OK ladies and gents, first and foremost, THANK YOU! Several people called and texted me throughout the day yesterday offering help with rides, tow vehicles, parts hookups, and general well wishes. It gave me some peace of mind in a crazy day knowing my thread was taken seriously and that good people with knowledge and resources in that area were reaching out to help my family. I felt as if anyone in the local Cruisersphere could help, they would. I've only been on this forum for 9 months but I knew people would jump at the chance to help, and I'm glad I took the 5 minutes sitting in the police cruiser to post something up quick.
On to the short version of the events and pics. My wife is 22 weeks pregnant with our first child, and we were in VT acting as babysitters so my brother in law and his wife could go skiing. They have two boys, 3yo and 6 months and we see them a lot and are really tight family. I dropped mama & papa off at Killington's main lodge yesterday morning while my wife hung out with their boys in the hotel room. When I got back to the hotel we loaded up and prepared to meet them in the lodge at noon so mama could feed 6mo baby. Weather was generally crappy but it seemed warm, around 40, and it was raining all the way up and back down the mountain as I dropped them off in the morning.
Anyway, we were headed up Pico mountain on RT 4 around 11:30. doing maybe 5 less than the speed limit, and a bus was in the right (of two) lane(s). The bus had just pulled out of a lot and was moving slow so I tried to go out around it in the left lane. That was a foolish move on my part, and the biggest damned mistake of my life as there was now some sloppy snow and slush accumulation there since I had been on that (merely wet) road 2-3 hours before. I'd just put two front tires on Friday morning, but the worn (5/32) rear tires hit that and I think they just instantly hydroplaned up and the ass end kicked out to the left. We spun 180 once across the oncoming lane and rolled down the opposite bank sideways facing our original direction of travel. My wife was sleeping in the passenger seat and woke up to the sensation of spinning. Once we stopped we quickly scrambled out and got to the boys who were in the very back row. Their mama's car seat game is on-point and she's taught us well how to safely secure the seats and the kiddos within. Both boys seemed fine, the 3yo thought it was a fun ride and was happy as a clam. The 6 mo was crying, I think because a duffel bag of clothes landed on him, but was uninjured.
My wife is a RN so she quickly assessed the boys and two awesome people who had seen the accident stopped and called 911. They hung out with and entertained the boys while my wife and i checked each other over quick and scrambled to find phones and make calls. Fire and medics showed up pretty quickly and did their thing, assessing my wife and releasing her, and looking the boys over as well. A Vermont state trooper helped us make a plan to reunite the skiing family and the awesome couple who stopped to help us drove the boys and my wife up to the lodge while I hung out in the police cruiser and waited for AAA. I got a citation for leaving my lane of travel, but the Sgt. was very cool about it and didn't "add insult to injury", writing me the bare minimum ticket. We waited an hour or so for the wrecker, so I texted and called family as we tried to make a plan, and I posted up here knowing I'd at least get good advice and well wishes.
Rental cars were unobtanium and the wrecker driver wouldn't risk driving the 40 icy miles to NH for the only car we could find. He'd had several calls that day and said where we wrecked on the mountain and higher it was getting cold and quickly turning to ice. So the wrecker driver dropped me at his family's business, Ciccone & Sons, in Rutland, VT. He was one of the sons (Scott, I think. I asked but then instantly forgot) and said I could keep it there until Monday without fees and introduced me to some of the techs who were working on a shop vehicle at the time. Everyone at Ciccone & Sons were awesome, helpful people who empathized with our situation and did all they could to help. They loaned me some tools and gave me advice on what to check before trying to start it back up. I got the DS fender up off the tire and took her for a spin around the lot. Tons of snow in the brakes at first but that cleared out after a few stops and I realized she was right as rain. Ciccone's techs (wish I had gotten their names) pointed out a place to get some lights, and within an hour or so I had a fresh 4656 sealed beam and some clearance light turn signals.
Meanwhile my family had been treated like royalty up at Killington lodge, some employees even giving them home and cell numbers in case we needed anything after they closed. My bro is a DO so he checked my wife out again and my wife actually had a doppler monitor in her purse so they quickly found baby's heartbeat, which was another huge relief. Praise God for that. The 3yo got plenty of sugary treats and said how fun it was to flip over. They took the last shuttle bus to town, passing the crash site, and I picked them up at the bus station. Then my bro-in-law pointed out that the missing fender (which I had removed because it was smashed down into the tire) was conspicuous and drew a lot of attention to the disheveled state of the LC. We got some rattle can black and painted it in the Advance Auto parking lot. Now incognito, we drove the 6 hours back to Philly with a cracked windshield and some makeshift (but decent!) headlights. i admit we all felt a little uneasy about driving with the windshield so cracked, but we had several professional opinions that it would be OK if we went slow, and we had few other options. I couldn't get a windshield anywhere within a few hours until Monday, and by then we'd all be missing work and racking up hotel costs. It was a difficult decision but the chassis and lighting was fine so the only real problem with the LC was the cracked windshield. It wasn't flaking apart yet, so we thought the laminate membrane was Ok and we decided to venture home slowly. I didn't go over 60 the whole way and we got back to Philly late last night and breathed a sigh of relief. Borrowed our bro's car to drive to our home in Lebanon and I'll return to Philly tomorrow to have AAA tow LC the rest of the way home. AAA Plus is easily worth the $150/ year we spend on it, BTW.
I know I said short version but just a few more things before the pics: 1. Thanks again to everyone here who posted, PMd, called or texted me. 2. Thanks to Ciccone & Sons for their assistance. Couldn't have gotten home without them. 3. Car seat safety is super important. Take the time to learn how to install it properly and buckle them in properly. There's more to it than "insert tab a into slot b". If your kids ride with anyone else, I think it's worth being a stickler about. I'm really thankful she taught me how to buckle them in properly. 4. I learned that all cargo absolutely has to be secured in some way, no exceptions. I had to move my duffel bag of clothes off my nephew before I could unbuckle and check on him. I'll be looking for a cargo net now to keep the few things that fit back there, back there. Underneath the duffel was a Hi-Lift, which was intentionally tucked under many softer things, but was still essentially unsecured and could've been a projectile had we tumbled a bit more.
Who's got em?
