We went to our first hockey game with the kids on Friday night. To prepare them, I showed the boys some videos on You Tube before to teach them about the game. After watching the videos, Cy determined that he would cheer for the red team. Andrew just wanted to know how old you had to be to play. Well, turns out there was no red team. There was a fight within one second of the puck drop, and as you would expect, the most exciting part involved injuries. But not during the game. The most exciting part happened AFTER the game in the parking lot. Just as we reached the car, we heard a loud THUD, screams, and looking in the direction of the sound, saw a huge cloud of dust. People went running from all over the parking lot, Joseph included, to see if they could help.
As I sat in the car with the kids, I was sure something awful had happened. I imagined pedestrians being hit and horrible injuries. I remembered a book on the Emergency Room I had read recently with the kids. It started out saying that one minute, you could be going about your life, and the next minute, it could be completely changed. As we waited, we saw 2 ambulances and 2 fire trucks making their way through the crowded post-game parking lot. The kids and I said a few prayers, and I was imagining all the terrible things Joseph could be witnessing.
After a little while, Joseph came back to the car and told us what had happened. And I must say, two teenagers got a lucky break.
A yellow car, with two young men in it, was driving up the freeway on-ramp that is on a hill above the Maverick Center (formerly the E center) parking lot. The driver noticed, too late, another car trying to merge, so he swerved sharply, causing his car to go off the road and down the hill. At the bottom of the hill, the car bent around a tree, ripping it out of the ground, and continued to smash through a fence. The car landed in the middle of traffic exiting the Grizzlies Hockey game. While the car was on its side, folded in half, the boys were both able to climb out of the car, and neither one seemed to have even a scratch. We were actually among the first out the doors, and the parking lots was not yet full when the car ran off the road. Had it been, they could have hit another car or even a person after going through the fence. After looking for this accident in the news, I could find nothing about it, yet there were many other accidents with real injuries. Maybe there will be some lives changed in a split second of mercy. I, for one, was grateful to be able to show my kids how dangerous driving can be, how important it is to wear seat belts, and that our Father does answer our prayers.
