December 15th 2008 - Warning really really LONG post

That will be a date embedded into our memories forever. This is the day that Matt's mom was in an almost fatal car crash. It happened at 9400 South and I-15. She was life flighted to the University of Utah Hospital. They have been taking great care of her there. She has a fractured pelvis in many areas, her hip was ripped from socket backwards and in the process the back of her rotator cufler was shattered and cut off half of her hip joint and part of her femur. The surgeon was able to repair them and she should make a full recovery, but the recovery process is going to take a long time.

Here is how we found out about the accident. Like normal on monday night after we put the girls to bed we headed down to the basement to do some more work on it. It's been a nightmare trying to get it done in time for an inspector to come out and look at it and have our loan fund at the right time for us. Anabelle, my sister in law was down there working with us, when she got a call from her sister. She asked Anabelle if she had heard from mom. Anabelle said she hadn't. Melyni started to freak out. She said that their brother, Aaron, had received a call from her a little after 10 o'clock and he was under Lynn's car trying to fix it so Lynn grabbed the phone and answered. What he heard next really traumatized him. He heard his mother grunt, the phone being dropped, and the line goes dead. They tried to call her back but it went straight to voicemail. They started to get fractic, and called around to see if anyone knew where she was or whatever they could find out. Melyni kept saying that she thinks their mom was in an accident and sent her husband out to go find out. In the mean time Anabelle was trying to calm Melyni down and I decided to get on the computer and look to see if there were any accidents on the highway. I went to ksl.com and went to their traffic link. The very first traffic camera I pulled up in the Sandy 10600 South area was a major accident. At that time Anabelle called Melyni back up and said that there had been an major accident on the freeway and we knew it was mom. Melyni confirmed that it was her and they had life flighted her to the University Hospital. I called a neighbor to come over and spend the night with the girls and we off to the hospital.

Here is the pic of the webcam of the accident and the backup.

What you see is traffic backed up going north bound I-15 at 9400 South. She had only been on the freeway a mile when what police believe to have happened was she on her cell phone (thanks to wrong witnesses) in the emergency lane traveling freeway speeds when she plowed into the back of a diamond rental boxcar truck. No sign of breaks or anything. It the paramedic almost 45 minutes to cut her out of the car. They said she was concious the whole time. She doesn't remember even getting onto the freeway. We checked phone records and her last call was made at 10:10. She gets off work at 10 and she rarely ever leaves work on time. She remembers walking to her car grabbing her purse and putting it on the front seat of her car and that's it. The police statement says that the accident happened at 10:20 - 10:30ish. There was no way that she could have been on the cell phone. She has been having health issues lately and we believed that she had been blacking out for a few minutes at a time lately but too frequently and had just had dinner with her to celebrate the birthday of the father and husband they had just lost, and to talk to her about her health. Funny how things tend to happen.
Here are the images that ksl took and posted with the story of the crash. I will post the article after all of the pics. Hopefully I can add the segment they had on tv in here also.

Driver slams into truck while talking on cell phone
December 16th, 2008 @ 9:23am
By Tom Callan
A Kearns woman is in critical condition this morning after her car slammed into an abandoned truck while she was talking on her cell phone.
The Utah Highway Patrol's Sgt. Martin Turner said, "She was on the phone with a family member when the family member heard a shout, and then the phone went dead."
Troopers say the 64-year-old driver pulled onto northbound I-15 at 10600 South last night. They say she was so distracted by her cell phone that she didn't even try to brake before slamming into the truck parked in the emergency lane.
The crash forced all northbound lanes to close for 30 minutes while a medical helicopter landed and paramedics pulled her from the car.
E-mail: tcallan@ksl.com

I'm not too sure about the video yet, when I get it worked out I will post it later.

There were lots and lots of mean and nasty comments made about her for this. It really really made me mad and finally I got so sick of it and I made a comment back. This is what I said:

"My concern on all of the idioctic comments of those who have no idea the full story and believe everything the media has to tell them. Every single one of us no matter who you are is guilty of driving while talking on a cell phone. So unless you plan to confess that you've done it too I wouldn't say horrible and hurtful things about someone elses family member. I sure as "bleep" would not wish this upon anybody else. And the nasty things you say about others will come back and eventually bite you in the butt. This "witch" as you so call her has a family that loves and cares for her. How would you feel if it were your family member? There is no "proof" that she was on a cell phone. It was late at night and I am sure that those who saw her on her phone are just as guilty of driving distractedly. We all have our own lives to live and we all drive distractedly at one point in time or another. Besides some things happen to those who are supposed to learn something from the event. Without incidents like these those around us and them cannot learn and make their lives better. The media does not always give a full version of the event and in this case they felt it their duty to make a point about cell phone use while driving. Unfortunately they had to use a victim that has no say so on her own accord. I for one don't care for the fact that she has been taken advantage of like that. Oh and by the way there wasn't anyone in the rental truck so nobody else was hurt, accept for her and all of her family. So the next time you decide to place judgement against someone find out the "real" story first. I hope your loved ones are safe on this day. God Bless! "

I will post more later.