#Highway auto accident | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

three--rings · 8 months

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Car Accidents for Writers and/or The Curious

So two days ago (as of first writing it's now been two weeks) I was in a major car accident at highway speed. Luckily, I'm mostly okay, my car protected me and only my heel is broken. But going through that was an experience and a very weird and foreign one so I wanted to write it down, especially for any writers depicting car crashes.

So first of all I was driving a brand new 2023 Kia Forte. A car with lots of technical bells and whistles, full modern safety everything. Thank god, although it was only 3 months old, it probably saved me from further injury.

So what happened immediately before the crash is what I'm most hazy about in my mind. I remember seeing the car on the left, it was at a crossroads where my highway traffic doesn't stop, but the crossroad traffic does. So I THINK the other car was stopped at the intersection when I first saw him, but honestly I am not sure. I saw the car, it was heading for the space in front of me, and I had time to think "he's gonna see me and stop right...what the FUCK" --impact.

(Edit: Two weeks later - Upon thinking more about it, I think that I saw him start to move but thought he was surely turning right, because he wouldn't go straight when I was right there. It would have been perfectly legal for him to turn right then. But then by the time I realized he wasn't turning and was coming right for the space in front of me...it was too late to do anything.)

Rest of the post cut for EXTREME Length as well as accident details and medical details of the ER trip both of which could be triggering. Nothing bad or gory or anything, just, some people might not want to read them.

I think I may have actually been yelling WHAT THE FUCK as I hit him. It felt like I had a split second to hit the brake, which was not nearly enough time to accomplish something. In that I did hit the brake but it barely slowed me before I hit. I was traveling around 70 mph (which is the speed limit there).

So the impact. All I remember is sudden whiteness blocking my view, along with the force, something impacting me in the face. I had a split second where I thought "Okay this is it, this is real, I might be about to die." (Note: I was also able to accurately report where on the car I hit (rear passenger door) but not the type of car. I said sedan, but it was a minivan. I said white, it was silver.)

Oh and right as the impact happened, as I saw the door of the car I was about to hit, right before the airbag popped, I had the thought/sensation of "wait, no, do it again, wait rewind, wait, reload the game." It was the sensation that I, as a gamer, have when I fuck up in a video game. The instinct that has you reach for the pause button or the reload button or whatever. That's what I felt, except of course it was real life and I couldn't try that again.

So the air bag popped and blocked all of my view, so I suddenly had no idea where I was, which way I was headed, etc. Except the car was still moving, my foot was probably/possibly still on the brake and my hands were I think still on the wheel. (All of this, I don't really know for sure.) Probably not still steering, but I feel like I was? IDK.

The next thing I knew I felt a second impact as my car hit a metal pole with a highway sign on it, shearing it off entirely. I saw the sign fly past my car through whatever gap was visible to the upper left side past the airbag. So I knew what I had hit. After that I was on grass and the car came to a pretty quick stop. (note this car also has auto-braking when it senses something in front of you, but obviously it couldn't stop itself fast enough either. )

So the car stopped and I was sitting there and my first thought was "okay I have to get out of the car." I could smell smoke and oil/fluidy smells and my car was making a bunch of weird sounds so I was scared it might catch on fire or whatever. So I reached under the side airbag which was blocking the top half of the door and opened my car door, which opened fine. I undid my seatbelt and grabbed for my phone from it's place on the center console under the dash. I knew in my dazed brain that my phone was Important. I needed to Call Someone? Maybe 911? Maybe my husband?

So, clutching my phone in a death grip (not thinking about taking anything else) I crawled under the side airbag and basically fell out of the car onto the grass.

Immediately upon trying to get out I knew my right ankle was hurt. I've had a lot of ankle sprains in my life and I looked down and saw it starting to swell and knew I couldn't stand on it.

Pretty much immediately, or within seconds there were people there. There was a gas station on the corner so either they were there or they were stopped at the intersection waiting to turn going the opposite direction from me. (God I've just thought I could have easily hit them if I'd gone left instead of right. . . that was lucky.)

The two people who arrived, who had witnessed it were a black man and a white woman, I can vaguely picture them, though couldn't pick them out of a lineup fyi. They kept offering to help me up and I told them no, my ankle is hurt, I can't stand. They asked if anyone was in the car and needed help and I said no. As new people arrived I heard them tell new people that no one was trapped. I guess I was vaguely aware that there was a second car also stopped, but I filed that under Someone Else's Problem and focused on me.

Oh wait, I've just remembered I think I was standing on one foot, holding onto the door at first, when the woman came up and asked if I was hurt. Because I was brushing off my front...so here we get into weird details okay. So I was wearing a steel boned corset under my clothes that I always wear when I go out, for back support. It's custom made by me. And I noticed right away that the impact had bent the front busk of the corset. This is a heavy duty steel busk, extra wide, so it's almost 2.5" wide piece of heavy steel. And instead of my stomach impacting the steering wheel or WHATEVER, it bent it up to almost a 90 degree angle.

So I was noticing that, but also, I thought I might be on fire. I was very HOT. My clothes were hot to the touch, the front of my dress felt like it had almost been singed. I kept touching and checking myself to make sure I wasn't on fire anywhere because of how hot my clothes felt. I assume this is from the air bags and the force of the impact and the explosions that send them out...IDK. But yeah I was hot. So I kept touching my stomach and clothes and people kept asking if I was hurt and I said "No, I don't think so, just my ankle."

At first, though, I couldn't form words. People were asking if I was okay and I couldn't answer. I think maybe I nodded. So my responses were probably more like Yes and No and "Ankle" than I remember. I just remember some serious floaty, disconnected, stunned mindset where I couldn't make words right. Lasted maybe less than a minute or a minute or two, not sure.

Basically I laid on the ground and just breathed and tried to chill for a few minutes, responding as people came up and asked me things. I think I repeated a couple of times "he just drove right in front of me..." and witnesses backed me up, saying they were there and saw the whole thing and yeah he just drove right out in front of me.

Throughout this, the surreal thing was that my car was still running and still playing my music. So poppy Janelle Monae was playing from my car. I finally was able to coordinate enough to pause Spotify on my phone so it stopped. I asked one of the bystanders if he could turn my car off with the on/off button because I was worried about it.

A state trooper arrived fairly quickly and came over and asked me first if I was hurt and if anyone else was in the car. I told him about my ankle and no. He said "okay you just sit there [on the grass] that's probably the best place for you. EMS is on their way, should be a few minutes." To which I nodded. He then asked me for my ID. I told him it was in my purse which he fetched from inside the car and handed to me to find my wallet and pull out my ID. He asked me for my basic version of the accident, which I was pretty vague about "I was driving and he just pulled right in front of my car and I only had a split second to brake."

He asked which direction I was traveling, how fast I was going. When I hesitated over that answer he said "highway speed?" and I said "yeah, 70-75." I was slightly worried about admitting I was technically speeding to a cop, but he just nodded and was very chill about everything, so I wasn't TOO worried. He asked a little more after a couple minutes like which direction the other car was coming from and which lane I was in." Then he said he was going to talk to the other driver. At which point I remembered there was another human being involved and I asked if they were okay and he said yeah seems like it, they're just a little queasy from the seatbelt.

So from where I was on the grass and not moving, basically I was sitting in the V formed by my car and the open driver door, so I couldn't see the other car and had literally no idea about the other driver, couldn't have told you their gender or race or anything. I never saw them. (Later the police gave us their details and it seems to be a man, but their name and city is literally all I know.)

At this point I was starting to feel more together. I had been playing with my phone, trying to call my husband. But for a while I couldn't make my fingers find how to call him. And then I did it, but the call wouldn't go through. I was in a fairly isolated area with poor cell coverage, it's basically in the middle of a bunch of fields of corn and cotton and shit. So I was calling but not hearing anything on the line. And meanwhile people kept talking to me and the car was honking nonstop. Even after I got him to turn off the car, it was still making honking car alarm noises. Like yes car, I know you are in distress but please shut the fuck up.

