After hanging up, my wife and I went through the usual routine of whether we thought he would be late or not. We each differed in our thoughts and we continued to watch TV until around 11:15pm. I was tired and decided to got o bed. My wife never sleeps well when her nephew hasn't made it home yet so she stayed up.

Around ten minutes after getting into bed my wife came into the room and asked if I had heard a noise. She is always hearing something. I said no and she went back downstairs to wait for her nephew. I couldn't sleep so I went down a few minutes later to see if he was home yet and found my wife on the phone with our nephew.

My wife's tone was panicky and she was near tears. I asked what was going on and she said he's been in an accident. I asked if he was alright...no answer from my wife. I asked again and this time I was more forceful. She asked him and he said he was alright. My wife asked him what happened and he said he "just blinked" and then went off the road. We got directions to where he was and told him to call 911.

On our way to the scene my wife and I went over his account of what happened and we knew that he had more than likely fallen asleep. He stays up all night and thinks he can handle driving. We've told him he is not to drive if he has stayed up all night. Had we known that he hadn't slept, we wouldn't have let him go to his girlfriends last night.

Around four or five minutes later we got to where he was and found two police cars were on the scene. After we got out of our vehicle we walked up and I could see where the tire marks began and how the car went over the embankment and down into the bushes. He had to at least been going the speed limit considering the distance he traveled. He was heading northbound on I-5 and had just went under the Trosper overpass when he crossed through the gore strip and the on-ramp and then off the road.

The police officers approached us probably thinking we were just there to see an accident. We said he is our nephew and we were here to make sure he was alright. They said he was a little shaken, but alright.

After moving our vehicle as directed I watched our nephew walk up the embankment and then run to my wife sobbing. We put him in the vehicle and awaited the tow truck.

While we sat there I was watching the big semi's drive by and thought, my God he is so lucky that the car went to the right instead of to the left. He could easily have been killed, killed someone, or both. My wife and I let him know how lucky he is to have walked out of this accident.

The police officer came up to the vehicle and explained to our nephew the gravity of the situation and also presented him with a $550 ticket for negligent driving.

Once the car was pulled out of the ditch I paid the $190 bill and drove the car home with my wife and nephew following. It wasn't too bad; a headlamp out, the ferine broken and the car sounded a little rough, but that was it. We will be taking it in to have it looked at this week.

We got home and our nephew went straight to bed. Avoidance...never makes it better. He'll figure that out some day.

I looked at the car this morning, it's not that bad. He's very lucky to have not been injured. I can't imagine life without him and I can't imagine how he would have coped had he taken someone's life.

He doesn't know this yet, but, life for our nephew is about to change. His wallet is going to be a little lighter and his shoes are going to get a little more wear and tear on them.

I blogged about this because it is important for us to remember that life can end in a moment and that this is an opportunity to learn from someone else's mistake.

If your child is driving, be sure they are being responsible when they get behind the wheel. Driver fatigue is the number 2 cause of accidents in the United States.

Drowsy drivers account for about 100,000 accidents every year in the United States, according to the U.S. National Traffic Safety Administration. The risk is greatest from 11 p.m. to 8 a.m., the time when most people are used to sleeping, however some people also become drowsy from noon to 2 p.m.

We have a lot to be thankful for and our nephew coming through this without a scratch tops the list. I sure hope he learns from this.

New Year's Eve is approaching...please be safe.