Please take her to your family doctor. At her age, I had a minor auto accident but it turned out to cause deep damage. I reported a headache to my family, because that’s all I felt. Four years later, with worsening symptoms, finally the proper xrays (moving fluorsocopy, not just stationary) were taken. These revealed cracks deep in the neck vertebrae that needed surgical attention. But by then, all the insurances had proceeded as if I’d had no injury, when in fact I had. </p>
<p>Young people are so healthy we can forget to take the right precautions after an accident. I commend MSUDad for bringing this topic forward.</p>
<p>Salem
I’m so glad your daughter, and the other driver are all right. My then 17 year old Son had a similar accident ,not quite so far a fling, but a spin around and push) his fault, similar circumstance.He pulled out of a parking spot and accelerated into someone in the oncoming traffic.everyone was fine,side airbag inflated and saved him from injury. He had been driving about 6 months.Coming upon the scene was by far one of the worst days of my life.You dwell on the “what ifs” for awhile.You and she will surely have nightmares.Be patient with her, and with yourself.
In our experience, Son did not want to drive again for a bit, and was wary of being a passenger in friends cars as well. It subsided after a time and he gradually went back to driving,but it was gradual.
Even though he had taken driver education, with much practice time behind the wheel, we felt it best for him to take one of those 10 hour defensive drivng classes ( it also helps with their insurance rates which will now increase due to the accideent).My husband felt so strongly about this that he took the class with our son.
I will say two years later (almost to the day, his accident was on St Patricks Day) son has become a much more mature,cautious driver.
After seeing what I did, I wouldnt let a child (or us adults) drive without side curtain airbags.</p>
<p>I am very glad to hear that your daughter is safe.</p>
<p>Driving is the most dangerous thing our kids (and we) will ever do, IMHO. </p>
<p>Being an atheist (not by choice), I don’t even have the comfort of hoping for divine intervention. I just buy cars based on safety features and try to be careful driving. I too drive a Honda Civic.</p>
<p>Consumer Reports had a very interesting article some time back of the newer safety technologies under development. Amazing. Cars will be able to sense a collision seconds before it happens and deploy all sorts of protective features.</p>
<p>I, too, am so glad your D is okay! I know exactly how you felt when you got the call. 2 months after my D got her license, I sent her off to school with a kiss. A few minutes later, she arrived at the door in hysterics, saying she had been in an accident. My first thought was that she had hit a student walking to the bus … something I had a terrible fear of each time she left for school. As it turned out, she had hit a parked car in the street (2 houses away). We live on a cul-de-sac, so there is a false sense of security on the home stretch. The sun was in her eyes & she reached to pull down the sunshade. As she did, she pulled the steering wheel to the right … and she clipped the side of an SUV. To make matters worse, the family speaks only whatever it is people from Turkey speak (Persian?). It was interesting knocking on their door at 6:30 a.m., let me tell you! Anyway, she was okay … the cars were fixed … she was out a few hundred bucks … and she learned a very important lesson. She is extremely careful in the car at all times now. Whew!</p>
<p>salem - it’s not often that I am without words…</p>
<p>You watch your D carefully, little bits and pieces of the accident may come back to her over time, at unexpected moments. I would research Post Traumatic Stress and pay close attention. I was in an accident 21 years ago this June (a jeep I was in went over a cliff). I still have emotional effects of PTS. You may PM if you’d like. </p>
<p>salem,
Thank goodness that your D has seemed to come out of this terrifying accident with relatively minor injuries! Do have her thoroughly checked out by your doctor, though. My niece, at the same age as your D, was hit broadside on the driver’s side, by a tow truck. My brother could not believe that his daughter was able to walk away from the accident as her car was also totaled. As he stood at the accident scene trying to figure out what had happened, how his daughter could have not seen a TOW TRUCK coming at her, he realized there was a dip in the road. She probably looked in that direction once, didn’t see anything, and just went into her turn without that second look that a more experienced driver would have made.</p>
<p>Phew! What a close call. I’m so glad your daughter’s okay. Poor kid–I’m sending hugs too. DO go and get her thoroughly checked out as MSUdad and others have said. </p>
<p>My daughter drives a 2007 Civic with those side airbags; your daughter needn’t have tested them, but it’s nice to know they work. Her story me reminds me of how much I’d love to chop down the trees that are so difficult to see around at the intersection at the end of our street. Even removing the bottom 5 feet or so of branches from these big blue spruce trees would do the trick!</p>
