An 18-year-old boy was driving from Waterton, and other drivers reported that he had been driving extra fast and passing cars all along the way. He came up over a hill and was going too fast for the car in front of him, and he couldn't pass because we were on the other lane. So he slammed on his brakes, lost control and skidded into our lane.
We saw him come into our lane and Barb yelled, "what's he doing?" and turned her wheels towards the middle of the road and then we collided. We hit the back of his car with the front passenger side of our car. All of the airbags went off, and there were a lot of them. They not only came out of the dash and the steering wheel, but they came from the roof to block the windows. The car spun a time or two and came to a stop.
Barb's first words were, Kaylynn, Kaylynn are you okay? I was okay. We were alive. Barb called 911 on her phone because I couldn't find mine. She started to talk to them, but then I took the phone from her. Barb was in a lot more pain. She broke her foot, probably from slamming on the brakes. I got disconnected from 911 and called Jesse, Barb's husband. He later told me that I was so calm when I told him we had been in an accident, and he thought Barb was talking to someone in the background and laughing, that he thought it was a joke at first. Barb definitely wasn't laughing, she was yelling, Jesse, Jesse.
Then 911 called me back and kept asking me questions. Then I found my phone and text Austin because I was on the phone on Barb's phone. It didn't immediately deliver, so I text Lucy.
The first people on the scene came to our car and got our doors open and asked us if we were okay. The first nurse, a lovely First Nations lady, asked if we were okay and told us to turn off the car. A young man opened my door, who also said he was a nurse. Then some other men came to our car and disconnected the battery of her car.
I did lift up the airbag covering the windshield and could see the other car ahead of us on the road, with a body on the road. Not good. He likely died instantly.
Soon we could hear the sirens. The EMTs came to us and started to assess us.
Austin and Jesse both got there and came to look in at us to see how we were. I told Austin I was okay.
Two emergency responders from the Blood Tribe took me in their ambulance to the Cardston Hospital. When we got there, they told us it would be awhile before they could help me, since they were having a trauma in the Emergency Room. We could hear them calling for the STARS helicopter to come pick up the little girl who was having the trauma. Then we heard over the radio that they cancelled STARS, and then we could hear the mother of the little girl crying and crying.
I had just been within a few yards of two people who had died.
Austin had come to the hospital by then. He had waited until they got Barb into her ambulance. She was in so much pain, especially from her broken leg, so they had to give her morphine to to reduce the pain so they could move her onto the stretcher. They took her straight to Lethbridge Hospital because they knew she would need surgery.
They took me in to get X-rays on my neck and chest. Nothing was broken. I was okay, and then they released me to go home.
I did stay home for a few days to recover. The seatbelts and airbags saved our lives, but they made us so sore. I had a seatbelt scar on my neck. My knees were sore and bruised from hitting the dash when we collided. I was so sore in my shoulders and back. The first few days Austin had to help me lay down and sit up. I had to use a straw in water bottle, since it hurt too bad to tilt my head to drink.
Barb had surgery on her leg on Monday and came home on Wednesday. She has a long road to recovery.
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