Kaboom

We had some excitement over here the other day and unfortunately it was not the good kind.  

The girls had been outside playing when it started to rain again.  It's monsoon season in Colorado, and we had 9 days in a row of severe weather that included hail, tornadoes, heavy winds, and severe thunderstorms.  (Ironically, this 9 days of bad weather started the day after my parents left.  They came to Colorado -- and left -- at the perfect time!)  The girls came back inside and were complaining that they were bored.  I agreed to let Elisabeth play a game on the computer in the front office.

A few minutes later, she was yelling for Fred to come into the office.  Fred's Trailblazer had been parked right in front of our house, and our 17-year old next-door neighbor had crashed her Volvo X90 head-on into Fred's Trailblazer.  

Fred had been painting the main floor bathroom and stepped into the office just in time to watch our neighbor drive off.  Yep, she left the scene.

Long story short....Fred stormed next door to talk to her Dad (he wasn't home).  He asked the girls' brother to call her and tell her to get her butt back over here, as it's illegal to leave the scene of an accident.  He then called the police and we waited for the traffic accident investigator to arrive to examine the damage.  Our neighbor did come back and insisted she had just driven around the block so she could return.  (I'll reserve comment on that one.)

There's damage to the front end of the Trailblazer (Fred was parked the wrong way on the street in front of our house, so she hit him head-on).  It doesn't LOOK too bad, but we'll see what they find when we take it in.  There's much more damage to her Volvo.  (I thought Volvo's were well made?  Chevrolet definitely won this one!)

What was most alarming is that she hit our SUV with enough force to push it forward about 5 feet.  The tire marks on the road (from Fred's tires) prove this.  We are VERY thankful the girls were not outside playing when this happened.  They are frequently playing on the sidewalk in front of our house, or running across the street to/from the park.  It's scary to think of what could have happened if they had been in the wrong place at the wrong time...or if her car had left the road and landed on our sidewalk.

Here are some pictures.  You can see the radiator fluid from her Volvo all over the road, as well as pieces of her front bumper. 

Radiator fluid and Volvo chunks in the road

Tire marks show how far the car was pushed forward after it was hit.  She hit him with enough force to push it that far!

Tire marks on other side

 

Radiator fluid + part of her bumper in the road.  You can see the wet tire marks from when she left the scene

Can't really see the scrapes and dents in this picture, but the front license plate is pretty dinged up

Keep in mind that houses in this neighborhood are VERY close together, so she must have taken off VERY FAST to have hit the SUV with enough force to push it forward as far as she did.  She had been on her way to work so we think she was running late.  Well, she never made it to work at all since she had to deal with the police after this happened!  

Very glad nobody was hurt -- and hopefully she will SLOW DOWN -- but this makes me very nervous to have a teenager someday!!!