WHAM!

We were driving south Canton Highway yesterday. We were about in front of the Kyrstal when the car in front of me suddenly stopped. I slammed on my brakes and came to a quick stop just behind him. He stopped because people in front of him stopped.

Whew! I felt like I just avoided a rear end collision.

Then the next moment:

WHAM!!

Anna instantly asked me was I OK. And I asked her the same. Apparently neither of of us are hurt. That is the most important thing.

We were rear-ended by a truck.

The impact of the truck made us hit the car stopped in front of us.

We three drivers got out, looked it over and decided it was best for us to pull over in the parking lot of the shopping center across the street to let the traffic continue to flow. We drove into the parking lot.

We got out again. It was raining. What happened to my cap? My bald head was getting wet. I looked in front seat of the car and it wasn’t there. Then I went to the curb and looked where we were standing at the spot of the wreck and it wasn’t there. I told the man I hit I didn’t know what happened to my cap and he said look in the back seat. I did, and there it was. That is a little experiment with inertia energy.

The man that hit me said he just couldn’t stop in time. He was driving a laundry truck.

I looked at the car that I hit and our front bumper. Neither one had too much damage. Then I looked at our back - it looked like an accordion. And the guy that hit me, his laundry truck didn’t look too bad.

Anna called the police from her cell phone. They were on their way.

The policeman came in a black car. Cobb County Police cars are generally white. Black police cars are members of the Swat Team. I suppose they are black so they will stand alone in recognition, that way they can get trough to the center of trouble quickly. The policeman also had a patch on his shoulder that said “Swat Team”.

After he started interviewing us suddenly he turned around quickly and asked an elderly gent nosing around his black police car could he help him. I think he had keen senses to even realize the guy was there, it must be the Swat in him. The man said could he do something about a car that is parked sideways over two handicapped parking places. He told the man he would get to him in a minute. He was staying focused.

When I told him I was hit from behind and then hit the car in front of me he said, “A ricochet huh?” Up until then I didn’t think of it as a ricochet but he was right. It took a marksman to put in terms I understood.

He took each of our insurance card and our drivers license and retired to his car and wrote it all down and ran it in the computer in the front seat with him. He came back and handed out licenses and insurance papers back to two of us but the guy that hit me he told him to step over to his car with him.

From our point of view it looked like he filled out a form on a pad and pulled a copy off and gave to him. I think he got cited. Or you might say he got "sighted" by a Swat Man.

He said we could go. Our car is not drivable. Well, it drives but the right rear blinker does not work, and well, the car looks like a wreck….. get it? A wreck? Stick with me, I got a million of ‘em!

As soon as we got home Anna got on the phone and talked to our insurance company and adjusters. They were very polite and congenial.

Here we go again.