Occupational Hazzard

12/28/05 06:30

Flooded highway 101 South, Burlingame.

Multi-car pile up. I hit someone in the back of the pack, and I was the last one hit by a car
behind me. Air bag blossomed and filled the car with gunpowder smoke.
Hood buckled up in half (I pushed it back down by jumping on it later: see photo).

I could see the stunned man in the car next
to me as I fumbled for the window switch and turned off the radio. My
car was still running and in gear. Guy in the car next to me and I
gestured, "You OK?" and pulled over to the side of the road. I got
out, but the water was over my ankles.

Some highlighted highway worker who was already trying to either fix
the flooding or, as I found out later, the pile up that had occurred
just before our 4 or 5 or 6 or 7 or more car pile up, had us pull
over to the other shoulder. There was a long line of cars and even
witnesses who were livid that there were some (not me) driving at
very unsafe speeds. I had seen some earlier blazing down the road in
the rain and it had made me mad that they would be so cavalier (that
word) with other peoples safety. CHP came and had us pull off at the
next exit, exchange information. The two other cars with me were able
to drive off, but by then my radiator was fuming clouds of steam and
I had to get a tow (AAA!). CHP said yet another pile up had occurred
at the same spot while were waiting for the tow truck.

Tow truck driver dropped me at the train station and I eventually
walked from the Sunnyvale station to work (only a few block! Who
knew!?). This morning my neck and shoulders were very stiff and it
hurts to turn my head, but a hot shower, some ibuprofen, and moving
around helped.

Went to the yard and cleaned out my car. Pretty evident it's not
worth trying to fix. AAA provided me with a rental. Drove past the
crash site on my way to work today but couldn't even tell where it
had all happened.