Runaway Vehicle Day

I started my day late this morning, so I hit the ground running. I was the last car on the ferry, made it to the post office, the bank, the law firm, then to the little guy, the attorney's newest client in South Seattle.

He is 11 years ago and a few days ago, he was going home from school. To do so, he took a yellow school bus to a city bus which took him far away from school to home in west Seattle.
It was on the return trip that it happened.

"That's a long commute," I said, as I sat and took notes in his living room with his mother and father beside us.
"Yeah, and I was almost home," Danny (a pseudonym) replied.
"I just stepped off the bus, stepped into the street and onto the curb. I was just on the sidewalk. Then I saw the car coming and it hit me. And I went out. It was black."

What happened was a female driver, age 34, in a fully-insured, trendy, 2009 mini- SUV type vehicle... told one responding police officer that she pushed on the accelerator instead of the brake. She continued to accelerate as she drove up on a curb, drove down the sidewalk, hit a tree and a telephone pole and did a complete 360 --- before hitting 11 year old Danny, who told me he "was froze solid."

Danny's mom showed me the police report.
The DEF driver, female, was cited for negligent driving.
"No DWI?" I asked.
"Makes no sense to me" Danny's dad said. "Something else had to be going down. Maybe she was on the phone or texting. Don't even know if she was tested for drugs or alcohol."

My attention turned back to Danny.
"After you blacked out Danny, what's the next thing you remember?" I asked.

"Waking up twice, " he responded.
"Once on that backboard thing in the ambulance. I was looking down at my body from the ceiling. I knew it was me even though it couldn't be me because I was looking at me," he said. "They were doing things to my body and I wondered if that's my body who am I, if I am watching me?"

Mom interjected at this point. "They told me he died once in the ambulance."

Danny then said he went back into his body, blacked out again and woke up for good in the hospital room.

He sustained significant injuries.
I took several photos of the huge goose egg on the frontal lobe of his head.
"Youch" I said, as I zoomed in tight on the discolored lump with scrapes and cuts in it.
"Does it hurt as bad as it looks?" I asked.
"Yeah," he said, "I get headaches all day, bad headaches. The doctor said they're migranes. I can't take the light. "

Danny went on, the words flowed unfiltered,
"My right shoulder, I can't move it up or down. And my whole right arm is tingly. And my back hurts so bad there are only a few ways I can stand now. I've missed two days of school already and I'm off the football team."

I explained Danny his rights in front of his parents.

I told him because he is a minor, one of his parents will sign the lawyer's documents for him as his parent and guardian. I told him the law firm would also pay the costs of a guardian ad litem-- a person in the legal system who represents the minors against any parents or attorneys who do not have the child's best interests in mind.

I told him what a Statute Of Limitations is....
how, because Danny is a minor, the statute of limitations in Washington state is 3 years after he turns 18.
And, if Danny settles or sues before age 18, the money goes into a trust fund until he turns 18.
I told him if he has not settled or sued before he turns 18, then the documents are re-signed in his name and he has 3 years to deal with the settlement or suit.

By contrast, I added, adults... those over 18.... have only 3 years to settle most personal injury cases in Washington state.

It was a lot for a kid to absorb... which was why his parents were both present and his signatories.
And it it was a lot for his parents to absorb.
I could tell Danny and his folks got it, though.
Danny's dad, Dan Senior, had been one of the law firm's clients before, so there was a great deal of trust in the room.

Ultimately, Danny was both lucky and unlucky.
Unlucky that he was hit. Lucky in that he survived.
As his mother wept at the prospect of life without her only son,
Danny said, "I was sure I was a goner."

Then Danny asked me, "You think I was dead when I looked down in my body in the ambulance?"
I thought about this for a while before answering.
The kid was 11, who knew what religious beliefs his parents had or held.
"I think you were between life and death Danny. And I think you.... or someone greater than you.... chose it was not your time to die. Maybe you have great things in your life left to accomplish."

I closed my case file and said my good-byes as I sucked in the heady smells of lunch on the stove, Grandma's Jambalaya. Serious intoxicant.
They invited me to stay.... and tempted though I was.... there is a line of demarcation between business and pleasure I choose not to cross.

I graciously declined and headed north to Sedro Wooley... then due east... about 2.5 hours away.... to meet a farmer whose legs were run over by neighbor's tractor last weekend.
It was neither a pretty situation or picture.

On the ferry ride home tonight, the sun was setting and I wondered if I would weasel out of writing a blog tonight.
Was today a story worth telling?
Or was I just dwelling on another day, another wreck, another innocent victim shattered by what... A twist of fate? Or destiny?
I don't know which.
I do know there's something therapeutic in the telling of the story.
I hope the same is true in the reading of it.