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Sep 19, 2007

Life's ill · by Rafi Kam

I took today off from my 9 to 5 with every intent of catching up on a big freelance project.

Trying to be helpful, my wife took our kids and went to hang out at her parents’ place. She called me about fifteen minutes later saying that they’d been rear-ended while waiting to make the turn on to her parents block.

Some young dude driving his dad’s BMW convertible was changing his contact lens instead of watching the road and hit my wife’s Jeep Liberty at full cruising speed. Everyone seems to have come out ok but both cars are pretty f’d the f up – especially the BMW which sort of ended up going under the main body of the Jeep.

Environmentalists be damned – hooray for SUV’s on a day like today. Replace that Jeep with a sensible sedan and the two cute kids you see at the top of this post would probably be in the hospital or worse.

Now I am typing this part of the post from my bed or bathtub a la the end of a Run’s House episode:

Life is short and today is a reminder not to take anything for granted. You don’t have to be doing anything wrong for someone to come along and take your life away just like that. Today is also a reminder to stay alert at all times. In the past I have been both the fool who took his eyes off the road and the one hit by someone doing that. Whatever anger I could possibly have for the driver who endangered my kids is nullified by my own past mistakes.

Around dinnertime my son said he was scared to go to sleep tonight because of the accident. I spent the next hour or so repeatedly expressing the idea that we were actually very fortunate today.

Naturally I ended up falling asleep by his side. I have a history doing that kind of thing.

Comments for "Life's ill"

  1. God was looking out for the Kam clan today. I’m relieved that everyone came out ok. Your little man is looking more like you than ever. I have a personal hatred for folks who drive and talk on their cell phones. Let me be more clear: people who drive while holding a cell phone to their earholes. There is no reason why people shouldn’t be hands-free. I even fashioned a DIY bumpersticker thanks to OfficeMax vinyl sticky letters: One hand on the wheel + one hand on the phone = too stupid


    — Jay B    Sep 20, 12:36 AM   

  2. touching story…

    it’s true, SUV’s do serve a purpose, if it wasn’t for my Honda Pilot being big and bulky i wouldn’t be alive right now


    — tucan sam ain't nothing ta f' wit    Sep 20, 01:03 AM   

  3. Glad to hear your wife and kids made it out alright. I know I’d be nothing without my family, and unfortunately it takes something like what happened today to remind you every once and a while.


    — swehrlipete    Sep 20, 01:03 AM   

  4. your son is better than me… since my accident i dont like being in cars


    — a-one    Sep 20, 03:25 AM   

  5. Damn, glad to hear the little ones are okay!


    — R.H.S.    Sep 20, 06:38 AM   

  6. Good to hear that everyone is alright, Raf.


    — floodwatch    Sep 20, 09:57 AM   

  7. Damn Rafi, that’s nuts. I’m glad to hear your family came out okay.


    — Jay Solis    Sep 20, 10:59 AM   

  8. Glad you’re okay. Car crashes are always scary.

    But you should know that there have been studies on this, and the safety benefits of SUVs over cars are statistically zero. The measurable effect they do have is that they tend to do more damage to other vehicles in a crash.

    Obviously, there are other reasons one might choose to drive an SUV, but the supposed safety advantage is one of those classic pieces of “common sense” that is not supported by the evidence.


    — tps12    Sep 20, 12:08 PM   

  9. That’s heavy stuff homey, and so close to home.

    Like Sade said, cherish the day.

    Damn those kids are cute. That’s all your wife’s doing homey.


    — Billy Sunday    Sep 20, 12:19 PM   

  10. Fair enough tps although, from what I’ve seen while seeking out confirmation just now, all the reports seem to weigh in the fact that accidents are harder to avoid in an SUV.

    I wonder what they look like when assuming for only unavoidable accidents like the one described.

    In other words... instead of passenger deaths per million cars on the road, passenger deaths per crash.

    Have you seen any stats like that?


    — rafi    Sep 20, 12:47 PM   

  11. Hey brother, I’m glad that your babies are ok – thank god for environmentally harmful gas guzzlers.. Peace

    Humanity F Critic


    — HumanityCritic    Sep 20, 01:39 PM   

  12. Stop snitchin!!

    -


    — Hank Essay    Sep 20, 02:59 PM   

  13. You’re right, I can’t find any statistics like that. The only per-crash statistics only look at car-vs.-SUV crashes. You really need to be able to compare them to car-vs.-car to draw any conclusions.

    Anyway, glad your family is safe!


    — tps12    Sep 20, 03:03 PM   

  14. God bless to your family. I’m glad everyone was safe and it didn’t turn out worse.


    — DJ Flash    Sep 24, 11:38 PM