Ok, I know I shouldn't kid about it like the title suggests, but it pretty well sums it up.
We've had a lot of rain lately, which doesn't excuse most of us from still running the errands we have to run. Halfway down the road I live on, there is a place it the road that looks totally unassuming, which is completely misleading. Beware the little places in the road that don't look like they have much water in them. They will throw your butt in the ditch!
Having said that, I have encountered this patch in the road before, and gotten bounced into the other lane, though still in control of the car. I should have known better.
I did slow down when the rain started. I ran into it maybe a mile from the house. However, it wasn't enough. I hit that puddle in that dip in the road, and the car took off. All of a sudden, it felt as if nothing were under my car, it was skidding, and turning sideways. I hit my brakes, which locked, and when the car finally got traction again, it took off like it had been projected from a slingshot. We did a 360 in the road, and then sideways down the ditch for about 15 feet, and then the car turned, nose first, into a deeper part of the ditch. This car is a 1991 Crown Victoria, probably 16 feet long, and we were completely off the road. That should tell you how far we went into the ditch/gully/whatever you want to call it.
Up to now, I know it sounds bad, and it could have been. I know it could have. The Trooper told me what could have very well happened. This car held it's own, stayed on all 4's, and came to a stop without anyone getting hurt. Unless you have kids, you have NO IDEA just how grateful I am for this outcome. My 3 year old was in the back seat!
No injuries, no damage to the car (other than a bent tail pipe!), the Trooper even said the car seat was fine and we had installed it correctly, which was why he let us put her back in the car after the wrecker driver pulled it out of the ditch. I think I knocked the front end out of alignment a little.
Either way, the car cranked up and I was able to drive it home like nothing had happened, though I was shaking like a leaf, lol!
I told the Trooper that we had hydroplaned. My daughter heard this, and told her dad "A plane got the car!! See Daddy?! A plane got our car!" After what we had just been through, nothing could have been funnier than hearing her say that!
It was just me and her in the car. When we wrecked, I couldn't find my phone. Someone stopped and called 911, and then let me use their phone to call my husband, who brought our brother in law along in the truck to see what had happened. They put Emmers in the truck so she wouldn't have to be in the middle of us assessing the damage and getting the car out.
The outcome: No damage, no injuries, no ticket (thank goodness!). The Trooper did say that the state was going to have to do something to this road...I'm the 3rd one he's responded to in the same place in the past couple of weeks! He gave my daughter a toy kitten, and then we were all on our way. :)
The moral of this story: Drive slow in the rain, boof anyone who honks at you for it, and beware of roads that double as water slides!!!!!
Ari