I texted my husband instead. He was texting me by then because he could hear when I called him and he knew something was WRONG. So here are the texts. It's pretty funny.

Cat totaled. Of course I didn't have my glasses so I couldn't see anything very well. I had been wearing sunglasses with bifocal reading glasses in them but they were uh, removed by the airbag. No idea what happened to them. He called me thankfully and that call worked so I told him where I was and that I was okay except for my ankle, etc. Of course I'm like the car, the poor car our new car is totaled and he's like fuck the car are YOU okay, etc.

Also when I exited the car, the witnesses kept telling me I was bleeding on my lips. I touched them and could tell my bottom lip was split. So I was like, yeah it's okay just my lip. Presumably from the impact with the airbag. It's cut on the inside from my teeth and still very swollen and in my way.

So I pulled my backup sunglasses from my purse and put them on to block the sun and laid back in the grass to chill. What sucked was that this is Texas and the grass had ants and they were crawling on me, but what could I do. I looked behind me and there was only more grass with car shrapnel and the highway which didn't look more comfortable to sit on. I asked the officer to get my tote bag out of my car, the bag with my dnd stuff which had a water bottle and can of coke in it. He got it but the coke can was totally dented and I couldn't open it. So I drank the water very gratefully because I was super thirsty.

oh and about this time the cop gave me a long speech about "You should drink a lot of water tonight and try to do some moving around because you're going to be sore and being in a car accident releases a ton of lactic acid into your body like you did a very strenuous workout...etc. " I basically just nodded and was like yeah i'm gonna be really sore.

At this point I figured I just had a sprained ankle and I would go to the er and they would check me out and I'd get an ACE bandage and be fine basically. I realized that the injury was from me trying to brake, standing on the brake and when the impact happened all that force transferred directly into my almost straight leg.

So the ambulance arrived and they came and asked the same questions. They had a bunch of people come to help get me to the stretcher. Basically they grabbed my arms and shoulders and pulled me backwards, telling me to push myself with my good leg. So I did that with them holding me up until we got to the stretcher and I sat down and swung myself around and was strapped down and lifted into the ambulance. They asked me if I had a preference for hospitals to go to and I told them the name of the big hospital nearby which I know our insurance works with because one of my doctors is there.

Then they just started asking me a bunch of medical questions about medications and conditions which I basically had to simplify, leaving out some of the minor things I have going on. Like I didn't mention depression or the antidepressant I take. I only told him some of my meds for my back. Not sure why, it just seemed like I needed to get important things across only.

He asked about where I hurt and I at that point told him about my shoulder hurting in addition to my ankle. He also told me about how bad that intersection is for accidents and how he'd been out there about an hour before for another (more minor) one and we talked about whether they needed to install a light there.

He was really nice and I liked him. I sent a text to my dnd chat while riding that told them I wouldn't be at the game. In the ambulance they checked my vitals and also took my blood sugar which I thought was kinda weird. I guess it's just standard.

We got to the ER and as they wheeled me through I heard the people saying "trauma 2, trauma 2 in room whatever, the trauma is here." So I realized that was me and they were treating me like a Serious Patient and not just an ankle. As I was rolled into the room a veritable swarm of people came with me and pulled me from the stretcher to the bed, bringing a lot of grass and dirt with me, by the way, which no one but me seemed to notice (And the nurse later).

Then they were trying to get my clothes off and a young man approached me with surgical scissors and said "Okay we're just gonna cut this off you" and I was like "No, please, can you not, I just finished sewing this!" and thankfully they were like well let's try. I was already like, I can do this, and pulling up my dress and wiggling. They probably didn't want me moving myself that much, but fuckit, I spent months on that dress I didn't want it ruined. (It ended up torn about an inch down at the neckline and has a couple inch long tear in the skirt from either me crawling out of the car or them pulling me to the stretcher.)

Oh and I had to tell them "I'm wearing a back support corset under here so it will be weird" but they were like "that's no problem" and they just reached down and pried the busk apart, (with me sucking in to help them) and pulling it free. So that was one anxiety gone. So anyway, they finally got the dress and all my shirts off while they pulled my bra free also. It's definitely weird having a swarm of people you can't really see grab you and start tearing off your clothes. I wasn't feeling at all worried about being exposed or anything, my only concern was for my clothes. Finally I was naked except for my underwear and they put a gown over me.

And then hooked up a bunch of wires and stuff. The EMT had started an IV in my hand but not given me anything. They also didn't give me anything yet, though I THOUGHT they'd hooked me up to saline or something but turned out no.

Then I talked to the doctor and repeated all my pains. They were like okay we'll get xrays and check you out all over. So they did the xrays in the bed and I had a really hard time moving my foot/ankle the way they wanted because I was like "I can't move it" and they were like, but okay flex more and I'm like "I can't." And then turn it to the side and I'm like, uh, it's not moving. And finally I had to like turn my whole body to the side to get the position they wanted.

Then they took blood and mostly left and there was one nurse left. "Can I have some water?" I asked, my most pressing concern because I was DYING of thirst. She was like "uh we have to wait and ask the doctor." And then a little while later she was like "is there anything I can get you?" and I'm like "again, water?" and she's like okay lemme go check.

So I finally got water and I asked the lady taking my blood if she could hand me my phone from my purse. So I had my phone hurray although I still had no glasses and couldn't see. But my texts showed my husband was outside so I asked if he could come back and they said sure. It still took a little while but they finally came and asked me again if family could come back and I said yes and then there he was.

Obviously that was a huge relief because I could ask him for stuff from my purse like my glasses. And we mostly just talked and looked at stuff on our phones while waiting for results. So finally the doctor comes back and is like so okay actually you have a broken heel bone and we're going to put you in a splint for now and then you will follow up with an orthopedist. And he did that and that was pretty painful. By this point they'd given me something in my IV that was helping with the pain but still having them try to force my foot upright was super painful.

Then they said they needed a urine sample and the nurse was like do you want to try a bed pan or me to do a catheter. And I'm like I guess bed pan. Which, I didn't know, is basically just a hard plastic bowl that you sit on and the edges dig into your butt and thighs. And she tries to explain how to go and I'm like okay I'll try but I totally failed. Because I was still massively dehydrated. I'm like "if you'd given me more water like I asked, I might be doing better at this." Finally they started me on IV fluids and I got my husband to get me my water bottle. Then they did a catheter except they still couldn't get urine and they did it a second time with a better nurse and finally they made me laugh and that made some come out so they made me keep laughing until they got enough of a sample. So I'm definitely making the nurse stories for that one.

By the way, did the catheter hurt. Yeah, a little. It feels like what you'd expect. It's pokey and doesn't feel good, but once it's in you can't feel it. Also I was told my "anatomy" made it easy to see what they were doing which, I'm like is that a compliment on my pussy or what?

Anyway after that it was just waiting waiting waiting. They were checking for damage to my kidneys or I guess other indicators through blood tests because they came back to draw more blood twice.

Finally like five hours after the wreck they let me go. And gave me very little information about anything, actually I could complain a lot about the way the ER handled things but like that's not the point here.

We were both obviously starving because we hadn't eaten so we had to drive through the only thing open which was a 24 hour mcdonalds.

They didn't give us crutches, just told me to use them, so we had some from when my husband was in a car wreck and wheelchair bound for months. So he had to go in the house and find those and bring them out to me. Our door is very far from the driveway so I had a long way to go on crutches and it was very difficult given my pain situation and how my shoulder and ribs on the right side hurt. So once I finally got to the door he got a rolling chair that I sat on and he wheeled me to the bedroom.

