Crash

Last night Jessica and I had another life-experience and another chance to enjoy the hospitality of RPA.

While driving home from church around 9.30 pm, we were coming down Booth St in Annandale towards the intersection with Wigram Rd at the bottom of the hill where Booth curves around to the right. A taxi was turning right out of Wigram and obviously didn't see us but proceeded to coast into our front left side. Thankfully, he hit our front wheel rather than the passenger door a metre or so further back. Jess and I were both able to get out straight away. After we had checked that the three of us were OK, he apologised.

The next vehicle to appear around the corner five seconds later was a police car containing two constables, who immediately took charge of the situation. Jessica was complaining of neck pain, so was taken to RPA in an ambulance and a neck brace while I stayed with the police and taxi driver to give a statement. The police investigation quickly decided that the taxi driver was at fault for failing to give way. His defence was that he was not at fault because he hadn't seen us. On the one hand, I'm sad that this will probably have implications for his job, but on the other, if this was more than an isolated error of judgement, it may be best for him to do something else.

RPA again
The police gave me a lift to RPA, where I found that Jess was waiting for an x-ray of her spine. By this time, my neck was also sore, so I joined the queue in emergency (it was a busy night). After I'd seen a doctor a few hours later (who had cleared me of anything more than muscle pain), I found that Jessica's x-rays had also cleared her. They kept her under observation until about 2 am when we could finally walk the few hundred metres home.

We slept in this morning (thankfully, Jess didn't have to work. She has accepted a new job a few days ago and is winding down in her old position) and woke up bruised and stiff, but better than we'd expected to feel.

RIP XOU219
Our faithful old '84 Corolla had to be towed away and is almost certainly written off. With only months of registration left, it had been unlikely to survive another year anyway. I tried to take some photos on my phone but there wasn't much light and they didn't work. The police took a number of shots, but I'm not sure whether I'll get to see them. Jess has to go down to the Glebe station tonight to give a statement (they decided not to interview her in emergency). This is the only image of the car I could find, from a holiday about a year ago.

We thank God for his protection. When one of the constables found that I work for a church, he asked whether 'the big fella' had let me down. I thought not. Things could have been much, much worse.
Map from Where Is. The crosshairs show where the accident occurred. We live down and to the right, on the corner of Parramatta and Missenden Rds. RPA (Royal Prince Alfred Hospital) is a few hundred metres down Missenden Rd, just off the bottom of the map.