A TESTIMONIAL FROM CHAD
The next to last day of school had just been completed, and summer baseball practice was starting. My friend, Andrew, who had had his license for about a month, was scheduled to pick me up to take me to practice in a little bit. He showed up, on time as always, and we were on our way. Practice was in a nearby town, and living in the country, I knew all the shortcuts, so I showed Andrew a backroad that he could take, so we could get there more quickly. As we were driving down the road, I figured I should put my seatbelt on, since Andrew had his on. The air-conditioning in the truck stunk really bad, so we decided to just roll down the windows instead. We were going along about 35 mph. (He’s a very careful driver.) Then all of a sudden, from a side road, a red flash…and then, everything seemed to go in slow motion from there. Andrew swerved to the left to miss the oncoming car, but the crash was unavoidable. We hit the car causing it to do a 180 degree turnabout, and us to go over to the edge of the road. The next thing I remember was Andrew saying “Oh my gosh!”, and we both got out of the truck as quickly as we could to see if the people in the other car were okay. They ended up being three girls from school, and they were all all right, thank God. I was basically in a state of shock from there on. I just kept thinking how close I was to being killed, and I didn’t realize how close. The passenger side of the truck I was in (where I was sitting) was completely jammed in. The wheel was halfway back on the truck now, and at the time, I didn’t think about it, but my door wouldn’t open so, I had to get out on the driver’s side. I just thought it was jammed, but it had been completely smashed in.
When I got home, I noticed my elbow had been cut, and later on in the week, I went back to look at the two vehicles. On my side of the truck, the window had been broken from where my elbow had rammed through it when I through up my arms to shield myself from flying through the window. Imagine how much force it would take to ram your elbow through the front window. Both cars were completely totalled, but by looking at all of us, you couldn’t tell. A few minor cuts and bruises were the worst injuries we had. My seatbelt and God saved me that spring day- not necessarily in that order, because I’m positive it was God who told me to put my seatbelt on. It was God who told us to roll down the windows, so we wouldn’t be hurt by the broken glass. It was God who told Andrew to swerve- cause if he wouldn’t have swerved, the other car would have hit my passenger side door- straight on. And it was God who sent his angels down to keep all of us safe. I will never forget that day in May, and I will never forget how God saved all of our lives. I will never be able to thank him enough.
— Chad Carroll (chadsherbert@hotmail.com)