The Crash

It is the classic parental nightmare. It’s 4:00 AM and you’ve just awoken from a deep sleep. She’s talking to her mom.

“You need to get up. The cars stuck. I couldn’t get the key out of the ignition but I locked the doors. I cut my forehead.”

Tears follow.

“At least she appears okay” is your first thought. Then the blanks get filled in.

After supposedly locking the car she ran and walked home, two miles away.

Mom gets up and swings into action. I fumble for my robe already devising a plan to go get the car. Do we have any rope or chain in the house?

Mom suggests we wait until first light to attempt to retrieve the car. Before I could get dressed two Howard County police officers were at our front door.

“Don’t worry about going to the car,” one of the officers instructed, “it’s already been towed. It’s totaled.”

Luckily, the only thing damaged besides the car was a street sign. Less than five feet more to the right was a telephone pole. She was lucky. We were lucky.

As I result of this incident, I also learned I could obtain a police report of the accident online. All I needed was the accident report number and the date. Howard County is one of only two municipalities in Maryland to offer this service through PoliceReports.US.

We are still filling in blanks.