That night once the meds they gave me in the ER wore out I was in terrible terrible pain. I'm a chronic pain patient on an opioid patch and it was insane. Ten on the pain scale. I wont go into too much detail but god I wanted to die or like, just cut my foot off. I took pretty much anything I could to try to help the pain, after some quick interactions googling. And took an edible we had and that was what finally let me get any sleep about 5 in the morning once it kicked in.

It's now two weeks later and...what is recovery from a crash like that like? Well it sucks honestly. I got very lucky in my injuries but the broken heel is way more painful that I would have imagined, sometimes radiating pain all the way up my leg to the crotch. And worse than that has been the rest of my body that didn't get diagnosed with any injuries but obviously went through major trauma.

My ribs have been very sore in a couple different places, making it difficult to move, sit up, lay on one side, reach for things, laugh or cough. And I pulled something in my right shoulder though they didn't see any damage on x-rays but it's taken two weeks to start to feel like I can use my right arm much or move it without terrible pain.

I've spent most of my time on pretty heavy meds, thanks to my pain doctor, but still all the time I've been massively uncomfortable. And trying to do anything is really difficult because I have to use weird muscles to pull myself up to standing or whatever without putting weight on my right foot, and then those muscles have gotten sore. It was about two days after the accident I reached peak Body Pain, after trying to get around on crutches with an injured/bruised ribs and messed up shoulder. I got to the point I couldn't get myself up to go to the bathroom on my own at all. Thankfully then I got a kneeling scooter thing which is an absolute requirement for getting around in this state.

So yeah today is two weeks and I feel like I'm just starting to get back to almost normal functioning, except for my broken foot. Taking meds less often, and then only because the foot starts throbbing. (Did you know heels are very painful things to break? Neither did I? I'm lucky I don't need surgery because frequently this injury can cripple you if you don't have surgery.)

Anyway, I don't know if anyone will have read all this, but I feel like it's worth documenting the experience. I was originally going to post this within the first few days of the accident but then the real bad effects started kicking in and then uh, there was the Lahaina thing. (My closest family lives there. They are safe along with their house but...my little tragedy didn't feel important in the face of that.)

At any rate, please drive safely, this experience sucks and I don't recommend it.

#tw: car accident #tw: car crash #tw: medical #personal #threerings' stories

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neo-shitty · 1 year

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road runners — l.yb

description. road running was just like any other high-paying job brought about by the new road management system. high risk, high reward. another position had been vacated in your station, you just hoped the newbie would last a little longer than the last one did.

pairings. lee felix x gender-neutral reader

genre. dystopian!au, kind of workmates!au

warnings. graphic imagery, slight discussions on morality, animal death, multiple death by accidents, implied suicide (not of main characters), major character death

word count. 2.6k

notes. posting this after seeing this scene in the 5 star trailer haha kinda morbid thinking how i came up with this in driving school lmao hope everyone’s doing well! it’s been so long (。_。)

On the job, you were but an observer—an additional pair of eyes with the extra skill of executing actions that the cameras could not. There would come a time when the development of technology would give birth to advancements that’ll eventually take over most human labors. But that day was not today, nor do you imagine it to be any time soon. For now, you’re stationed on one of the many towers that lined the Gyeongbu Expressway, roving the highway for something interesting. Just like usual, there’s nothing.

Becoming a road runner had been every child’s dream at some point. Every head turned towards car windows on expressways and busy highways, watching out for the moment the black-suited figures zipped from one tower to another. You were no exception, so when the teachers asked what you wanted to be when you grew older you answered the same thing every year: I want to be a road runner.

It wouldn’t be until high school when you learned the grim reality behind the coolest job you’ve ever known. Road runners never existed until about half a century ago when the government decided on the full enforcement of all traffic laws to eliminate the ever-growing traffic problem. A decade-long transition was put into motion in the year 2068; road and highways were reconstructed, and at the end of the ten years, most of the country’s major networks functioned in the same way train railways had, complete with a centralized system to track all of its users.

Automatic transmission vehicles ATVs took on a new definition, now functioning on auto-pilot and programmed to sync with the central system. While some people resorted to purchasing new cars with the built in systems, the government couldn’t force everyone to make the switch. They could, however, launch the strict implementation of all road and traffic laws through the system.

And so they did.

The decision was marred with controversy when the accidents began to happen. While most citizens brushed it off their shoulders as a good riddance for nuisances, others saw through and began thinking there was a more sinister reason to it. The government never explicitly stated that MTVs were banned from the streets, though driving them grew more and more risky. They were rogues to the system, undetectable. Highways have turned into railroad tracks, cars into bullet trains. ATVs were hot-wired pods meant to get you to your destination via the quickest route possible and on the road, there was no stopping them.

Both traffic and pollution significantly lessened with the transition, but one problem spiked—road-related accidents. Pedestrians were ploughed by high-speed ATVs, MTVs crushed by collisions, and the death toll reached hundreds within months of its implementation. But the government did not waver, nor did it carry the blame for everything that had happened. They wiped their hands clean.

“The system has been programmed with rules that have long been implemented, pre-existing ones we were already meant to follow beforehand,” they said. The ignorance of the law excuses no one, and so the government played court and passed judgment.

Right wings argued that roads were meant for vehicles alone. Why were pedestrians prioritized all the time when there were designated times and places for them like sidewalks, crosswalk lights, their very own safe zones. Pedestrians and other street-users abused their privilege, compromising vehicle drivers and contributing into traffic congestion. Humans were smart but they were slaves to their own egos, susceptible to being easily put back into place when reminded of a higher authority.

Sanctions towards traffic law violators were dropped. No more fines and months in probation and arrests. If you weren’t registered into the system, you were still free to use the roads as you liked. You could cross it whenever you liked, drove an MTV side by side with the ATVs but you could no longer sue other parties for what could happen to you on the road.

Little by little, as every road was remodeled and programmed with the centralized system, traffic law enforcers one by one disappeared—giving way to another job, one that acted as a countermeasure to the growing number of highway traffic accidents, road running.

The government thought response teams took too long to get to the accident area, hence the birth of the organization for road runners. Road running was a high paying profession, right for a job just as risky. Runners were stationed along major highways and roads, functioning as both lookouts and quick response teams for any accident, be it minor or major, that may occur. Minor accidents were meant to be dealt with by a single runner or in groups of three depending on the gravity. Major accidents were reported to the system which then rerouted upcoming road users for an hour until the highway was once again spotless.

You never thought you’d land the job as an act of desperation but you did, filing in your application within days from quitting school and getting it. For a job that was sought for, it was vacated a lot. Runners either chickened out when accidents finally did happen or died in the process of cleaning up one. It wasn’t an easy job, it was gruesome. You felt the same way towards it when you were met with an accident a week into the job. But the fear and the ick passes and you began to look at things differently, observing street users with the detachment of someone who agreed with the government’s ideals.

For the past year, you’ve kept to yourself most of the time—staying on your tower through all the eight hours you’re supposed to be there unlike the others who roved around for anything. Compared to prior years, accidents now happened few and far between and most of the time on purpose. Your shifts were more eventless than not. Until a rally against corrupt ATV manufacturing companies took to the streets to make their point a couple of months ago. No rerouting was called that day, not until each and every one of the protestors lied mangled on the streets. The massacre was quick but the repercussions it left behind went far and wide, giving birth to a generation of new-minded individuals who were curious why the way of things had to be that way.

Felix was one of them and he joined the road runners in the midst of it.

“Chan quit. We’re getting a new guy today.” Changbin doesn’t even bother looking up to greet you, gaze fixated on his phone—making the most out of the few minutes before your shift began.