<p>I am also emailing your daughter’s story to my daughter.</p>
<p>After my son totalled a car last summer (and miraculously was not hurt) I did suggest he “get back on the horse”. Fortunately the latest Harry Potter movie was opening at midnight that night and he knew I wasn’t going to drive him anywhere that late, so he drove himself. I was glad to get him safely to his campus where he almost never drives.</p>
<p>I’m so glad your daughter is ok. I agree about the “intervention”.</p>
<p>I’m so glad your daughter is ok. Sometimes something like this turns out to be for the best, because now she realizes how fast an accident can happen and how violent the collision can be, but she found that out for herself without serious injury (and there’s really no way to understand this unless it happens to you). I hope she doesn’t become afraid to drive again. Best wishes to all of you.</p>
<p>Salem, I am so glad your daughter emerged from this accident relatively unharmed. It sounds like you were all very lucky things happened the way they did. My D is still too young to drive, but her bf drives as do many of her friends - and I worry each time she gets into one of their cars. Good luck getting through this.</p>
<p>I am so glad your daughter is okay. I agree with some posters that she should be seen by a physician to make sure she is 100% okay. Be on the look out for post traumatic stress syndrome. Hugs to you and your DD.</p>
<p>This thread scared me off until I finally got the courage to read it. My absolute worst worry. I am actually looking eagerly toward college because I think (maybe incorrectly) that there will be less driving.</p>
<p>Do tell your daughter that we all make mistakes and we live through them because we are being prepared to take on something very, very important down the road – grandchildren? God Bless.</p>
<p>I, too, am glad that your daughter is o.k. – though I also agree with the advice that she should be thoroughly checked out medically as well, just in case. I’m glad you got the news when she called you crying – at least you knew from the time you answered the phone that she was alive & well enough to be able to make the call. (I guess her cell phone also survived the accident intact?)</p>
<p>I think all of us parents of HS and college aged kids on this board can relate to your post. I’m so glad that your D and the driver of the other vehicle weren’t seriously injured. Although your D is naturally going to be shaken up by this she’ll also likely be much more careful about pulling out in traffic, changing lanes, etc. and this extra care will help from here on. </p>
<p>Let her know that almost of us drivers have had similar experiences whether it be an actual accident or a near-miss close call. It’s scary but we learn from it and become safer drivers as a result. She will too.</p>
<p>Glad your daughter is okay. I had a similar incident a few months back where I got in an accident - I think I scared my parents enough, and my mom’s car was totaled. It really is a scary experience, and you do play it over in your head to try to figure out what happened… to this day I still can’t.</p>
<p>Hopefully your daughter has a quick recovery and no qualms about driving again =)</p>
<p>Dear Salem, I am so glad your D is ok! I really understand how you feel, my S was in a bad accident last fall, the car he was in flipped in the air 3 times and landed on the top. By some miracle, or as I think, the grace of God he and the driver were ok, brused, cut and very sore, but ok. I think it was not “their time”. I noticed when he was home for winter break, he was a little jumpy in traffic, even when he wasn’t driving. I feel that will calm down in time.</p>
<p>Thank goodness your D is all right. The scene you described was a flashback to last May when two days before the prom my D was in the exact same kind of accident. She pulled into traffic, making a left hand turn and was hit by a car coming around the curve to her left. She swears she didn’t see it, and even the police and the tow truck driver can’t figure out how it happened since the oncoming car’s damage was on the passenger front bumper and my D’s car was hit on the driver’s door and driver front bumper. Unfortunately her car was pushed across the street, over a bunch of rocks into a wooden fence. That did as much damage or more to the car than the initial impact. But, like your D, my D was driving a Honda Civic with front and side airbags. She was crying and very upset, but her only injuries were from the airbags that likely saved her from much greater injury. She has minor burn scars from the airbag, but it could have been much worse. Give her a hug and get her back behind the wheel. I’ve now driven that intersection many times with her and she finally ventured there alone over Christmas break. And stick with the Civic, its worth it! Again, thank goodness she’s ok, that’s all that matters.</p>
<p>Salem, so grateful with you that your daughter survived this accident. We will all alert our children and remind them how easily the mind can misread risk…or the person in the car near you is misreading risk and put you in the loop of a potential accident. </p>
<p>peace to you and yours tonight. bless you all.</p>