If you think that unbelievable crashes only occur in movies, wait until you read this true story.
On Tuesday evening, March 23, 2004, my brother Tom asked us to attend the first XanGo meeting to be held in Houston. Beh and I both left work early so that we could make the one-hour drive to the Hampton Inn on Beltway 8 near Bush Intercontinental Airport.
Although I encountered heavy traffic in two places, and my computer map had the Hampton Inn on the wrong side of the freeway, we arrived about five minutes before the 7:00 p.m. meeting. I looked for a disabled parking space, but found none. I drove to the end of the parking lot beyond several empty spaces and parked crowding the last space so that I could open my ramp on the right side of my Ford Windstar van. Beh reminded me that I should park at an angle across two spaces so that I wouldn't be blocked in. There were no cars anywhere near me, so I thought that where I had parked was sufficient enough. Beh's words would come to haunt me later.
The meeting wasn't very interesting to either of us, and Beh was tired, so she urged us to leave right after the first session ended at 9:00 p.m. When we got out to the van, a small white car on the right and a big blue pickup on the left blocked it on both sides.
My van has been highly modified so that in addition to the normal driving mode, I can drive it electronically from my wheelchair. However, I have to be able to enter the van in order to operate it. No one else, except someone trained, can operate my controls in the electronic mode. The only way that I can get into my van when it's blocked like that is that someone pushes the van out to where the side door will open and the ramp comes down. Beh was very upset when she saw the van was blocked. We decided to go back in and get some help.
When I explained what I needed, the night manager of the Hampton Inn was most happy to help us. He followed us out, not fully understanding that I needed to be getting in on the passenger side of the Windstar. When we got to the van, Beh decided to help. In order for the van to move, it had to be in neutral. It was in park. I have a panel to my right, shoulder high between the two front seats, with all my controls in buttons. In order to shift gears from park to neutral, Beh had to open the driver's side door, and, while standing outside the van, reach across to the panel (there is no driver's seat) and press the ignition button to turn on the power. And then she had to pull the hand gas/brake lever mounted next to the driver's side door but not mounted on the door backward to engage the brake. This takes only about 1 to 2 lbs. pressure. Any more pressure and the brake becomes a emergency brake and damage can be done because the servo is so powerful. Most people brake way too hard in anxiety while trying it.
On the panel, the gears are arranged vertically like an elevator. Drive is at the bottom. Neutral is just above drive. Reverse is above neutral. And park is at the top. Next to each gear is a button. The button has to be pushed and held until the electric shifter moves the gearshift to the next position. When the gearshift moves, it moves slowly and makes a whirring noise. When it reaches the next gear a red light comes on next to that button. When it reaches the gear button being pushed, it stops precisely on that gear. It can stop between gears if pressure isn’t kept on the button.
Beh held the brake back and shifted the gearshift to neutral. I ran my wheelchair around to the passenger side so the manager could push the van out and I could see when the sliding door had cleared the white car on the right and tell her to brake. He had pushed the van only halfway when it was obvious that my front wheels were turned too much to the left and my front bumper would hit the car to the right if they weren't straightened. The manager decided that he would go inside and try to find the drivers of the two cars involved. He found the driver of the pickup, and she came and moved it. He didn't find driver of the car on the right. I explained to him and Beh that the only way we could straighten the wheels was to turn on my driving system and start the car. With the truck out of the way, I could roll up behind Beh and help her start the van.
Beh started the van easily by pushing the start button, a sequence of buttons on the panel, and the start button again. With the van running, she had to move my zero pressure steering back and forth until it electronically engaged the van steering. When that happened, the van steering wheel began moving back and forth in response. She easily straightened the wheel, so that the van could be pushed back further. I went back around the van and opened the side door with my remote on my wheelchair in preparation to lower the ramp. When the manager had pushed the Windstar out far enough, I realized that a safety feature on the system would not let me lower the ramp until the vehicle was in park. Though the open door I instructed Beh to hold the brake and shift the van into park.
Then it happened! In an instant, the van started to roll backward, the engine revved, Beh screamed, and the van accelerated rapidly across the space to a line of cars parked next to the building. The van crashed into a small white car, the back ends of both my van and the white car seemed to lift skyward and then bounced to a stop! I could hear Beh yelling and screaming from behind the van and rushed to her side. Amazingly, she had run backward fast enough to keep up and was thrown to the ground when the cars hit. She was not hurt. The manager and I, watching it happen in disbelief thought she would be killed or seriously injured.
The white car, an Oldsmobile Alero, had jumped the curb and landed close to the building across the sidewalk. None of its taillights were broken and it only appeared to have minor bumper and lower fender damage. My van had no taillights broken either, but the center of the rear lift door was caved in. Both cars on either side were undamaged. This was remarkably minor damage for the crash that I saw with both cars flying in the air.
The manager called the police. Soon three wreckers arrived. Shortly after that a fire truck arrived with four firemen. My power side door had come off the track; so three firemen got it back on. One fireman checked Beh's blood pressure and it was 128 over 63. I was glad for that. By this time I was shivering from the cold. The Houston Police arrived and announced that the Alero we had been trying to put my phone numbers on was stolen! After a long wait while an incident report and a stolen car report were written, we were finally allowed to drive home.
We got home at 11:00 p.m., five minutes after Daisey usually arrives. A message on my telephone said that Daisey was having car trouble and couldn't make it. Beh had to help me for the third night in a row. We were both tired and slept well.
All's well that ends well. I'm so grateful that Beh was not hurt. While the gearshift was moving from neutral to park, she must have let up on the brake when it got to reverse. The idling engine rolled the van backward. By just standing there, holding the gas/brake, the rolling van moved the lever into accelerating mode very quickly. It went back to brake and neutral after hitting the car reversed Beh’s pushing direction. She held onto the gas/brake so hard she bent the mounting arm. She had to bend it back so that I could drive us home.
My insurance adjuster told me the next day that the Alero was an Avis rental car. It may have been stolen at one time and not removed from the stolen car roster after it was found. Daisey lost her timing belt and ruined the engine on her 1995 Volvo. It’s been that kind of week!
Wow!! Amazing....yes you really did have a "shitty" kinda week!!
You had me sitting up straight here...I was waiting for somethng to happen...lol!! It was kinda funny..if you read it that way...imagine this car moving without a driver...it would crack me up for sure.....lol!!
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On Tuesday evening, March 23, 2004, my brother Tom asked us to attend the first XanGo meeting to be held in Houston. Beh and I both left work early so that we could make the one-hour drive to the Hampton Inn on Beltway 8 near Bush Intercontinental Airport.
