all’s well that ends well

We had a near-death experience today.

I could have used that as the title, too, but I think the first is more fitting.  I also thought of “Assess the Field”.  That actually works well, too.

The husband and I took the opportunity to go away for the weekend to celebrate our anniversary, still another week away.  This was the only chance we would get for a while due to shul obligations and his father was stable enough for us to take the chance.  It was wonderful, up to this bizarre occurrence.  We were driving down a street to get to the beach for a walk.  This particular beach is proceeded by a very large salt marsh.  Yesterday, we walked in the forest along the marsh, which was very lovely.  The amount of interdependence of flora and fauna is very striking.

Today, though, the interdependence was even more striking.  There was a woman in an older model car in front of us.  You know the kind; she’s driving down the street going about 10 miles under the speed limit, looking like she was going to put on her brakes at any moment for no visible reason.

All of a sudden, as we approached those marshes, she starts weaving to the left side of the street.  It’s already a bit blurry to what exactly happened next; she came back to our lane to avoid another car going in the opposite direction, but then continued into that lane, us honking, like that would have stopped her.

She drives off the road, down onto the marsh!

We pull over to the side of the road and the husband calls 911.  He gets out of the car to see what was going on.  Amazingly enough, this young man behind us gets out of his truck, too, but runs to the marsh, follows the woman, gets her to cut the wheel fast (before she falls into the river that cuts into the marsh).  He keeps up running with her until she turns quickly and almost hits him.

That leads her towards the deeper part of the river!  He catches up to her and gets her to turn the wheel again.  This keeps going on and on for a few minutes that still feel like a lifetime; two–hers and his.  Finally, this hero gets into the back of her car, reaches into the front and grabs her keys and cuts the engine.

By this time, the police have arrived, followed by a fire engine, and finally an ambulance.  Yes, a tow truck came pretty quickly as well.  The woman walked out of her car on her own steam.   I pulled our car ahead so that all the emergency vehicles could do their work and the other cars could pass, too.   Even before I did, the guy had already come back to his truck and was ready to drive off.  I told the guy he was my hero.  His retort was that he had no idea how he kept running the whole time.

And he drives off.

The husband is busy with the police writing up his version of what happened.  He says to the guy that he would stay, and the guy was in a hurry to get to work.  I’m eager to find out more and okay yeah, what’s up with this lady?

When she got out of the car, she said, “I’m fine.”  And she walked up to the street on her own.  She didn’t admit that anything was awry, just stating that she was trying to find her way back onto the road.

Stroke?  Heart attack?  Foot stuck on the accelerator, maybe thinking she was putting her foot on the brake?  Or just an addled old lady?

I don’t know, but it was close.  When she first went off the road, we thought she’d stop.  When she kept going, I was really afraid to look–there was no way she wasn’t going to crash/go into the freezing water.  Watching a potential disaster unfold was so unsettling.  We needed a long time to decompress ourselves.  The walk along the beach was perfect for that.  The husband was, of course, first berating himself that he didn’t run onto the marsh.  He got over that fast.  We didn’t know that this guy was going to come onto the scene, but you can’t put yourself in danger.  The marsh is not necessarily solid.  We weren’t from there; we didn’t know.  This guy is a local so he knows the field.  He also is a lot younger and maybe even a bit more foolish–he didn’t take the time to assess but he just jumped and ran.  Calling the emergency vehicles was obviously crucial; what if he couldn’t stop her?  What if she had gone into the water?  What if she did have a heart attack or stroke?

I looked for news online from the town.  Nothing yet.

I took a photo from the other side of the bridge.  Click on it and it will open up so that you can get the whole picture.

Literally.