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Car Wreck

Car Wreck

When I was in 4th grade my family planned to visit Port Accelade for Easter. We made this trip every year without any trouble What differed this trip was my grandmother was included and we were towing an RV instead of booking a hotel. This was when my family was wealthy I was 10 years old and so we drove a new Cadillac Escalade. The Escalade certainly could handle the towing of the RV behind it, the latch connecting the two however could not. About 25 minutes into our trip we were crossing a bridge when the latch connecting the Escalade to the RV snapped, sending us into a tailspin on the bridge ending up with the passenger front tire over the barrier. The RV had flown off and was decimated by the 50ft fall. When the latch snapped my father successfully controlled the loss of traction, to a degree. I believe we spun around twice before nearly going over the bridge, like I said the right front wheel was up over the railing. As we all exited the vehicle we were subjected to the damage of the Rv. It was shattered into pieces on the road as well as below the bridge. I remember during the tailspin my brother shouting "dad, slow down." I think my sister was screaming and my mom panicked. I don't think my grandmother even sitting in the front seat made a noise just braced herself for impact hoping my father could regain control of the vehicle.

My father had control of the vehicle and was attempting to stop it from going over the bridge so he was panicked as well. I however in the back seat didn't make a noise in the slightest or even brace myself for impact. I remember thinking and saying in my head "so this is how I'm going to die." Fortunate for us though none of us were physically harmed the psychological damage had been done to my parents and siblings. My father refused to go to the hospital so I'm not sure the service back then in 2001 but a van arrived to pick us all up and take us back to Oakridge. When we arrived home my father was the most shook up to where my mother decided to get a blood pressure machine we owned to get a reading. He was in stroke territory so my mother went and got our neighbor Madie, who was a retired nurse to come over and assess him. I believe she

After the accident my mother told the elementary school counselor, Laura, about what had happened and asked her to speak to me to determine how I truly was coping with the accident and if there was lasting psychological damage. So one day Laura stopped by my classroom and requested I go with her to a conference room and discuss what had happened with the car wreck. As I told her the story I began to cry in my reflections and Laura attempted to console me. After this visit Laura contacted my mother and told her "he most definitely has PTSD and psychological damage from the accident." My mother, likely not having the money to do so, never followed up with getting me a counselor or even more than one visit with Laura.