Beneath your finger, a green light flashes and the machine beeps. “Saw that coming,” you said, looking across the room to where Chan was stationed, a part of the tower office that you’ve seen more often vacated than occupied. “New guy on an expressway? That’s new.”

“Heard he’s one of the fast ones.”

Either that or they needed more people on the expressway. You joined the runners back when the positions were still fought for, the profession respected rather than shun. Starting out as a newbie, they assigned you to small streets and country roads until you were working on bigger roads then national highways. It wasn’t because you were getting any better in your job but because those positions were harder to keep than to earn.

The new guy was a bright-eyed boy with star-studded cheeks and a nervous smile. He blinked at the both of you as he walked in, unsure of what to say when you just stared at him back. The scanner beeps beneath his finger and he walks to the back of the office to where Chan used to sit.

“Lee Felix, right?” He turned to you, wide-eyed and alert.

Road runner contracts only lasted a year and even then only a few stayed in the job long enough to renew it. It took one good look at Felix to know that he’d be one of those who wouldn’t make it past the year—either by quitting or some foolish mistake on the road.

An alarm blared as the clock struck 4 and runners from the last shift burst through the doors of the tower from both sides of the line. It wasn’t the splotches of wetness on their suits nor the expressions on their faces that gave it away, but the metallic stench that followed them as they came in.

“What happened?” Changbin rose from his seat, giving way to the runner who shared his desk.

“Someone tried to cross the street on a green light.”

“How many?”

“Just one,” he answered, before finally looking around. “New guy?” He pointed at Felix who still stood frozen in the middle of the road. The quiet boy nodded. “Good luck then, kid.”

You never liked it when anyone glossed over the truth of the road-running profession. It paid high for the risk of cleaning roadkill carcass all the while preventing yourself from becoming one, but it never compensated for the images wedged into your subconscious of mangled bodies, scattered insides and pools of blood. So you’ve made it a habit to put a fair warning to anyone new to the job, turning to Felix as he followed you out the tower saying, “Do yourself a favor and quit.”

But of course he didn’t, they almost never did until witnessing their first deaths. The only thing that was different with Felix was his unpredictability because he stopped his first accident from happening. It wasn’t that you didn’t see it coming. He was curious and inquisitive, a dead giveaway of his political biases. He always asked why you never stopped the pedestrians or flagged down the MTVs and you always answered the same thing: these people knew the rules and the law and whatever consequences they suffered were beyond you.

Felix never seemed to get it, his humanity completely intact. Of the three of you, he always ended up black out tired by midnight, running up and down the road to warn people to use the overpass instead of the road or entertaining impatient folk and tricking them into waiting until the crosswalk lights turned green.

But just like him, there were hard-headed people who never listened regardless of the measures he took. The first time he saw a person carelessly cross the road in a manic sprint, he jumped right after them. Grappling hooks burst out of his belt, piercing through the wind to hook onto metal bars across the highway and he swung across like a madman, saving the man at the last second before a truck rolled past where they once were.

You met his triumphant smile with disbelief and horror. “Maybe they haven’t oriented you, Felix, but our job is to clean up, not pick up.”

“I know and I don’t get it. Of all people, road runners can save lives and lessen traffic accidents, so why not do it?”

You’ve heard of this subtle leftist movement spreading across the provinces, the new generation of road runners adding saving pedestrians into their list of obligations. It was counterintuitive to what the government wanted to be done, but it was morally aligned with what most people thought. Road runners were being hailed again, looked up to. But the inversely proportional scales tipped, lower accident rates meant higher risks for runners.

It didn’t guarantee a 100% success rate. There was a dog one day, got loose from its leash and sprinted off the highway sidewalk. Felix had been the first one to see it, tunnel vision narrowed to the dog’s path as it leaped onto the highway. But you’ve seen it too, along with the bus barrelling down the highway that maybe he didn’t.

“Felix, stop!” You dashed from your station, reaching him before his grappling hooks shot out. The dog continued running across the street, the bus continued moving at speed limit. Wind blew past you as it passed, leaving you puzzled on the sidewalk with nothing but dust and a carcass in its wake.

“I could’ve saved it,” Felix said, already mourning the pup he’d only met seconds ago. But even he sounded hopeless, half-knowing that there was no way helping that dog out of this one because he couldn’t have made it across without the bus ramming into him in exchange.

You remembered a time when you thought the same way but the years have dulled your hope, whatever righteousness you’ve had in you dissipating with the disbelief that people still refused to listen. And the accidents came often, desensitizing you with every death happening before your eyes. These people didn’t care about themselves no matter how hard you tried to save them.

While you grew to accept it as the months passed, Felix did not, or he wasn’t on the field long enough to know that in the end he couldn’t do anything about it if the same people who were saved never wanted saving.

Felix was never assigned to your part of the highway before, so he never knew about that regular passerby—one who only sat by to observe the timing of things. The man always came by on weekday afternoons rain or shine. The expressway was never made for pedestrians but he still came anyway. It wasn’t hard to predict what was in his mind but you never made a move to approach nor interfere. And he disappeared for quite a while, months, and you thought he finally kicked the bucket. But he comes back one day, with a brighter expression over his once gloomy face and you’ve seen too many suicides to know what another attempt looks like.

Felix, however, did not. You didn’t see the man coming because if you did, you would’ve stopped him the way you did before during close calls. But he sees the man before you do and in the spur of the moment, the man had jumped into the highway, Felix following immediately behind him. And you can still hear Changbin behind you, shouting about upcoming cars but it falls on deaf ears and you watched the accident happen—both the man and Felix run down by a parade of cars coming from a recently greenlit intersection. You saw them launched into the air, landing so far from the point of collision and further ploughed by upcoming vehicles. Pieces of the body landed scattered down the highway, cars coming too often for any of you to get any cleaning done.

You didn’t realize you were holding your breath until you felt your lungs begin to burn. For a moment you stood there, both in shock yet expecting what had happened. It was only a matter of when it would happen. Eventually you snapped out of it when the cars stopped coming, green light finally turning red.

From your pocket you dug out the device meant to access the central system and set the timer. The system closes off the highway and reroutes all upcoming vehicles to other roads. You began the dreadful trek to where the bodies, or most of it, actually were. Changbin called for a highway sweep, the two-man team seeming not enough to clear all parts of the bodies off the street.

“Shame, I thought he’d last longer.” Changbin muttered as he caught up beside you, his mask and gloves already on.

“He didn’t really have it in him, you know? He was too soft.” You answered. “This might’ve been the best way to go and better now than later.”

#felix angst #skz angst #felix fluff #skz fluff #skz scenarios #kwritersworldnet #felix scenarios #felix x reader #skz x reader #felix imagines #skz imagines #felix timestamps #lee felix #skz #stray kids #skz felix #toff.writes

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manofthepipis · 7 months

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spam headcannons featuring clickstopher >:)

spamton dyeing his hair was an entirely impulsive decision. he was in the middle of a mental breakdown and just ran over to the nearest convenience store, bought cheap black box dye, and was sobbing during the entire process, thinking he was ruining his hair. afterwards it worked out because he actually really liked it <3

this one has some canon base in it, but i just have the feeling he's a really good mechanic and loves cars, more than any other addison. he doesn't use these skills to further himself though because of his determination to stay in sales, but he can tell you what's wrong with your car with a glance and fix it in five minutes. also, his vocal tics get the slightest bit clearer when talking about them because he's really passionate about it

speaking of cars, he's a totally manic driver. he is the reason we have defensive driving. he always speeds up when there is a yellow light. he drives on the wrong side of the highway when there's traffic. he is the type of guy to say "how much signal i need to cut across 8 lanes, none?" he never gets into car accidents though he just gives heart attacks to all his passengers. i feel like his glitches could actually work in his favor here and clip him out of danger or crashes.

despite being the biggest advocate of forgetting spamton entirely, clicks went to therapy once to try and process his disappearance. when the therapist questioned why he was feeling bad over someone he claimed he hated, clicks got mad and never went back

if it hadn't been spamton, clicks was the second possible candidate to becoming mike's vessel

spam used to be a smoker, but would never do it in front of the other addisons n case they thought less of him for it. once mike started to take more and more control, spam ended up smoking a pack a day. he had to quit after getting kicked out of the mansion because he didn't have any money to afford them, so the first few weeks was especially tough just for getting rid of a nicotine addiction.

