My Craptastic Day and a question about state troopers

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I’m teaching class this month and this was the first day I actually had time to go grab lunch outside the building, but I had to be back by 1pm to start the afternoon session. I went through the drive-thru and got back to my desk about 12:20 when my cell phone rings.

Caller: Is this shellofmyformerself?
Me: Yes…
Caller: I’m Officer Colt with the Alabama Highway Patrol. Your parents have been in an accident and have asked me to call you. Can you come to the accident site?
Me: (already left in a cloud of dust, and forgot to grab my damned chocolate shake!)

My parents live in GA and were on their way to a doctor’s appointment in Birmingham. The accident occured in a town, luckily just 15 minutes from where I work. They decided to stop at a Wendy’s on the way and when leaving, pulled out in front of a van that was going about 45 mph. The van hit my folks’ car right where the front driver’s door meets the front quarter panel. Airbags deployed, etc. When I got to the scene there was a fire truck, 2 ambulances, 3 troopers, and 2 tow trucks. Scared me to death. My mom was in the back of the ambulance getting checked out and my dad was just sitting on the curb talking to a trooper. The van that hit them was a mom with 4 kids in the car (luckily none of the kids were hurt but the mom had bumps and bruises from her airbag). The paramedic advised us to take mom in to get her arm x-rayed–3 hrs later we were assured that nothing was broken. Both mom and dad are pretty banged up but in otherwise good shape. The paramedics and troopers were awesome. They were so sweet to my mom, who was having a bit of a nutty because she was worried about the kids in the other car.

Called the insurance company for my dad and helped them get a rental car. Dad insisted they wanted to go back home so they could sleep in thier own beds, even though I begged them to stay with me. All in all, everyone ended up okay, thank goodness.

I’d like to write a thank you letter to the paramedics and to the troopers, especially the trooper that sat with my mom and held her hand until I got there. I only have his last name and I don’t have the names of the other folks. Is there a way to find out the names so I can send them thank you letters?

2

Call the local (to the accident) trooper detachment and ask for the proper mailing addresses for sending the thank you notes, specifying who you want to send to, and ask for the proper name to use for the trooper.

And thank God everybody came through it essentially OK!

3

If you send a thank you to the ambulance service, they’ll be able to figure out who was on the call and get it to the right people. If you include your parents names and the location of the accident, that will make it even easier.

St. Urho
Paramedic

4

If you can get ahold of the incident number the ambulance was dispatched under, it’s QED to find out who the crew was.

VunderBob
EMT-I
( :wink: to St. Urho)