The Careys: Runaway Vehicles, Smashed Garage Doors and the Body Shop

I've relayed this story to at least a few people. Quite a few have said the same thing: "Anyone who thinks angels don't exist must be absolutely crazy."

Today just before 7 a.m., our neighbor’s Econoline 350 van and attached 20+ foot flatbed trailer plowed into our minivan, which was parked in our driveway, near our garage door. The minivan was pushed into our garage by about 4 feet, through the garage door. We have damage to the garage door, the front of the van and the back of the van (the back window was broken out entirely). FORTUNATELY NO ONE WAS HURT.

More pictures below...

Our next-door neighbor, Kathy Wright, who has terminal cancer, was going to move their Econoline van out of their driveway. Her husband asked her if she would do this, so he would have room to move their RV that they JUST BOUGHT LAST NIGHT. They were getting ready to go on a trip, to enjoy time together while she still feels up to it. They were leaving early because she didn’t want to drive in the Atlanta traffic in the Econoline van with the attached trailer, while her husband would drive the RV.

She got in the van, put it in drive, and realized the emergency brake was on. She popped what she thought was the emergency brake. It was the hood release. She got out of the van, to push down the hood. The van was still in DRIVE when she got out of it. She found the emergency brake as she made her way back to the van. She released the emergency brake and the van took off on her. She is lucky to be alive, honestly. She fell to her knee when she was outside of the van, when the van took off on her. She may have a bruise, but that is it. She is SO LUCKY the van didn’t run over her.

The wheel was turned all the way to the left, with their van facing out of their driveway, toward the center of the cul-de-sac. Because the wheel was cut, when the van took off, it did a u-turn directly across the lawn (around Kathy) and into our van, which was parked just in front of our garage door… Because our driveway is on a hill, I had the emergency brake on in our van. Basically, our van stopped their van from plowing directly (further) into our house. We’re lucky there wasn’t any structural damage. Sounds weird, but it couldn’t have hit a better spot, or we would really have monumental damage to our house.

I normally take Ava to the bus stop, but Doug had a later meeting this morning, so he was going to take Ava to the bus stop. If Doug and Ava had left a few minutes earlier, they would’ve been in the driveway when this happened. So thankful no one was hurt.

Their insurance (our neighbors’) is going to take care of all of the damage, we’ve been told. Our van is still drive-able, but the back window shattered entirely. So, we took our van to the Toyota dealer, where it will spend some time in the body shop. The insurance company is paying for a loaner vehicle for us, as well, while our van is being fixed. The garage door company gave us a new garage door, nicer than the one we had. It was the only one comparable to the door Doug had previously installed. Our old door (I say old, but it was only five or so years old) was steel in front with nice insulation on the back. The new door is steel on the front, foam in the middle and steel on the back of the door. It will insulate better than the old door. They will also be painting the door to us. We won't have to pay a dime for the damage, etc.

Above all we're thankful that everyone is fine.

But seriously, it cannot be minimized that:

Doug had not left for the bus with Ava yet (if he had left 2 minutes earlier, he would've been right in the path of their van).
The van didn't run over Kathy. In fact, she only had a bruised knee. She is seriously lucky.
The van didn't hit any of the walls in our drive-under garage. Our house could've fallen like a house of cards, if our van was pushed into a structural column in our basement.
If our van was not parked there, their van would've probably barreled directly into the central / load-bearing wall in our house.
I had the emergency brake on in our van. It seriously moved our van 7-8 feet WITH THE EMERGENCY BRAKE ON...
Paul had the wheel cut entirely to the left. If he had straightened it out the night before (or if Kathy had straightened it in the morning), there would've been an unmanned vehicle running down our street when the kids were all heading to the bus stop.