On a Friday night at two in the morning, in July 2010, a car crashed into my house. Three teenagers were coming home from a party drunk when they tried to turn onto my street, but they were going too fast to make the turn and instead crashed. The driver was unscathed, the person in the back was bleeding profusely from his arm, and the passenger in the front sadly passed away. For the sake of privacy and respect for the families, I will not name the teenagers. However this isn't their story, they weren't the only ones affected.
Out of all the families involved, we were the least adversely affected by this tragedy, but we were still traumatized. My mom and I will always be worried and looking over our shoulders. First, everyone was mad at us when it happened like we were at fault for our house being in the wrong spot. Also, my family was going to have to condemn the house until the builder told the township no. It took 7 months to build originally, but 11 months to tear it down and fix all the damage. During the reconstruction, we had to stay in our house because of the breathing problems we all have, i.e. asthma, and all of our pets. We also lived with a shrine in front of our house every single day that just brought back the memories of that morning.
In addition, when my mom talked to the police, one officer had told her that it wasn't the driver's first offense or gotten in trouble for driving. My mom had said something about this online and someone severely criticized her about it because they didn't want to hear the truth. Further more when I was in 8th grade the school had an assembly where they brought in three prison inmates. They were in jail for car related incidents. When I heard about it, I was terrified that the driver from the crash was going to be one of the speakers there, since he did go to jail, he was not.
Lastly, two things that have stuck with me since it happened and will most likely be with me for a long time. The first thing is the smell. During the car crash the gas and oil mixed together and created an unforgettable smell. It didn't smell bad, it's just associated with the crash, and every once in a while I can smell it, it just happens out of no where. The other thing is the nightmares. If i hear a lot of car horns and loud car noises without knowing what is happening, whether it be traffic or something else, I'll have vivid life like nightmares later that evening.
In the end, what happened to my family and I was nothing compared to the family who lost a young man that morning. However no one ever apologized or even asked how we were dealing with this event. I'm not asking for that now either, this is just to show people that there were other people effected and no one realized.