HELL ya

oh i'm HERE for these <3

i'm adding on to the impulsive hair dyeing because i love this headcanon so much ty for bringing it to the table omg ok like maybe it was a VERY rough night at their typical addison meetup, and everyone else was at the highest they've been, flourishing in their sales, and when it came to him, he froze up and stammered out a lie that was just so OBVIOUSLY a lie, he couldn't even deny they knew by their reactions. But he had to play it off, out of embarrassment. I'd feel like he'd really look up to Swatch who's pretty well known among cyber city, and his imitation of them starts early, as thoughts ran through his head like "well if they're successful enough like that, maybe i just need to change my look." and did it impulsively. Later, when he moves into the mansion, he gets it done professionally (and permanently) by swatchlings.

I also feel like he'd be good at cars, but in tune with his bad luck (and because in-game, Queen gets out of the car that's so very different from the others in Cyber city, telling noelle and kris "i was just afraid it hadn't exploded yet also those are the cars that's in spamton's area in the trash zone), maybe it was in his later years Big Shot Autos turned the tides for the worst, and several goofy explosion incidents ran rampant throughout the city, having Spamton's cars decommissioned and replaced with the ones they have now. This was devastating for him, as he's truly knowledgeable and it's his special interest. Nowadays he doesn't talk about it much, but he's still good at it, just distanced. He would talk about it if someone showed interest and didn't associate his brand with a bunch of failures, and then he'd never stop.

I'm loving Spamton being a manic driver, like one that DEFINITELY needs to be feared on the roads. Jevil loves this chaotic side to him and when he'd visit cyber city, he enjoyed Spamton's reckless driving and fancy cars (and the thought of being stuck in traffic with the clown was a horror upon itself to Spamton, who did everything to avoid it when he found out Jevil snuck into his car, inadvertently making it more fun for Jevil)

i love the idea of clicks going to therapy, trying to process everything. I feel he needs it :') That and I can agree with him being the second pick. Click-on ads are everywhere, more abundant that the other two, and it would be pretty easy to get him to the top. Luckily, Spamton was FAR easier to exploit on desperation versus Clicks's exploitable ego.

The last just breaks my heart, but I can see it. He was the big shot boss with a cigar that was larger than he was lmao

#i don't think i'd ever write smoking but this mental image is making me giggle but also extremely sad #gosh ty for your thoughts #my first part of the ask i lied i had to add to all of them #i get carried away with spamton headcanons cuz he's a little vermin of a muse hehe #asks #dr!hc

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crosseyedcricketart · 3 months

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the natchez trace in 2024

original website post here <3 originally posted on January 14 2024 at 9:00 a.m. 01-14-2024.

The Natchez Trace – Updated into 2024.

The Natchez Trace was recently updated, reopening last year in Alabama, with some new pavement and updated rest areas. I recently passed through there when traveling out of Alabama so I thought it would be nice to have an anecdote from me to you about the updates.

Before the repaving, we always used the Trace heading into north Alabama and stopped at the rest stop in Colbert, Alabama. (Now, if you’re familiar with Steven Colbert, you may think you pronounce it the same as his name. But no. It’s “cole-bert” with a hard “t”.). This rest stop has been updated a bit, with a stable accessibility bar in the wheelchair-accessible stall of the restroom. Here’s some little bullet-points about this particular stop-

Water fountain, bottle fountain, and dog fountain. (Winterized at the time of travel).

Wheelchair/large stall with mobility handle available.

Multi-stall bathroom.

Hand drier, no paper towels.

Natchez Trace map available.

Picnic tables available.

Trash cans and recycling bin available.

Bicycle rack.

At the time, the fountain water was probably shut off for the winter season as it was ranging between 20°-40° F while we were there. The bathrooms were clean— very clean for what they are— with hand soap. In the women’s restroom, there is one sink, a mirror, and a filled soap dispenser. They use foaming soap in this area. These are the same buildings as before, while the inside had a facelift. These buildings are insulated well so they don’t let in too much of the cold. When I went in, it was a comfortable temperature. Not steaming, but certainly not cold. It was 43° F at the time of my visit. They use low light so the majority of the light in the buildings is natural light from the windows.

There are also no stairs at this stop, with ramp dips in the pavement from the parking lot into the side walk, and a ramp up to the restrooms. There is a little stand with a pamphlet of a map of the Natchez Trace Parkway and it’s expanse through Tennessee, Alabama, and Mississippi. This was a very comfortable stop with dogs; our two dogs went with us on this trip and there was a comfortable amount of space between the road and the parking lot for the dogs to (leashed) walk around without me worrying about a freak accident happening. Speaking of dogs, this stop has a doggie water fountain. Or for a person who is a foot off the ground.

This stop, on Apple Maps, is “Colbert Ferry Visitor Center” with the address being:

Colbert Stand Trail Cherokee, Alabama 35616 United States

This stop is on the eastern side of Pickwick lake. This stop is where the Trail of Tears and Natchez Trace cross, the Trail of Tears following the Tennessee River and the Natchez Trace Parkway crossing over the river.

This leg of the trip was the trip back to Memphis, so we also passed through Walnut, Mississippi on Highway 72. Walnut is a small community with a Love’s Travel Stop. This particular Love’s has a Godfather’s Pizza Express in it. This location is very clean, well stocked, and has fresh food out. I am a very picky person with where I stop on trips and I tend to stop at truck/travel stops instead of normal gas stations. There is also a Jack’s beside the location. If you have never stopped at a Love’s, or a proper travel stop, they have fresh fruit, fresh coffee, warm food, and ample shelf-stable foods, along with some auto/truck care inside. Depending on the size of the stop, they have less and more of each. In my personal experience, Walnut’s location is one of the smaller travel stops.

Here’s the location of this Love’s off of Highway 72:

Travel Stop #799 600 Richardson Dr Walnut, Mississippi 38683 United States

For your own reference, if you’d like some more information, here’s a few resources relating to the Natchez Trace Parkway:

Natchez Trace Parkway via National Parks Service

Alabama Trail of Tears Locations via Muscle Shoals Heritage

Trail of Tears in Alabama via National Parks Service

That's all for today. I hope this was insightful and gave you an anecdote for this section of the Natchez Trace. Make sure to subscribe to get new blog posts in your inbox when I post. Have a beautiful day or night, wherever you are, and most of all, happy travels! - Annie, the crosseyed cricket.

#travel #travel blog #road trip #alabama #the natchez trace parkway #natchez trace parkway #travel journal

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nicklloydnow · 8 months

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“Road safety films point to a specific shift in representations of the highway starting in the 1950s and 60s: from Jackson’s odological approach, concerned primarily with the efficient organization of space, to what Paul Virilio calls “dromology,” the science of speed. If odology is about the tension between centripetal and centrifugal highways—between roads that navigated the local landscape and those that created a powerful network that constituted “a disregard of local landscape features” (Jackson, Discovering the Vernacular Landscape 23)—dromology is about the complete collapse of space through speed, what Virilio calls “the negation of space” (149). Along with this technologically driven negation of space comes the negation of the human body, so that “[t]o invent the family automobile is to produce the pile-up on the highway”

Road safety films represented a fissure in the early dream of the perfected highway. The 1964-1965 World’s Fair exhibition of the Futurama II had chosen to ignore the movement from odology to dromology, clinging instead to 1939’s original “Futurama” narrative and its insistence on superhighways as a safer infrastructure for drivers. But the new dromology ditched the landscape altogether, instead aligning speed with the immediate satisfaction of consumer desires. Science fiction author J.G. Ballard observes that

. . . the car crash differs from other disasters in that it involves the most powerfully advertised commercial product of this century, an iconic entity that combines the elements of speed, power, dream and freedom within a highly stylized format that defuses any fears we may have of the inherent dangers of these violent and unstable machines.

