Canada and a Car Accident

Sunday, June 16, Day 55 (Cont'd)

After we left Niagara Falls on the Canadian Side, we traveled toward Hamilton, Ontario.  We are skirting just above Lake Erie.  Later we talked about this.  If we had gone the 17 miles to Buffalo, we would have seen all five of the Great Lakes.  But at the time, we couldn't think of one single reason to go to Buffalo in the pouring rain!  We are headed across this part of Canada and will enter Michigan just to the  north of Flint. 

I was interested in Hamilton because I had Nemitz relatives in the 1870's who immigrated from Prussia, started out in the US, and then went to Hamilton for a couple of years.  William Nemitz had two children there before immigrating to Kansas. 

While I was looking around, a car suddenly left the road in front of us.  We didn't see it leave the road, but rather saw several pieces of wood from a signboard fly into the air  and then the car, swerving through the ditch, between the posts of another sign that was made of metal and come to rest.  

We immediately pulled over, saw the air bags had deployed, and before we could come to a stop, the driver got out.   It took a while for the fire department to come.  The motor was still running and we were afraid the car would explode or catch on fire.  But nobody wanted to get near it to turn it off.

John got a chair out of the camper, and the driver, a young girl, sat down.  The lady in the green is a nurse and she and her daughter immediately came to help.    Then the medics came and checked for injuries.

 Pretty soon there was lots of help!

The girl appeared to be unhurt and after telling the ambulance driver she didn't want to go to the hospital, they left as well.  We had to wait for the police in case they wanted a report from witnesses.

Pretty soon a female police officer came along.  She said, "Did any of you see the collision?"  We all hesitated because there was no collision.  The several of us there said, "No."  And she said. " OK, you don't have to stay."  Wrong question, in my opinion.

Our best guess - phoning or texting while driving.  This girl was really lucky!  If she'd hit the poles on the second sign, she could have been seriously injured.  As it was, the car was totaled, but she was apparently unhurt.