6/3/02 4:12 PM Eastern

Got to Hopkins about 11:15 AM—two hours before our flight—and were able to check in and check our luggage really quickly. Of course this meant that we were sitting in our seats at the gate right around 11:30 AM, with more than two hours before our 1:35 PM flight. Of course I was one of the people pulled aside after going through the metal detectors to receive a complete wanding and patting down.

We were trying to decide how we would pass the time, so Lauren (my wife!) decided to go and buy a book of crossword puzzels. Just as she was walking away her phone rang with a call from yet another State Farm agent. I guess at this point I should say something about what happened on Friday (5/31/02).

The Accident

We were at our apartment with Nick, Woodie (Nick's gf), Tami, Griff, Carrie, Bill (Lauren's dad) and Linda (his new wife), getting ready to go and meet everyone else at the Ledges for our rehearsal. We left there at about 6:20 PM in two cars. I was driving Lauren's Saturn station wagon with Lauren in the from passenger seat, while Nick, Woodie and Tami were in the seat behind us.

In the car behind us were Bill, Linda, Griff and Carrie. We left our apartment via the Stumph Road exit and proceeded North on Stumph towards Snow Road, and beyond that Brookpark Road (which we were going to use to get to I-480). The first intersection to the North is Snow (where Stumph becomes Chevrolet Boulevard) and that is where the accident happened.

Since I was the lead vehicle I was checking the rear mirror frequently since Bill didn't know the way. Also, I drive this way to work nearly everyday and know it very well. All the same I was paying careful attention to the road and was driving well below the posted speed limit (32/35 mph). As we approached the Snow Road intersection I noted two things and drew the following conclusion: (1) the light was green, and (2) there were two to four cars stopped in the left land and in the center turning lane each (with none in my lane), ergo, the light had just turned green and those stopped vehicles had yet to start moving. This conclusion was, as it turned out, incorrect, but remains an understandable one. Other circumstances: the CD player was on at a very low volume, the other passengers were talking quietly, and there is a 2.5' to 3' tall hedge on the Southwest corner of the intersection. So I proceeded to go through the intersection.

I don't know how far I was into the intersection when someone yelled "stop" or "look out", but I had already seen the approaching blur and begun to brake. Some where in there my brain registered that the other car was a dark blue sedan with "POLICE" stenciled on the side in white, with a single, blue "bubble" light perched on the roof. Then there was a colossal impact and our airbags deployed.

A second later everything came back into focus and I was staring at the buckled up hood of the car and the rapidly deflating airbags.

My first act, after asking if everyone was ok, was to roll down my window to let the vile fumes out of the cabin. Then for a little while we just sat there trying to come to grips with what had happened. The first external thing that noticed was the police officer who had been driving the other car get out of the car, open his hood, and start yanking out wires with a Leatherman or similar tool in order to deactivate his siren which had come on when we had collided. Yes, his siren started when I hit him, meaning that he had sped through a red light at roughly 50 mph without his siren on. Some time during all of this more police cars arrived on the scene and one officer came over to ask if everyone in our vehicle was ok. As soon as we had responded that we were he went back over to all the other officers who were clustered around the damaged cruiser and its driver. Soon after that was when we decided to evacuate the car for the cleaner air and inflammability of the sidewalk. The occupants of our other car had already gotten there so we went over to them so that concerned hugs and words could be shared around. Having brought our digital camera for the rehearsal I had it on hand to take the pictures you see below (click on any photos in the whole honeymoon journal to see the larger version).

After we had been standing there for a few minutes another officer (number 5 or 6 by this time) arrived on a motorcycle. After asking if any one of us was hurt he went over to the cluster of other officers standing in the road, leaving us alone again. This made us somewhat angry since we felt like we were being ignored in favour of them getting their stories straight, though this same delay gave us the opportunity to talk things over a bit too.

Nearly half an hour after the accident had happened this last officer on the scene finally came back over to us to get our statements. I talked to him at this time as did Lauren and Griff. After getting everything from us he gave Griff and Carrie the witness forms that they had asked for. During this time an ambulance also showed up to check out Lauren and Woodie, both of whom had sustained some injuries in the crash.

The rest of the time we spent there was just a blur of talking to people and calling the other half of our party who were already at the park to let them know what had happened, where we were, and that everyone was ok. We finally left there just after 7:30 PM, this time with Tami riding with Bill, etc., and Lauren and I riding with Nick and Woodie in Nick's car. We arrived at the Ledges a little after 8:00 PM, which set all of our plans back by almost exactly one hour.

Now that you know all about that I can move on to the rest of what happened after the wedding with regards to insurance and leaving for our honeymoon.

Lauren and I finally had a chance to call our respective insurance companies on Sunday in the early afternoon. Lauren went first, since the car was hers. She called a claims number rather than her agent, and ended up spending around 30 minutes on the phone with them. They took down all of the details but gave her some conflicting information about what she should do next. Later I called my claims number, but after finding out that it wasn't my car that had been involved they said that everything would be handled by Lauren's insurance. Then this morning while we were out depositing our wedding checks an agent called and left a message. So Lauren called him back and gave him most of the same info she had given yesterday. Which brings us up to the call today while we were at the airport, which lasted for about 40-50 minutes and served to stave off the preflight boredom. During that conversation Lauren gave a recorded statement and found out that I have to give one as well, which means I need to call this guy back some time within the next couple of days. So now if it's all the same to you I'd like to stop talking about this.

We were among the last people to board our DC-9 for the flight to Detroit. While we waited to be called to line up we saw nine or ten people get pulled out of the line at random to be searched and to have their luggage gone through. There is a point where doing random searches becomes really stupid, though. One of the people checked was a 90+ woman. Another was a 12-year old boy. It's really stupid. We were very worried that this would happen to one of us, but we made it on to the plane without incident.

The flight to Detroit lasted for all of 70 minutes, and that included all of the time we spent sitting on the ground at both ends of the flight. The actual time in the air was more like 35 minutes. In Detroit we had a one hour layover, 45 minutes of which was spent just getting from our arrival gate to our departure gate. We spent about ten of the remaining minutes getting some cheese burgers from McDonalds to help ease Lauren's motion sickness. We made it on to our Northwest Air 757 with minimal fuss and took off on time. It's now 5:45 PM Eastern and I am going to stop writing this before my hand dies on me. I'll try to write about the actual rehearsal and wedding later today or tomorrow. Ciao.