(…)

Just five years after the end of the second Futurama exhibition, J.G. Ballard penned The Atrocity Exhibition (1970), a dreamlike and fractured representation of the consequences of this new dromology brought about by auto-mobility. Ballard’s narratives present near-future highways as the ultimate death machine, not just for transgressors of the road-safety code, but for everybody. These highways are realized in the nightmarish qualities of an abstract system Ballard called “Autogeddon.” In The Atrocity Exhibition, the highway is refigured as a network of sex and death. No longer able to retain its appeal as a glorious vision of a streamlined future, the highway has become, by 1970, a gruesome expression of the contradictions inherent in the fetishization of “violent and unstable machines.” The Atrocity Exhibition describes a dromological world in which human existence is experienced as an extended moment: a car crash that never ends but endlessly repeats. In what is perhaps an inevitable culmination of humankind’s adaptation to speed, people and highways are no longer distinguishable: in Ballard’s Autogeddon, the highway has taken on the properties of a biological body—not just the arterial metaphor, but the “skeleton” of the road itself:

Waking: the concrete embankment of a motorway extension. Roadworks, cars drumming two hundred yards below. In the sunlight the seams between the sections are illuminated like the sutures of an exposed skull.

The book iterates through road accidents, dismemberments, and cut-up women’s bodies to create a crash future with distinctly filmic qualities: “Sequence in slow motion: a landscape of highways and embankments, evening light of fading concrete, intercut with images of a young woman’s body” (72). Aside from the troubling gender implications, Ballard’s Autogeddon offers a disturbing vision of a near-future in which human bodies and machines are inextricably connected by the vertiginous speed of the automobile.

(…)

In a novel where space and time are conquered by dromology, the car is secondary to the space in which it exists: the highway system itself. In fact, Ballard suggests, “[t]he ultimate concept car will move so fast, even at rest, as to be invisible” (98). On the highways time stops: “Looking around, I had the impression that all the cars on the highway were stationary, the spinning earth racing beneath them to create an illusion of movement” (196). In this transformation of the highway into a flattened moment out of time, Ballard creates a stylized tableau owing much to the deco-perfect diorama of Geddes’ Futurama.

In Crash he characterizes the architecture of the highway as a kind of perfect mesh of nature and machine: “Along the elegant motion sculpture of the concrete highway the coloured carapaces of the thousands of cars moved like the welcoming centaurs of some Arcadian land” (166). This scene, calling to mind the tiny colored cars racing through Futurama’s idyllic country landscape, is populated with cars reveling in pure speed with an animal-like innocence: “The marker-lines diving and turning formed a maze of white snakes, writhing as they carried the wheels of the cars crossing their backs, as delighted as dolphins” (196).

(…)

The association of sexual desire and automobiles was not new. As early as 1951, Marshall McLuhan had noted that a component of postwar responses to machines reflected an “interfusion of sex and technology” in advertising that went beyond the simple use of attractive women to sell cars (94). On the one hand, women were paraded and displayed with cars in such a way that a car became like a beautiful woman, with its soft interiors and desirable status markers. But, McLuhan argued, cars also stood in for a deeper desire to form an intimate connection with the machines themselves, a desire to become part of the mechanism of modern technology:

It is not a feature created by the ad men, but it seems rather to be born of a hungry curiosity to explore and enlarge the domain of sex by mechanical technique, on one hand, and, on the other, to possess machines in a sexually gratifying way. (The Mechanical Bride 94)

(…)

But the collapsed space of the car crash intrudes on this dream of the perfect machine. McLuhan notes that the fusion of sex and technology that constitutes the mechanical bride is surrounded by “images of hectic speed, mayhem, violence, and sudden death” (98). The irony of desiring to plug into a machine is that desire is not satisfied, but merely displaced:

. . . for those for whom the sex act has come to seem mechanical and merely the meeting and manipulation of body parts, there often remains a hunger which can be called metaphysical but which is not recognized as such, and which seeks satisfaction in physical danger, or sometimes torture, suicide, or murder. (100)

In The Mechanical Bride McLuhan shows that there is a kind of inherent violence in the technological visualization/objectification of a woman’s body, both in our everyday lives and in the less overt but still overwhelmingly present sexist conventions of television and billboard advertising. But in Crash, we find this violence made literal. The victims are women who are physically cut up in automobile accidents in the same way that they are metaphorically cut up in photography and Western art more generally: carefully cropped images of parts of hands, skin, face, leg, or arm. Seagrave, the stunt-driver, fondly imagines film stars being “forced to crash their own stunt-cars” (103), starting with the film star Elizabeth Taylor, about whom he comments gleefully, “I can see those big tits cut up on the dash” (95).

(…)

Perhaps, though, Ballard’s novels are better thought of as a response to the impulses so clearly laid out by McLuhan’s The Mechanical Bride: a world in which cultural narratives are driven by human adaptation to the modern machine and not the other way around. Rather than existing on an axis between moralism and aestheticism, or as examples of “guerilla interventions,” Crash and The Atrocity Exhibition point out the ways in which the very creation of auto-mobility, the infrastructure of car culture itself, creates violence against the human body, echoing Virilio’s claim that “to invent the family automobile is to invent the pile-up on the freeway.” Indeed, recurring images of children, such as Patty, broken by car wrecks suggest a “family dimension” absent in Ballard’s gruesome technological landscapes.”

#ballard #jg ballard #crash #atrocity exhibition #love & napalm #cars #machines #future #highways #road safety #odology #dromology

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sheldricklawfirm · 2 months

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Boca Raton Auto Accident Guide: Claim Your Rights

Whether it's a minor fender bender or a devastating fatal accident that unfolded on the roads of Boca Raton or West Palm Beach today, the impact of any car accident can be profound.

Understanding the gravity of every situation, our dedicated team stands ready to provide the support and guidance you need. No matter the extent of the accident, we are here, available to listen, advise, and assist you through this challenging time.

Your call is not just a request for help; it's the first step towards securing your rights and finding a path to recovery.

WHAT SHOULD I DO IMMEDIATELY AFTER A CAR ACCIDENT IN BOCA RATON?

IMMEDIATE STEPS AFTER AN ACCIDENT

Ensure Safety: First, make sure everyone involved in the accident is safe. Move vehicles out of traffic if possible without compromising safety.

Call 911: Florida law requires you to report any car accident that results in injuries, death, or significant property damage to the police. When you call 911, they will dispatch local law enforcement and emergency medical services if needed. For accidents in Boca Raton, the responding agency will likely be the Boca Raton Police Department or the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office, depending on the exact location of the accident.

REPORTING TO LAW ENFORCEMENT

Boca Raton Police Department (BRPD): If the accident occurs within Boca Raton city limits, BRPD will typically take the report. You can contact them directly for non-emergency situations at their non-emergency number 561-368-6201.

Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office (PBSO): For accidents occurring in areas of Palm Beach County outside Boca Raton city limits, PBSO is the responsible agency. They also have a non-emergency contact number for reporting which is 561-688-3000.

LEGAL REQUIREMENTS FOR REPORTING

Florida Statutes Section 316.066: Florida law mandates that any crash resulting in vehicle damage of $500 or more, injuries, or death must be reported to the local police department, sheriff, or Florida Highway Patrol. This report is known as a Florida Traffic Crash Report and is filed by the officer who investigates the scene.

