It was just becoming 7:00 PM and I was approximately 35 minutes into a long drive to work and 1 minute and 42 seconds into the amazing song “Royksopp Forever.” This particular drive, however, was much different than the formers. Within seconds this incredibly dull trip and incredibly brilliant song were interrupted by an average sized white car that appeared to be making its way out of the right side of the three lane highway. It moved diagonally across the road towards highway traffic and the median. I then watched it as it went airborne and out of sight.

The van in front of me slammed on the brake and I pulled my car into the right side lane. In such a hurry to arrive at the scene, I forgot to turn on my emergency lights and made my way across the highway while dialing 911. A friendly male voice picked up.

“911, what’s your emergency?”

“A car just went flying off the highway.”

“Where are you at sir?”

“I am right in front of I-275, exit 194A on I-94.”

“And which way are you going?”

Pause…
I’ve driven this drive so many times that the details seem to have left my mind somehow.

“Towards Detroit.”

“So east?”

“Yes.”

“Alright, we will send someone.”

As I approach the scene I realize something quite terrifying. Something I was quite afraid had happened. The average sized white car had gone airborne because it had launched itself off of a slight hill, in between two highway bridges, over a fence, and into the road below. I immediately called 911 back to clarify as I tried to find some road signs to pinpoint the location: Hannan Road.

 

Picture taken from MapQuest

 

 

The car was totaled. The driver’s side ceiling was crushed down a good amount, the hood popped up, oil all over the ground, and a piece of the dashboard stood at a 90 degree angle through the remaining glass in the windshield.

A group of us gathered around the car while many stood at the top of the highway bridges looking down. Somehow the college-aged driver had climbed out of her small window completely unharmed. She walked around frantically, calling people as she cried out about the situation.

Wow, I thought to myself. I can’t believe she’s okay.

 I was relieved that everything was fine. Or at least I was relieved until I realized that there was someone sitting in the front passenger seat and she had not gotten out of the car. As I walked towards the car I saw another woman with her head relaxed on her left shoulder and her right eye swollen and purple. It appeared that she had smashed it on the dashboard and now she just sat there… lifeless.

I didn’t know what to do except wait. If she was still alive then she probably had a serious neck injury and then I wouldn’t be able to touch her without worsening it or getting a lawsuit filed against me. And I couldn’t imagine what the driver was feeling. 

A police car pulled up soon after, within minutes of my call. Quite impressive timing actually.

I asked a well dressed man wearing a buttoned up shirt and khaki pants if he had seen what had  happened. He proceeded to tell me that he had seen the car drive off of the west traffic side of the highway, across the median, bump into the guard rail on the east traffic side of the highway, and then back into the median and down between these two bridges. He also mentioned that the girl had driven through the median as if she didn’t even realize it. He actually thought it was an elderly woman having a heart attack.

A college-aged male lifeguard who was on the scene began to work with the policeman and another male on opening the passenger side door as it had been crushed shut. The three of them yanked and pulled until finally they ripped it open. Remarkably, the passenger had regained consciousness and she continued to sit there, waiting for the ambulance to arrive.

A man was now standing in the median above, taking pictures of the accident. The policeman yelled at him.

“Hey! Get that out of here!”

“Freelance photographer!”

It was sickening at the time. This guy was trying to make some money off of such an inappropriate and life-threatening moment. The policeman walked up the hill to talk to him.

Ambulances, fire trucks, and other police cars arrived on the scene. I looked up at the bridge and there was a man holding his camera over edge, recording the medics as they pulled the girl out of the car screaming. He appeared to be enjoying it, bragging to the people around him that he was recording it. A policewoman yelled up at him.

“You turn that camera off or you will all be spending the night in jail!”

The first police officer who had arrived on the scene took licenses from the man with the khakis, the lifeguard, myself, as well as another woman who had been there who was wearing green nurse clothes. He wanted to use us as witnesses to what had happened. The four of us shared stories as to what we had seen and the officer came back with two witness forms which the nurse and the lifeguard took. I stuck around anyways, waiting to see if there was any other information I could offer.

But I felt quite useless. If you’ve ever been in a situation like this before, then you know that once the professionals show up there is not much you can do except step behind the yellow tape.

But then I realized that there was something I could do. The girl who had been in the passenger side door was still screaming. She had been for awhile.

I could pray. Why didn’t that come to me sooner anyways? That was a huge part of what I was apart of at the last accident I had helped out with. And so standing there with my arms crossed, I closed my eyes and thought to God something like this:

“Lord, I know that being a Christian you have given me the Holy Spirit. You know this girl is in pain and I know that your Holy Spirit is capable of doing much more than just healing that. I pray now that your Spirit would be able to move off of me and onto this girl and take this pain away from her.”

As I prayed I got this sparkly, shivery feeling all over my body—a feeling that I’ve come to know as God doing something in cases such as these. When I opened my eyes the girl stopped yelling. She may have yelled once or twice later, but after praying this prayer her screams were no longer consistent or calling for attention.

As they moved her away on the stretcher I realized something I hadn’t earlier. She was pregnant.

For much of the time I spent at this accident I felt quite useless. I wanted to be apart of the devastating excitement. I wanted to make a difference. But it seemed there was so little I could do. But now as I look back, I realize a couple things. 

God was there.

Honestly, these two should have been dead. However, one of them walked out perfectly fine, and the other in pain, but alive. 

On top of that, I feel that God did have me there for a reason. While only the medics could truly touch the woman, I was able to offer a gift that God could truly touch her. And so if you take nothing from this story, at least hear this:

Prayer is not useless.

Prayer is in our lives for a reason. Christians, we probably need to hear this more than anyone as we tend to let our prayer lives become stagnant. Pray with power. Pray expecting something. Even though God could really do whatever He wants, for some reason He gave us the power to ask for Him to do it and in this instance she didn’t stop screaming until after I asked. He allowed me the privilege of being able to ask Him to interfere with the norm and do something. And I imagine that He’s grateful I asked.

I now pray these young women and one’s baby will come out of the hospital perfectly fine. I ask for your prayer as well. Let’s surround these people with our love and hope that God can use this situation to make a difference in their lives.

 

 

 

Note: Later a man rode under the bridge on a bicycle, holding a video camera, just to get yelled at by the police. People, please. If you’re ever at an accident, have some courtesy. Stop turning it into a show.