A Whopper

Oh boy, have I got a whopper this time. The whole story starts last Friday when Katie and I – my friend from Macalester who was visiting for the week – decided to rent a car for a couple days. The idea was to get the car so that we could go hike around some national parks in Costa Rica, use it to take her to the airport, and then drop the car off afterward.

It is nearly impossible to get to many of the parks in Costa Rica by public transport and we really wanted to hike a volcano to top off what had already been a very fun and adventuresome week. We got the car, a small sized SUV, and headed off to Rincon de la Vieja Friday afternoon to hike for a bit. We made up to a sweet, hidden waterfall halfway up the mountain and back down without a problem.

Feeling optimistic, we made plans to go visit another national park, Guanacaste, a bit farther north on Saturday but that turned out to be a disaster. Although it is a national park, there are no signs directing you how to get there. We drove around looking for it the entire morning and ended up stopping at a stream and spent most of the afternoon walking amongst the rocks. We intended to hike a volcano, but we had to settle for this alternative.

The story really doesn’t get interesting until we’re about two miles from my apartment. It had just stopped raining and we were coming down a big hill that leads into Coco. I was driving at a reasonable speed, certainly not going excessively fast, while a bus was coming up the hill in the opposite directly. I pressed the brake to slow down as we passed it but the car skidded on some oil or something slippery on the road and veered into the path of the oncoming bus. I tried to slow down and steered the car away from the bus, but that unfortunately put us heading toward the shoulder of the road and we were still sliding out of control.

The rest of the images I remember in very clear, but disconnected flashes as we skidded off the side of hill, catching our tires on something and rolling over twice before we landed right side up and stopped. The whole thing happened so quickly I didn’t fully realize what had occurred until we stopped.

The windows and doors were smashed and our things were tossed all over the place as we rolled, but miraculously, Katie and I were almost completely fine after the crash. Dazed and mostly angry, I emerged from the wreckage literally without a scratch, and only with a sore neck. Rolling on her side of the vehicle, Katie fared only slightly worse with a scratch on her shoulder and thigh, and bump on her head and forearm. Which, all things considered, could have been a lot worse for both of us.

The response from passers by and emergency personnel was rapid, but fortunately nothing was severely physically wrong so we got a ride back to my apartment and that was that. Katie was a bit more shaken up than I was and it was a psychologically difficult rest of the night and morning as I went with her to the airport Sunday morning.

I have definitely been in a weird state of mind since the accident (unfortunately for Katie because I should have been more supportive) but am gradually getting back to normal. Strangely, my initial reaction was simply being pissed off that the whole thing happened, but time has gone by, the gravity of the situation has sunk in a bit more.

Looking at the car afterward, pretty well smashed up, it was astounding that nothing worse happened to us. Without any warning, and for no drastic reason, the car skidded out of control and flipped twice. I simply pressed the brakes and we could have (and perhaps should have) been injured much worse than what actually happened.

In was especially a shame because it put an incredibly sour flavor to an otherwise very fun week. We met up with one of Katie’s friends living in Costa Rica, went boogey boarding, SCUBA diving, went out to eat and a bunch of other things that were a lot of fun. I wish I were writing about those instead, but this story definitely trumps the others.

I have been graced with good fortune throughout my lifetime and everything has always seemed to work out for me just fine. It’s the luck I have lived by and thankfully it hasn’t run out yet. However, a situation such as this quickly and dramatically, puts things in perspective and is a stark reminder how your fortunes can change in an instant.

I am back at work and have made a claim and started the whole process to get this resolved. It promises to be a long and drawn out process, but we bought insurance on the car so I am optimistic it will not be too much out of pocket. However, considering the extent of the accident, any amount of money is pennies in comparison to what could have been.