On Answering Some Tough Questions

Saturday around noon we were on our way home from the boys' skating lesson when we witnessed a horrible traffic accident. Four cars ahead of us was a Jeep driving erratically. Suddenly, it veered right and flipped, causing a commotion of dust and debris.

The boys were in the backseat, of course and didn't see it happen, but our gasps snapped them to attention. Dan pulled the car over and I fumbled with the phone to call 911. After I finished speaking with dispatch, Dan hopped out of the car and walked across the street to see if he could help.

Questions began firing from my backseat passengers.

"Mommy, what happened?"
"Who were you talking to on the phone?"
"Why are we at the gas station and Dada's not getting gas?"
"Is the ambulance going to come?"
"Why is that Jeep upside down?"

I did my best to truthfully explain what happened, balancing reality with optimism as the fire department arrived. The accident scene was beyond our view (thankfully) so we couldn't really see what was going on. The boys weren't scared, but were concerned for the "people in the Jeep." They also said they were glad a tanker wasn't involved in the accident because it would have
"blown every thing up."

We've been teaching them about 911 at home and I talked to them about how it applies in this situation, explaining why I called and how dozens of others did as well. I also pointed out how wonderful it was that so many people stopped to help, just as their Daddy did.

Dan returned to the car a few minutes later. The look on his face confirmed my fears. The driver was dead. Apparently, on off-duty police officer had been following the woman driving the Jeep. As soon as she crashed, he ran over to her and immediately began chest compressions while calling in the accident. Fortunately, no one else was hurt.

Dan and I were quiet on the way home while the boys talked excitedly about all of the emergency vehicles they saw and what purpose they would be serving in an accident. I was glad they didn't ask anything more about the driver and counted our blessings were weren't in the car next to the Jeep.