Smash • Niki
Payne's Toyota Tercel is totaled after
a drunk driver hit her when she was making
a left turn at Seventh Street and Redondo
Avenue. Will Shaw / Online Forty-Niner
Student’s car hit by DUI driver, heed advice
Niki Payne
Whether they get
pulled over for drinking and driving or slammed by someone driving under
the influence, some people just don’t think twice about it until it
actually happens to them. Either way, it’s
not cool.
How many people have you met since you started college with suspended licenses
as a result of getting a DUI? Personally, I’ve come across too many.
In fact, DUIs seem to be pretty common. Did you know every year over 1.5 million
drivers are arrested for driving while intoxicated? That’s an overwhelming
amount.
It seems we just become so consumed with the very thought of getting that dreadful
DUI and having our driving privileges taken away for an eternity. We can’t
stand the idea of being without a car and having to rely on someone else to get
us to work or school. And if you’re anything like me, you definitely cringe
at the thought of taking public transportation.
I never thought it would happen to me until it actually did. No, I didn’t
get a DUI, but I did come the closest to death I have ever been after a drunk
driver hit me in a head-on collision. Let’s put it this way: Never again
will I be making a left turn on Seventh Street and Redondo Avenue.
A little while ago, I was yielding for a left turn on a green light on Seventh
Street and Redondo Avenue at about 8:15 p.m. The coast was clear so I proceeded
with the turn. However, as I began to turn the wheel I suddenly noticed a speeding
vehicle coming at me out of nowhere. Immediately, I pressed my foot on the brakes
to stop to give the oncoming vehicle the right of way.
If I had tried to make it and race against time the car would have surely hit
me on the side. I thought it would be safer to just stop my car. So I yielded
a second time, the other vehicle swerved one lane over to go around me and I
thought I was safe.
But in a split second he swerved back into the original lane. Two seconds before
it happened I seriously thought it was the end for me.
The next thing I know I see bright headlights of a car I didn’t even have
a good look at, I feel impact, I’m jolted around and I’m suddenly
coughing from the dust of the airbags. It took me a second to realize I was still
alive. Shaking rather violently and in a state of complete shock, my first instinct
was to get out of the car.
I saw people around. I saw my car, but I felt like I couldn’t hear anything
around me. Everything was just so surreal. I knew there were people watching,
but I didn’t see them. All I saw were the firefighters, police and my totaled
car. My heart stopped beating for a few seconds as I tried to put together what
just happened to me.
I felt fine when I got out of the car. I was so shaken up as I stumbled out of
the car while onlookers helped me over to the sidewalk. I felt fine. After the
initial shock wore off, I began experiencing pain on the right side of my body
each time I coughed from the dust. Nothing hurt when they poked me here and there
to see if I was okay. I just felt numb and tingly.
I wanted to go home so badly and be in my safe zone. I did not proceed with lab
tests, a CAT scan or ultrasound of my right kidney and liver. There was a large
amount of blood in my urine, causing alarm for possible kidney damage.
I went to the Health Center the following day to have some X-rays done. I just
had a lot of internal bleeding. There was still blood in my urine, but not as
much as the night of the accident. It was explained to me that my kidneys were
severely bruised and jolted around the night of the accident and a lot of blood
cells were lost.
By Wednesday, the blood cleared away. I was still experiencing some major whiplash
and slight pain in my right arm and abdominal area. I went to urgent care where
I was fortunate enough to find I was perfectly healthy. I was just experiencing
intense muscle spasms and thus was given muscle relaxants to take.
The scariest thing is I had witnessed a similar head-on collision the night before
with a drunk driver involved. The passenger was severely wounded. The firefighter,
police and doctors all told me I was really lucky. Nine times out of 10, I would
have been seriously hospitalized or dead in a head-on collision like that, but
here I am walking and talking as if it didn’t happen.
I may be physically fine, but I am scared to death of being in a moving vehicle.
My counselor says I’m experiencing post traumatic stress.
Each time I get in a car now, I immediately go for my seatbelt because it saved
my life. I find myself bracing in preparations for the next accident, but accidents
aren’t exactly something you prepare for. When I see speeding cars, I freak
out. All it takes is a split second to lose control of the wheel. A split second
was all it took for that driver to hit me.
As if getting hit by a drunk driver weren’t bad enough, the police issued
me a traffic violation for “failing to yield on a left hand turn.” This
was just absurd.
I did yield, twice in fact. If I hadn’t yielded, I could have been seriously
injured. If I tried to make the turn and then got hit on the side, then you can
tell me it was my fault. But when a car hits me going 40-50 mph while I’m
stopped, don’t tell me it’s my fault.
The officer told me it was a technicality until fault was determined. (At this
point, no Breathalyzer was used yet.) He didn’t witness it, so he said
I could take it to court and he wouldn’t testify against me. I saved my
own life by yielding and here they are telling my I failed to yield.
The moral of the story is obvious. Don’t drink and drive. My accident could
have been fatal if it weren’t for a guardian angel looking out for me from
above.
Every 31 minutes someone in the United States dies as a result of driving under
the influence, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
In 2004, there were 16,694 alcohol related fatalities. That’s 39 percent
of traffic fatalities in a given year. It had gone down about two percent since
the previous year. Fatalities are three times more likely at night than during
the day. As for injuries, about every two minutes someone is injured in a crash
where alcohol was present.
I know finals are coming and end of the semester and parties will most likely
be kicking off. All that I ask every student at Cal State Long Beach is to be
responsible. Take a cab, call a friend or designate someone to be a sober driver.
We are all at that age where drinking and driving has become a serious issue.
I have met and known too many people who have or had DUI’s. Don’t
be the next one.
Be safe. There are other options for you besides drinking and driving. Designate
a sober driver. Call a friend, or call Long Beach Taxi Cab at (562) 435-6111
and if that number is too hard to remember, try this one. 1-800-TAXI-CAB.
Niki Payne is a junior journalism major.
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