Personal Injury Protection (PIP): Florida is a no-fault state, requiring all drivers to carry PIP insurance. Reporting your accident promptly is crucial for PIP claims, which cover medical bills and lost wages regardless of who was at fault.

Are You Entitled To PIP Benefits?

AFTER REPORTING THE ACCIDENT

Exchange Information: While waiting for law enforcement, exchange names, contact information, vehicle registration, and insurance details with the other driver(s).

Document the Scene: Take photographs of the accident scene, including all vehicles involved, any visible damages, and road conditions. This documentation can be invaluable for insurance claims and potential legal actions.

Witness Information: If there are witnesses, collect their contact information. Witness statements can provide crucial third-party perspectives on the accident.

Follow Up: After the accident, you can obtain a copy of the crash report from the responding agency. This report is essential for insurance claims and legal consultations.

Consult a Lawyer: Especially in cases of injury or significant damage, consulting with a Boca Raton car accident attorney can help you navigate the complexities of insurance claims and explore potential compensation beyond what PIP insurance covers.

Navigating the aftermath of a car accident can be overwhelming. Our Boca Raton personal injury attorney Kayla Sheldrick is ready to help you with every step, from filing a claim to negotiating with insurance companies. Reach out for a free consultation to ensure your rights are safeguarded.

Do I Need a Lawyer For a Minor Car Accident in Boca Raton?

Even minor car accidents can have complicated legal and insurance implications. A lawyer can help you understand your rights, file claims such as property damage or a bodily injury claim, deal with insurance adjusters, and ensure you receive fair compensation for any damages or injuries, no matter how minor they seem. Florida's no-fault insurance laws and comparative negligence rules can affect your claim, making professional legal advice invaluable.

For any car accident in or around Boca Raton, big or small, having the right legal representation is important. Call us at (561) 440-7775 to discuss your case. Our accident attorney is committed to getting you the compensation and support you deserve.

How Soon Should I See a Doctor After a Car Accident in Boca Raton?

Seeking medical attention immediately after a car accident, even if you feel fine, is crucial. Injuries like whiplash or internal bruising may not show symptoms right away. A prompt medical check-up ensures your well-being and strengthens any potential personal injury claim. Florida law allows up to 14 days to seek medical treatment to qualify for Personal Injury Protection (PIP) benefits, but sooner is always better.

How To Hire A Lawyer After An Accident

Hiring a lawyer after an accident can significantly ease the burden of navigating the aftermath and legal processes.

Here's A Detailed, Step-By-Step Guide On How To Hire A Lawyer:

Step 1: RESEARCH

Identify your need for a personal injury attorney.

Ask for referrals and use online directories.

Check reviews and lawyer's specializations.

Step 2: EVALUATE EXPERIENCE

Confirm their expertise in personal injury and success with similar cases.

Verify credentials and bar membership.

Step 3: SCHEDULE CONSULTATIONS

Arrange free consultations with several lawyers.

Prepare documents and questions about their approach and fees.

Step 4: ASSES COMPATIBILITY

Ensure clear communication and comfort with their handling of your case.

Discuss availability and updates.

Step 5: DISCUSS FEES

Understand the contingency fee basis and any additional costs.

Step 6: REVIEW & SIGN AGREEMENT

Carefully read the retainer agreement.

Ask for clarifications before signing.

Once comfortable and understanding of all aspects of the retainer agreement and overall process, sign the retainer agreement.

Step 7: COOPERATE & TRUST THE PROCESS

Provide all necessary information and stay engaged with your case.

Be patient and trust your lawyer’s expertise.

LOOKING TO RETAIN AN ATTORNEY IN FLORIDA?

CALL (561) 440-7775

Visit our BLOG to learn more about hiring an accident attorney immediately after an accident.

#Boca Raton accident attorney #boca raton car accident #boca raton accident today #accident attorney in boca raton florida #Car accident attorney #florida personal injury attorney

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bylagunabay · 1 year

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Power of the ROSARY

WE HAVE SEEN SO MANY INCREDIBLE THINGS HAPPEN BECAUSE OF PEOPLE’S DEVOTION TO THE ROSARY …

(2-min read)

“We have seen so many incredible things happen because of people’s devotion to the Rosary,” said Sam Perry. “That’s why we do everything we can to help people understand and use it.”

For Sam Perry, it goes back to when he was bedridden for four months with rheumatic fever at the age of 9. It was a hard time for his family, as his sister also was struggling with polio.

“We were poor. My Grandma lived with us and taught us to pray the Rosary every day. Her faithfulness brought strength to our family. Soon my fever went away and so did my sister’s polio… all because of the family Rosary.”

He shared a few stories about the protection he’s received from his devotion to the Rosary.

When in his early 20s, Sam was at the Berlin Wall. Somehow he and three friends did the impossible — they smuggled a young man out of Communist East Berlin.

“There was a lot of anxiety as we planned his escape,” said Sam. “My friends knew about my devotion to the Rosary, so they sent me to Church to pray until I felt the time was right and we could make our move. God was with us. The man we freed eventually became a doctor!”

Soon after, Sam was taken ill with hepatitis and yellow jaundice. Hospitalized in critical condition for 2 1/2 weeks with an enlarged liver and a weight loss of 40 pounds, he was healed through the Rosary.

He credits the Rosary with narrow escapes from three serious auto accidents over a 30-year period. One was with a teenage friend whose car rolled over on an Estes Park road and demolished a cab. Another was with his wife Becky on an isolated tribal reservation highway when a donkey came out of nowhere, charged into and totaled their car. The third auto accident required an hour to free him from a pinned car.

There were no serious injuries or fatalities in any of the accidents, each time to the absolute amazement of police and doctors. Sam always held fast to his Rosary and knows he was protected through its prayers.

He and Becky credit her conversion to Catholicism to the intercession of Our Lady.

- Sam Perry (thecatholicfoundation)

#christianity #catholic #rosary #miracles

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seat-safety-switch · 2 months

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Everyone loves a rousing game of bumper cars, but as soon as you bring it onto the highway people get all uptight. That’s exactly the kind of hypocrisy that drives me nuts.

Insurance companies have been charging you for centuries to have massive accidents, investing your deposits to make even more profit, and yet very few people will ever collect on those policies. That’s your money. Now, I’m not one of those conspiracy theorists who think that the concept of “auto insurance” is a false mindworm produced by the Alien Forefathers to enslave the populace. I’m just asking questions. And one of those questions is: why don’t I start my own insurance company?

I live in a pretty free-spirited part of the world. The wingnuts who run the show around here don’t believe in getting in the way of a good time, unless that good time is being held by a minority or one of their political enemies. If you’re a corporation, you can get away with literally anything you want in the name of profit. If you’re a corporation. Starting a corporation costs three hundred dollars. Insurance is way higher than that.

Of course, being an insurance company, I still have to produce documentation that I am doing insurance-y stuff. I charge myself premiums, really fat ones. Those deposits are backstopped by a durable asset base: my backyard and garage full of old Dodge parts (worth a fortune, if you ask anyone trying to sell them on eBay.) And I don’t make it particularly easy for myself to make a claim. Luckily, I know someone at the top, so I can bypass all that red tape when it comes time to cash out the claim holdings for a new bumper or a couple cans of Princess Auto’s best tractor enamel spray paint.

It gets better, too: insurance companies will get mad at drivers, but they give other insurance companies a break. They know there’s enough moolah to spread around that they don’t need to get super froggy about any one job. Hey bro, our investment team had a bad day at the ponies, but we’ll be good for the next claim, can you spot me this one? Thanks dude! They pay for the GM dealership you just plowed through, and nobody has to know that your only “insured” is yourself. If they figure it out, they’re not going to tell their boss they got tricked. Just sweep it under the rug.

