Trip Home from Panama City Florida, a Nightmare in the Making

Our trip to Panama City Florida started out fun and once we got to Florida, it was even better. We had the best time visiting with my son, his girlfriend and our grandchildren. My son showed us where all the fun and adventure was in Panama City Florida.

When it came time to leave and return home, we really did not want to but we knew we had to return to Virginia. My son and his girlfriend allowed us to bring our two beautiful grandsons back to Virginia with us for a visit. It was sad to say goodbye to them as we only see our son a couple times a year.

We were about two hours into the trip home when everything changed for the worst. We were driving down a four-lane highway when we spotted a car coming out of a side road that crosses all four lanes of traffic. This car never stopped for the stop sign, my husband hit the brakes but there was no way to avoid hitting him. We hit that mans car doing around 55 to 60 MPH bounced off and hit his car again before going down an embankment that was about twenty to twenty five feet deep and swampy. The rental vehicle we were driving had airbags that never deployed. We still do not understand why the airbags did not deploy. Maybe it was a blessing in disguise.

My husband did a wonderful job keeping us from flipping. Our vehicle held three infants and my eleven-year-old son and none of them were hurt. I on the other hand have sustained injuries from the wreck and am returning to the doctor because I am still hurting.

My family has never been involved in an accident such as this one. When we finally stopped and was able to get out of the vehicle, the driver of the other car claimed his brakes failed. Later he told someone else the car cut off on him. If either had happened, he would have at least been going slower than he was. He never stopped coming across four lanes of traffic until we hit him. The driver that caused the wreck had not been drinking which was a blessing. I just don't understand how people can run stop signs and not think about the fact they could injure or kill someone.

The vehicle we were driving was a rental vehicle, which left us stranded in Alabama until another vehicle was delivered to us. From the time the accident happened, it took the rental company ten hours to get us another vehicle to come home. We ended up staying in a Best Western hotel overnight because the Abbeville Alabama fire department helped us out. They were so kind to my family, they helped us retrieve our belongings from the wreckage and set us up in a hotel overnight until we had a way home. How many fire departments would do that, not many that I know of. Abbeville is a small town but has people with huge hearts.

Finally, the next morning we were on our way home. When we got into Atlanta Georgia, we had more bad luck. We got lost for about an hour. We missed an exit we were to take. I was beginning to think we would never get home and that we should have stayed in Florida an extra day.

Finally, twenty-two hours later we are home, kids are doing great and I am still hurting but everyone is alive and that is what counts.