Car Wreck at 4 A.M.

I had the craziest and pretty scary 4 am wake up this morning.

I was deep in sleep when I heard a squealing of tires and the sound of a car racing down a street at ridiculous speeds. I then heard screeching and a car skidding then a loud crash. I think at the first noise of the squealing tires I was slowly coming out of my sleep. By the time I heard what sounded like a terrible car crash, I jerked up screaming "CALEB!" Usually since he is awake at night, he is out in the living room. Last night he had fallen asleep so he was on the bed next to me and jerked awake when I screamed his name. I asked him, "did you hear that?" And he replied, "Yeah" thinking he meant did I hear him scream his name. I clarified and asked, "Did you hear that car crash?" He said he hadn't heard anything and thought I was dreaming and that's why I woke up yelling his name. The sounds seemed so real to me and I just knew it wasn't a dream. I told him I had to go check.

I got out of bed and was trying to look out the bedroom window to see if there was any movement from the houses. I told Caleb I heard voices and a couple people in the house behind us were standing in their yard and then I saw them take off running down the street. I threw on a jacket knowing at that point this was not a dream. Caleb's still in bed groggy and thinking I had been dreaming. I ran down our hallway, down our 3 flights of stairs, and outside into the parking lot. At first, I was really nervous and anxious about what I was about to see because someone in the building next to us parks their flat bed trailer on the street. I was terrified a driver had come speeding down the road and hadn't seen the trailer and crashed right into it. I didn't want to look but had to look first to see if someone needed medical help because I could run up and get Caleb or if I needed to call 911.

I looked at the parking lot across the road and saw the wreck. An old red car had come speeding down the street next to us through a neighborhood, left long skid marks apparently when the driver realized the street dead ends into the apartment complex. The car had jumped the curb and looked like it ran into something causing it to stop. I saw the front air bags deployed and watched as some other people rushed out the apartment building it crashed closest too. I watched for just a minute or two to make sure someone had called 911. I was too nervous to walk over there fearing the people in the car may be in pretty bad shape and there was already a good group of people starting to come out of the building closest to the crashed car. I ran back up our stairs to our apartment to see if Caleb wanted to come out and see if they needed any medical help. I told him everyone around the car was really calm and there wasn't any loud talking or yelling. He was still pretty out of it at this time and said it sounded like things were in control. My curiosity got the best of me and I was wondering what happened and if the ones in the car were okay. I had to go back out.
I went out a few more times to watch as the ambulance, fire truck, and policeman arrived surveying the scene and getting reports from witnesses. Obviously, no one actually witnessed it but plenty of people heard what I heard and had come out faster than I had gotten out there.

I made my way over to a few people and asked if they knew if the people in the car were okay and what happened. They said it was a few young guys who were all drunk. I heard the policeman asking some people if they saw who was driving the car. Apparently the young guys weren't wanting to make it known who the driver was. The medics were checking out the young men and from the looks of things and what another on-looker told me was that the guys were getting checked out but apparently nothing seemed life threatening because the medics were working slow and the ambulance was just parked. I was shocked to hear these guys may walk away from this unharmed and alive. I decided to go back inside and try to get back to bed.

From the sounds I heard and from seeing where the car ended up, I'm shocked there wasn't more damage to the car and that the car didn't flip or run head first into the apartment building. They were just feet from flying into the building and the young guys were not ejected from the car. The guys in have walked away from this (or more like driven away in police cars to be questioned and charged) with bruises and minor injuries when this could have ended very differently. I hope their lives are changed by this and they make life changing decisions. I also hope that those who read this are reminded to tell friends, family members, teenage children who are driving how dangerous it is to be in a car under the influence of alcohol.