Keep Looking Around

So I was at the top of the ramp in the store, talking with a customer. I was trying to recall something when I looked up and out the window of the store, gazing at the rainy street outside in an effort to focus my thoughts. Whatever I was trying to recall was driven entirely out of my mind by what I saw, though.

The scene keeps replaying through my head. It wasn't long, a second or so... and for the next few seconds after seeing it, I thought I had maybe imagined it. What I saw was a red car, clearly hitting the breaks as it seemed to lean forward in an effort to stop in time, but it didn't stop fast enough and crashed into something just hidden from my view by a shelf.

My shock must have been clear on my face. The customer turned to look but couldn't see anything from where she stood. I said something to the effect of "An accident" and headed for the front door to see if there was anything we could do to help.

Well, there wasn't much. I helped direct traffic while the drivers got the cars off the road into our parking lot. Then I checked the drivers of both cars and the one passenger to see if they were ok, and was really surprised to find that the driver of the red car was my mechanic from down the street. As soon as I realized who it was, I realized that the car he was driving was almost certainly a customer car that he was test-driving after fixing. Ouch.

The van that the car had hit was a transport company for seniors, and the passenger was a senior citizen. The driver of the van kept apologizing for pulling out in front of the car. The occupants of the van claimed they weren't hurt at all, but the mechanic was limping and clearly had a sore neck. Everyone had been wearing seatbelts, which was good. We brought everyone inside to keep warm and dry while we waited for the police and the tow truck for the van.

And, yes, the red car was a customer's car. Ouch.

The vision of the accident keeps going through my head, over and over. I'm sure my brain is filling in details and trying to make it make more sense to me. For instance, I remember hearing the horn of the car right as I saw the crash, but that seems almost like a tacked on memory. Other people in the shop heard the horn, did I?

Whatever. It made the afternoon go by faster and gave me something to blog about, and nobody was seriously injured as far as I could see. All's well that ends well, I guess.