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if-you-fan-a-fire · 2 years

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'IS NO TIME FOR LIQUOR' 2 MUNITION WORKERS TOLD,” Toronto Star. April 1, 1942. Page 8. --- Police Found Herbert McKinnon and Cecil Kay Sound Asleep in Auto --- CAR WAS DITCHED ---- Special to The Star Whitby, April 1 - "This is no time for liquor," Magistrate F. S. Ebbs told two munitions workers who appeared before him on charges of drunk driving. Provincial police said both had been found in the same car, so intoxicated they could not be awakened, so they charged each man.

Herbert McKinnon pleaded guilty and was sentenced to seven days. dating back to the time of his arrest. He was also assessed costs or an additional seven days, his car was ordered impounded for three months, and his license suspended for three months. Cecil Kay pleaded not guilty and was acquitted. Kay admitted having liquor illegally in a public place and being intoxicated. He was fined $10 and costs or 10 days.

Police stated they found the car "ditched" on the heavily travelled road to the plant, south of No. 2 highway.

Warns All Others "I think a warning should be issued right now to these men and all others engaged in war work," said the magistrate. "These cases are becoming altogether too frequent. These are serious offences particularly in view of the fact that the road to the plant is very heavily travelled and there have been numerous accidents on it lately.

"I believe this is one of the most heavily travelled strips of road in Canada. Some people seem to insist on using it while intoxicated; fortunately, not many are in the extreme state of intoxication these claimed men were in," the crown commented.

Provincial Constable James Sutherland said he and Provincial Traffic Officer Gilbert Robertson had been driving down the road early in the morning of March 25. "Half-way down to the railroad bridge we noticed a car in a five-foot ditch, facing slightly northwest," said witness. "The front of the car was almost buried in mud and when we stopped to investigate we found Kay lying behind the wheel in the front seat and McKinnon in the back. They were so intoxicated we couldn't wake them up and we finally had to carry them to the police car." The officer stated the McKinnon car was also in the ditch on the wrong side of the road.

"McKinnon said he had driven the car, got out to get a shovel and then knew no more. The left front door was so jammed we couldn't get it open."

Had Three Drinks Kay said he had never driven the car. He claimed that he and McKinnon had been "working double- shift and just came off work when a fellow asked us to have a drink with him. I had three drinks." He admitted having a bottle of liquor in the car and said it had been given him "by a man in the plant parking lot.”

McKinnon told the court he had driven several workers to Whitby and was on his way back when the car went into the ditch. "When we couldn't find the shovel there was nothing we could do but stay there till morning. I wasn't drunk when I was driving. It was when I lay down that the whiskey hit me," he claimed. "I drove the car all the time. It's my car," McKinnon asserted.

"What were you doing in the back seat when Kay was in the front," Crown Attorney Allin Annis inquired. McKinnon said both had been riding in the front seat and that he had crawled over the back of it to search for the shovel.

“I’m going to give you the benefit of the doubt, Kay. There's some doubt as to why you were behind the wheel, but I'm going to accept the evidence on this point and dismiss this charge against you," the court ruled.

"From now on we are going to have to deal with such cases far more severely. You don't look like the ordinary type of men who get into such difficulties. You are engaged in very important work requiring that you be in first-class physical condition."

Martin Hickey, munitions worker, pleaded not guilty on charges of wounding Corporal Robert Watson of the plant staff of guards, assaulting Corporal Watson, and assaulting Jack Johnston, caretaker of his bunkhouse.

Magistrate Ebbs convicted him of assaulting the constable and reserved his decision on the other two charges.

#whitby #police court #drunk driving #drunk driver #munitions workers #war workers #munitions plant #motor vehicle regulations #public intoxication #assault #wounding with intent #canada during world war 2 #crime and punishment in canada #history of crime and punishment in canada

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rai-knightshade-art · 2 years

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I seem to be on a "fave media x 80's cult classic" kick right now (there'll be a Sailor Moon x Back to the Future post sometime in the future), so let's have my latest combo: the Young Jedi Knights Squad (Jaina, Jacen, Zekk, Tenel Ka, and Raynar) as The Breakfast Club! Aka a fanfic that i will never write and yet so desperately want to see written i already made Fanart for it. Go figure. Anyways have some iconic scenes from the movies!

Close Ups and a description of each of the "club" members below the cut, image IDs in the alt text!

The Players:

Zekk is, obviously, the "delinquent"; he's an orphan, he has to work and scrounge up his food and clothes, he pulls harebrained schemes for the adrenaline rush--he's a teacher's (specifically Brakiss's) worst nightmare. Of course, that's not all he is; he's got a key mind for mechanics and technology, helped by his scrap searching; he stays out at all hours because he doesn't like being home alone (his guardian Peckham, who he loves like family, is often away as a truck driver, and it gets lonely in their little house without him); he's kindhearted, and fiercely loyal, he just doesn't want to let anyone in out of fear of losing them, or that they won't like what they see....

Jaina is the "princess"; the only daughter of the Governor, she's been groomed to play nice and hang out with the other children of politicians and CEOs since she was just a little girl. Nowadays they form her primary group of friends, the most popular kids in school, looked up to--or down upon-- by their peers in equal measure. And... She kinda hates it. She stays with them only out of obligation, to make her mother's life easier, but she doesn't particularly care about any of them and doesn't even particularly enjoy their company; it's all drama and gossip and a revolving cacophony of dating and breaking up and bitter exes and rivalries and she is sick of it. She would much rather be spending her time at her dad's auto shop, getting her hands dirty tuning up engines and changing oil and bonding with Han. She can't tell anyone that tho, it would ruin her reputation...

Jacen is the "jock"; the twin brother of Jaina, he also feels a certain pressure to stay in with the popular crowd. He achieves this by being captain of the fencing team; it's no star quarterback position but it is still respectable among his peers. Fencing isn't his true passion, tho; he'd much rather be spending all his time at the local animal shelters, or assisting at the zoo. He's an animal lover through and through, but it's something he hides from his "friends" so that they don't have reason to shun him for being a "sissy." He knows there's nothing ignoble about his hobby, but they don't know that....

Tenel Ka is, for lack of a better term, the "weirdo"; she comes from somewhere called Dathomir, from a culture of fierce warrior women, and boy, does she act like it. She will readily duel anyone who looks at her wrong, she eats entire animal legs for lunch, and she never seems to show much emotion.... Ever. Add to that her missing arm (which no one knows the truth about btw, rumors fly about it being anything from a childhood accident to one of her duels gone wrong), and she cuts an intimidating figure that most students avoid. Is there more to her than that? Oh is there. Is there ever.

Raynar Thul is the final member of the crew; he's the "trust fund baby" that hangs out with a very specific clique that even Jaina and Jacen aren't a part of. He comes across as snobbish and standoffish, unwilling to dabble with anyone "lesser". This is a front, however; he projects this persona because it's what his parents expect from him, and he doesn't want word getting back to them about what he actually does: extensive volunteer work. Raynar has a drive to help people, and has been trying to use his privilege all through high school to do just that, by volunteering at food banks and for highway clean up, and donating as much of his allowance as physically possible where he can. In fact, it's how he met his girlfriend Lusa, but that's a whole other can of worms...

#young jedi knights #the breakfast club #jaina solo #jacen solo #tenel ka djo #zekk #raynar thul #jaina x zekk #jacen x tenel ka #(those arent strictly obvious here but i put them in those roles for a reason)#(zekk and jaina definitely bond and zekk ends up getting a job at han's shop later because he hangs out there so much)#(jacen and tenel ka volunteer at the animal shelter together its very cute)#myposts #myart #star wars eu #star wars legends

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